Best Data Center World Ever! / Microsoft Glasnost

I apologize for not posting a lot of this sooner, but I have a good reason.   Data Center World this year was simply incredible.  I am trying to get this post out before I run over to the convention center for the final day.  These kinds of things are always a crap-shoot (hey we are in Vegas, I can use that term legitimately!) I have spent my time bouncing around session to session.  Some are focused on specific products, others best practices, others data center management.  I have been bouncing around session to session staying in ones I liked, voting with my feet in others.   But the bottom line of the story is that the exhibits/topics and keynotes were simply awesome.

It kicked off for me on Monday with some all-day primers and best practices.   Alot of the session I attended was using a sample data center which was much smaller than my own so I only got a couple of good bits and pieces of information.   At that time I have to say I was a bit leery of where this was going to go.  Still, the “buzz” was pretty good and the opportunity to network was incredible.

The event really exploded the next morning.   Microsoft’s Michael Manos was the keynote presenter of the changing face of the data center.   I was hesitant and excited about what Microsoft had to say.   Given all the secrecy the big firms typically have around this stuff, I was hoping to catch a few insights.   I got there early (or so I thought) just after 7am and the crowd was already gathering.  By the time they opened the doors, the place was jam-packed.  I rushed in and tried to get a good seat by the presentation displays and found the perfect location.   Jill Eckhaus with AFCOM, gave the opening introductions.  Her primary points around how Data Centers have become an integral part of everyone’s lives was not lost on this crowd, although a few of the folks I talked with afterward said they had not really thought about their jobs that way before.  After a small talk she introduced Manos.

I have to say I have rarely sat at these events and have been completely blown away.   I can tell you that the Microsoft speech blew my mind on so many levels.   To begin with, Manos is one big dude.   He also has a booming voice which makes you wonder if he even needed the microphone at all (I will post an interview I did with Michael later today).   Why is this important?   Because those qualities combined with the content and the obvious passion Microsoft has for this space, essentially brought a room of 1800 people to silence.  The next thing that took me by complete surprise was the complete open-ness of the entire conversation.  He addressed their challenges, how they solved it, how they measure it and the like.  I have never seen that much information shared by the big firms ever.    It actually reinforced Manos’ challenge to the industry to be more open and that individually we needed to stop solving these problems by ourselves and for ourselves, but to actively engage in working together.   I wont elaborate on all the points, John Rath did a great job highlighting many of the points at this link.   Additionally as has been covered everywhere, they also announced the Container Strategy.  He even had a cool video that showed how the container stuff would work.  I have to say that until I met with Manos later on the exhibit floor I was still doubtful of this approach.  I have come around on this after talking to him and will talk about that later.

The next speaker was Hubert Yoshida from Hitachi, I was slightly disappointed by this talk overall for a couple of reasons.   The content was ok, but he didnt make the leap for me on storage and green factors.   It was also incredibly short.  I was taking notes as I listened and I was taken by surprise at when it ended.   Lastly, as this was one of the reasons I was coming to the conference at least initially, I felt that Hitachi could have done more.

Afterwards it was clear to me that the buzz in the room had amp’ed up quite a bit.  On the bus ride over to the convention center, my bus was full of talk around the Microsoft talk and challenge-points and containers.   I do not know if this was by design or accident but think it truly set the direction of the rest of conference as you walked from presentation to presentation.   Most of the presentations I went to afterwards referenced the Microsoft talk as part of their presentation as well.   As I sat next to one gentlemen in the session, he leaned over to me and said “This is like Microsoft Glasnost, its amazing how they are being so open on this topic”.     I loved that term “Microsoft Glasnost”  as I think the its quite appropriate given their past, and apparently where their future is going.