Attended an interesting conference focused on Data Centers from 11/11to 11/14 in Phoenix with over 700 attendees.
Many presentations focused on facilities improvement and reducing the energy consumption of Data Centers (new and existing). Hot aisle/cold aisle, economizers, building in cold climates, selecting more efficient systems and predicting IT demand were all topics of interest. With data centers consuming vast amounts of power and water it is critical to engage knowledge teams to optimize the building solution.
Data is getting bigger (you heard of BIG DATA) and consumers want immediate access. These are primary drivers for the growth of servers and storage. Budget conscious RE professionals are increasingly concerned about ways to reduce the data center footprint and find ways to reduce costs. Prefabrication, modularity, intelligent monitoring and control etc. are all available solutions to drive operational efficiency and power usage down in addition to cloud and other virtualization strategies on the IT front. Key point: IT needs to work with RE and Facilities to achieve the best solution for the enterprise.