In Feb 2008 edition of Harpers, Eric Janszen wrote an article titled "The Next Bubble" where he descibed the wave of investment in altnerative energy as the next bubble. http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/02/0081908 While I aggree, there is good probability...

For the next couple of months, Working with a MS alum: Dave O'Hara, I'm working towards a Microsoft comprehensive Green Datacenter Strategy. It is wonderful to see so many fellow employees very supportive in this effort. We're scheduled to give an internal...

Some have asked about what are good approaches for examining the complexity (or trying to figure out how to associate operational staffing numbers for a specific datacenter) tough question. Here is what I used in the past to decompose this question...

It is that time of the year when we forecast environmental issues for the New Year. There have been some important new developments that happened in 2008. · A new U.S. Presidential Administration was elected that is passionate about the Environment ·...

I just recently received an email asking for advice about college/degrees/classes for new upcoming infrastructure architects. (see below) ---------------------------------- Hi: I have an AA in networking from a two year college. I would like...

I hope you had a good weekend.  http://www.microsoft.com/environment/ As you know,  I've been heavily involved promoting architecture best practices for sustainability.   Microsoft has established a new environmental site which has...

Working in an IT organization can be challenging. There are exhausting late night emergencies and deadlines, unpredictable technical complexities as well as executive management commonly suffering from extreme ADD. As this leads to countless hours...

As infrastructure archtiects,how are we designing an infrastructure architecture for our own operational and business success today?...

Firewalls are simply physical security components of an overall security architecture. Firewalls can be helpful. However, they do not solve, by themselves, all of a corporations security needs. Firewalls can do the basics: trap, analyze and then, allow...

I've been exposed recently to some incredible developments in the silicon world. Some that I cannot mention. However, I do want to share with you an opinion about how this world will impact our world. Over the years, servers, storage and network systems...

Executives have often asked what are my thoughts on measuring the performance of their Infrastructure architects. So here are some of my thoughts. As this profession begins to mature, I'm sure there will be many more new ideas and refinements. I look...

Many are promoting two core characteristics of SAAS today: the ability to provide a multi-tenant service model and the utilization of AJAX as a vehicle to provide better than basic browser capability to diverse browser products. I don't completely agree...

My quick definition: An experienced and trained professional who makes business discriminating decisions with people, process and technology oriented resources to effectively organize, model and communicate a successful information systems solution...

While this is something we're all working on refining, here are some of my random thoughts: Thought One: I think all infrastructure architectures should be documented and categorized for quarterly peer review. During this time all initiatives should...

Many have discussed the benefits of utilizing ADAM (Active Directory Application Mode) for their enterprise solutions. With introduction of ADAM, developers now have the opportunity to utilize powerful directory capabilities without requiring extensive...

Virtualization has received a great deal of attention from the press during the past couple of years. We have seen many products promoting storage virtualization, network virtualization and computational virtualization. Furthermore, with the promotion...

Some Green IT predictions for 2008: Prediction one: 2008 is the year that more realize Green IT is not a passing fad in the industry, More will realize that Green IT is a permanent regulatory and operational reality in IT Architecture and Operations...

Data center architecture use to be a straight forward discipline: take the application (which was thrown over the wall), reexamine user context and volume issues, put together the network, storage and server design, test and deploy. It was easy to get...

Corporate IT initiatives to reduce environmental impact and power consumption is here for the long run. Executives are allocating time, energy and money to invest in Green initiatives. Governments are allocating research, regulations and suggesting laws...

Many engineers have asked: what is wrong with complexity? Doesn't it lead to data center designs which are more precise and accurate? Doesn't it lead to data center designs which more optimally capitalizes on technical innovation? Of course it does...

From a chat with Dave O'hara today, I thought I would blog some thoughts around datacenter energy consumption and some common confusion concerning costs. Do organizations with dedicated datacenters save money when they install more efficient servers...

The demand for environmental impact information from organizations have increased significantly this last year. and for good reason. Customers, regulators, investors and partners are very concerned about carbon footprint, overall pollution and ecological...

In December, I received an email asking how much should an infrastructure architect understand about solution/application oriented architecture. Also, the architect expressed interest in the MCA program for infrastructure architects. Yes, candidates...

I was asked to prepare architectural best practices as we help others improve. So from observing our own customers, partners as well as our own operations, here is a short initial list of 5 approaches. Take a look and feel free to provide ideas and suggestions...

I organized and participated on a Environmentally Sustainable Architecture panel last month.    There was some very interesting participants on the panel: moderator: George Cerbone Panelist: Michael Manos, Beth Humphreys, Kathy Malone,...