Data Center Alliance Road Show Overview

Data Center Alliance’s First Event Provides Innovative Ideas for Increasing Data Center Efficiency

Speakers from PG&E, ENERGY STAR, and industry leading data center companies share valuable insights

The Data Center Alliance (DCA) today announced that they successfully hosted their first event, titled “Winds of Change: Creative Concepts for Increasing Data Center Efficiency,” on July 27th at the Biltmore hotel in Santa Clara, California. The event explored solutions for data center efficiency challenges to an audience of CIOs, facilities managers, data center managers, IT managers and system administrators.

The Data Center Alliance event was sponsored by DCA members Digi International, Elliptical Mobile Solutions, Minicom, PDI, and Wright Line. Together with other alliance partners, these companies have joined forces to leverage the core strengths of each organization, and to fill the information gap in the marketplace by providing a centralized, comprehensive source for building successful IT infrastructures.

Digi’s presentation about their integrated console management platform made a compelling case for centralized access control as a driving force in helping data enters run more smoothly. It was hard not to be convinced by Elliptical Mobile Solutions’ concrete value proposition for their modular data centers: their “Data Center in a Box” offers operational expenditures savings for clients from 40% to 65%. Minicom demonstrated how remote access management increases operation efficiency while maintaining security. Equally exciting was PDI’s talk about their power solutions, and the innovations they have introduced in order to track and reduce data center energy use. Wright Line’s erudite explanation about how to eliminate chaos cooling gave participants a road map for creating predictability in their data centers.

William Dunckel, Senior Project Manager at Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), captivated the audience with his keynote speech on “Myths and Facts Driving Data Center Energy.” Bringing charts and statistics to life, Dunckel drove home the necessity of reducing the carbon footprint of data centers, and outlined strategies for making it happen.

“It’s encouraging to see the dedication of the data center community to this important initiative,” Dunckel said. “The existence of this event bodes well for the future of the environment.”

Kathy M. Diehl, Regional ENERGY STAR Program Manager, spoke about the hot topic "ENERGY STAR for Data Centers." Her talk addressed the development of the "Guiding Principles for Energy Efficiency Metrics for Data Centers," giving a colorful context to the standards that are now used. Diehl's speech highlighted the reality that most stand-alone and larger buildings housing data centers have the means for tracking and curbing energy use.

“With ENERGY STAR’s help, it is easy to establish an energy management program that will benefit both your company’s bottom line and the environment. I am happy for the opportunity to inform the attendees of this event about ENERGY STAR's efforts to support energy efficiency for data centers,” said Diehl.

“The DCA is proud to host an event with such relevance and substance. After hearing all our speakers, attendees have the tools to make major positive changes in many aspects of their data centers, such as scalable designs for rack enclosures, data center mobility, lowering cooling costs, remote access management, power management, and facility design. We are already planning the next DCA event!” said David Zucker, Executive Director, DCA.

Here are some photos from the set up:

Industry Leaders Form The Data Center Alliance

The Data Center Alliance was formed with Minicom, Wright Line, ServerTechnology, Uptime Devices, and Digi International to fill the information gap in the marketplace by providing a centralized, comprehensive source for building successful IT infrastructures.

The mission of the DCA is to serve as a central repository of data center/server room products and services and to provide IT decision makers with a clear understanding of the different solutions available for their IT infrastructures.

Because each organization has unique IT challenges, whether they are with physical space, power consumption, remote access, or budget, there is no generic solution that adequately meets the requirements of every CIO. Mixed IT environments demand specialized solutions in order to optimize resources.

The Data Center Alliance brings together the best in class IT infrastructure manufacturers into one place where IT decision makers can find the data they need to make smart decisions about their growing data center needs. For companies looking to improve productivity in the fields of power, KVM, network management, remote access, environmental monitoring and air flow, the Data Center Alliance is the answer.

“The Data Center Alliance helps companies find what they need quickly and easily. In today’s complex IT environment, customers welcome simplicity. The program lets companies see all the puzzle pieces in one place. The value of the program is having quality offerings from all aspects of the IT infrastructure in one convenient location,” explains David Zucker, Minicom’s Director of KVM Business Development.

In addition to the value they bring to their customers, members of the Data Center Alliance benefit from joint marketing efforts such as webinars, podcasts, trade shows, and cross promotion via social media marketing. Members also enjoy increased exposure to the right channels through lead generation and heightened brand awareness. By capitalizing on mutual interests, the program opens doors for new business opportunities and market penetration.

“The alliance is the next step in bringing Digi closer to other data center solution providers,” said Brian O’Rourke, principal product line manager, Digi International. “We are integrating each other’s products and working together to provide ‘best of class’ solutions for customers. We provide industry leading console management solutions, and we are pleased to partner with other organizations to help customers better manage their data centers.”

“Wright Line is pleased to continue its long-standing relationship with Minicom and looks forward to participating in the Data Center Alliance. The Alliance serves as yet another vehicle toward additional co-marketing and collaboration initiatives. We’re excited to lend our assistance to projects where our innovative airflow management solutions, including our patented Heat Containment System™, can assist IT professionals in their quest to make their data centers more efficient and reliable,” stated Pete Rumsey, Wright Line’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

“This Alliance helps to bring best of breed product solutions together, ensuring compatibility within the marketplace,” notes Calvin Nicholson, Director of Product Marketing for Server

Technology. “We are proud to be part of this new effort to provide infrastructure monitoring, management and control solutions that increase data center efficiency.”

To learn more about the Data Center Alliance, visit http://www.minicom.com/dca-partners.htm