Go Away and Come Back When its a Catastrophe…

With all the press lately about the horrendous oil spill in the gulf, I can’t help but think of all the environmental disasters that take place every day but most of us are largely unaware of. Rainforests are being cut down at an alarming rate, in fact, approximately 8.5 million hectares of tropical rainforests are razed each year which is about half the size of New York State!! In addition, we have more and more animal and insect species going extinct, not to mention issues with Global Warming.

Why is it then, that an oil spill in the gulf is getting so much press? In my opinion, the only reason the media have jumped on this is because it can't be ignored. It's impossible to sweep this under the carpet and simply act like nothing happened. In addition, it has the potential to negatively affect the global economy; most noticeably in the US where is the spill is threatening coastline, but also in the UK because the company responsible for the cleanup BP (British Petroleum) is taking a beating.

I'm not for a second, saying this event should not receive press; it absolutely should and the public at large need to be kept informed of such a catastropic event. I'm merely pointing out that its about time we stopped turning a blind eye to environmental damage and started taking responsibility for our actions. Just because you can ignore it, doesn't mean you should...

Upcoming SCUG Meeting….11th June

On 11th June, Scott Moss and the System Center User Group has graciously given me the opportunity to provide an overview of the upcoming 1E NightWatchman Server Edition v2.0 tool.

The event schedule is as follows:

June 11^th at noon central start time.

Agenda (Central Time Zone)

Presenter	Topic	Time
Scott Moss	Introductions	12:00 – 12:05
Andy Dominey	NightWatchman Server Edition 2.0 - The Seek and Destroy tool for Server inefficiency and Virtual Machine Sprawl	12:10 – 12:40
Cameron Fuller	How to create and use custom groups	12:45 – 1:20
Kevin Holman	Management group checkup - a database perspective	1:25 - 1:55
Scott Moss	SWAG Drawing Open for Questions	1:55 - 2:10

Registration link is https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=148716

All walking in the same direction

Last week I, like many others, attended the Uptime Institute Symposium in New York. It was great to be a part of an event which brings together IT managers, datacenter owners, C-level executives and anyone with an interest in server and datacenter management and operation.

 

The recurring theme this year was definitely energy efficiency and cost reduction and a large number of the keynotes and sessions (including my own) focused on reduction of power consumption through better power management, more efficient equipment and making the most of what you have; all themes that are close to my heart.

Unfortunately amongst all of the positive discussions, there was a roadblock that became more apparent as the week went on. There is a very clear divide between IT and facilities where the server and datacenter managers often don’t pay the power bill and to a certain degree, don’t care who does and the facilities team often have no input into the server provisioning process save but to provide space in the rack. This divide often makes if difficult for businesses to implement cost saving initiatives into the datacenter. The IT teams don’t always see thee benefits and the facilities team often don’t get to decide.

Technology is advancing and I’m hopeful that as power and datacenter space become more valuable commodities, this divide will be forced to shrink and the IT and facilities teams will start to work together to make the most of the capacity they have.

Heather Clancy wrote an excellent article on just this topic expanding much further on the points that I have made. Check it out here: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/green/power-play-green-efficiency-means-more-to-cfos-than-green-it/11794

Another way to think about ‘Useful Work’

1E’s NightWatchman Server Edition is all about visualizing efficiency by calculating ‘Useful work’. But what is useful work? There are many ways to explain it but I was having a ‘moment’ this morning and I came up with (I think) a good one.

If you like Formula 1 racing, you’ll get this. Imagine the systems management applications, anti-virus, backups etc (the non-productive work) as the pit crew. Of course they are needed to change tires, refuel and make sure the car is working effectively. However, as long as the car is in the pit lane, it’s not making up ground on the track, overtaking or finishing laps. Now imagine the car is always in the pits. It’s not going to win many races that way and if its not winning races, the pit crew aren’t needed anymore.

In other words, if the only thing a database server does is spend its life in the pits, you might want to consider either firing the pit crew or better still, removing the server altogether.

Useful work….there it is…..