11:00 AM – 12:15 PM Hybrid Fire Suppression for Hybrid Cloud and High Value Data Centers
Technology trends in data center design include increasing power densities, higher efficiency power distribution solutions, and higher temperatures. These trends combine to increase fire risk. While “hybrid cloud” solutions may help mitigate casualty impact to operations, asset investment costs remain high. The evolution in fire suppression design has resulted in solutions that can virtually eliminate risk from fires. In this presentation we will explain how trends in hybrid cloud technologies are affecting the risk of fire events, and look at how implementation of hybrid fire suppression systems using “minimal impact” technologies, can minimize both the operational and asset protection risk.
Don Mitchell(bio) Data Center Division Manager
Victaulic
Bob Ballard(bio) Fire Suppression Technology Manager
Victaulic
2:30 PM – 5:00 PM Fluid Mechanics 101: Fundamentals of Cooling Airflow in a Data Center
This tutorial session will introduce basic concepts of air velocity, airflow rate, pressure, and temperature distribution as applied to raised-floor data centers. You will be shown why the flow distribution through the perforated tiles is usually not uniform. It is governed by the air velocity and pressure variation under the raised floor. By calculating this variation, you can predict the airflow coming out of each perforated tile. Such a calculation allows you to study the effect of variables such as: layout of the CRAC units and the perforated tiles, the height of the raised floor, and the presence of obstructions under the raised floor.
Once the flow rates through the perf tiles are determined, the next step is to calculate, in the above-floor space, the air velocity and temperature as the air moves through the server racks and back to the CRAC units. Many examples will be presented to develop an understanding of the physical processes and to draw practical conclusions. The tutorial will show how to create a computational model of a data center layout and calculate the corresponding airflow and temperature distribution.
Suhas V. Patankar, Ph.D.(bio) Professor of Mechanical Engineering
University of Minnesota
and President
Innovative Research, Inc.
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM Welcome Reception
SPONSORED IN PART BY:
Join us for a reception with open bar and buffet dinner accompanied by music. This is an excellent opportunity to dialogue with conference presenters, meet new people, network, welcome first time attendees, renew old acquaintances, and meet the board members.
7:00 AM - 8:00 AM Registration & Breakfast
Check in, pick up your name badge, conference materials and enjoy a hot buffet breakfast.
8:00 AM – 8:30 AM Welcome and Opening Remarks
Bob Cassiliano, 7x24 Exchange chairman, will open the conference, provide an overview, review meeting logistics and address general housekeeping items.
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM Conference Keynote: "On Innovation"
Every business needs to innovate, but few know where to start. In this presentation, Terry Jones gives leaders simple but powerful ideas they can use to create a more innovative organization. Drawing from his experience as founder and CEO of Travelocity.com and from the 10 other startups where he’s worked, Jones helps product developers transform innovation from an academic exercise into a daily practice. The stories from his career and personal experiences provide engaging real world examples of how challenging and rewarding it can be to rally a team and establish a culture that encourages change and is committed to innovation.
Terry Jones(bio) Founder and Former CEO of Travelocity & Former Chairman of Kayak.com
9:30 AM – 10:00 AM Refreshment Break
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Beyond Reliability: Risk-Informed Data Center Design
A leading global provider of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions retained MTechnology, Inc. (MTech) to analyze the reliability of next generation data center designs. These facilities must have lower costs, equal or better reliability, better utilization, and simplified operating and maintenance compared to existing properties. They must support a variety of customer needs and loads at any scale, from single cabinets and small cages to partial or full data center halls to entire buildings.
Reliability alone proved to be insufficient to characterize design performance for all loads, customers, and scales. We developed consequence metrics and calculated risk profiles for single cord and dual cord loads for each design. Consequences include failure of a specific load, failure of any load in the data hall, and loss of a cord to dual cord loads. These calculations enable our client to communicate meaningful performance targets to all customers.
This presentation will disclose new methods that will interest data center builders, owners, operators, and customers. We will address the risk and cost profiles of dual utility feeders; additional redundancy in standby generation; STS supporting single-cord loads and losing one cord to dual cord loads. The talk will propose new ways for providers and customers to discuss complex issues of data center reliability, availability, and risk. The concepts and techniques can be applied by all 7x24 Exchange members in continuous improvement of end-to-end reliability.
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Panel: Hyperscale Creates Large Scale Challenges & Opportunities for Everyone
A panel comprised of Google, Equinix, Schneider Electric, Emerson Network Power, and Caterpillar will discuss the challenges and opportunities due to both the sheer scale and growth rate. Long range capacity planning in today’s environment creates significant challenges for both manufacturers and buyers. Like it or not, the overall industry trend is an “on demand” model that is much faster than manufacturing and construction can respond.
MODERATOR Don Beaty(bio) President
DLB Associates Consulting Engineers, PC
PANELISTS: Nicholas Franzoni(bio) EP Supply Chain Performance Manager
Caterpillar
Diraj Bamola(bio) Vice President, Global Design & Construction
Equinix
Daren Matthews(bio) VP Supply Chain Planning
Schneider Electric
Jack Pouchet(bio) VP Market Development
Emerson Network Power
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM Lunch and Networking
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM End User Xchange Forum
Designed to encourage in-depth discussion and debate on the latest challenges in data center planning, design and operation, topics will include: trends in infrastructure design resiliency, energy efficient design and operational practices, capacity planning and management, and the day-to-day challenges in managing data center operations. The moderator will guide the discussion with the use of PowerPoint slides and handouts; however, the real star of this session will be you, the end user! Bring your appetites, but more importantly, be ready to engage your peers for an exciting interactive discussion on the latest challenges of our industry. Don’t forget those business cards as this will be a great opportunity to meet your peers in the industry!
MODERATOR David Schirmacher(bio) President
7x24 Exchange International
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Zap the Gap
Meagan tackles the generational challenges, myths and misunderstanding head on. Unwilling to accept standard by-the-book generational generalizations, Meagan demonstrates to audiences, through her own in depth research and program customization, that all generations have differences and strengths that go beyond mere age and appearance. Move beyond complaining about the generations and revisiting old generational information to learning what you can do right now to make the most of all the generations.
Meagan Johnson(bio) Partner
Johnson Training Group
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM 7x24 Exchange Traditional Create Your Own Sundae Break
3:00 P.M. - 4:00 PM CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Breakout A: A Case Study: Buying the Hype of Containment?
CallisonRTKL will present a case study on why containment for your data center may or may not be the best solution. This presentation will provide theory and implementation analysis of green field and renovation data center projects that may be considering containment solutions. We will demonstrate the design and operations limitations of different containment solutions available on the market, discussing limitations through CFD analysis completed for various projects and field measurements. The presentation will help the end user understand the merits and limitations of containment systems.
Bob Rosenberger(bio) Executive Vice President – Operations
Cloud HQ
Hardeep Singh(bio) Senior Associate Vice President
CallisonRTKL
Breakout B: Data Center Best Practices - Design, Construction, Operation
This presentation will review many of the best practices associated with facility layout, physical security, mechanical system selection and operation, electrical system selection and operation and facility maintenance policies and procedures for a mission critical facility.
Steven Shapiro(bio) Mission Critical Practice Lead
Morrison Hershfield Mission Critical
Breakout C: Leveraging Telemetry for Data Center Efficiency
There are some fantastic new embedded sensors (in server silicon) available to help professionals understand the capability and impact of workload on servers and IT devices. Using this telemetry data requires the right extraction tools, assembling the data in a purposeful way to make better decisions on orchestration, assessing impact, and long term data center planning. In this presentation, learn how to access this new out of band utilization data without inhibiting server performance or developing agent solutions to monitor systems. Find out how to compose more agile pools of datacenter resources, and simultaneously drive up IT efficiency, optimize energy requirements, increase datacenter resilience, and strengthen disaster recovery plans.
George Clement(bio) Senior Solution Architect
Intel Data Center Management Team
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM 7x24 Exchange Women in Mission Critical Operations (WiMCO) Networking Event
As the leading knowledge exchange in the mission critical space, 7x24 Exchange recognized the importance of increasing the engagement and participation of women in the industry which lead to the development of WiMCO. The committee focuses on recruiting women into the organization, supporting WiMCO initiatives at a Chapter level and providing leadership opportunities through the community. Join us for an interactive networking session and engage with your peers in the industry.
6:30 PM – 9:30 PM Oktoberfest
We are pleased to present the 4th Annual Marquis Plus+ Partner showcase… Bring on autumn and pull on the Lederhosen at this special Oktoberfest Celebration! Visit with our top tier partners while enjoying the traditional Bavarian festivities and fare!
This premier, one of a kind exposition will allow attendees the opportunity to network and view the latest and greatest equipment, products and services available to assist you in your day to day data center operational needs. Special thanks to our Marquis Plus+ Partners as this event would not be possible without their support!
Special thanks to our Marquis Plus+ Partners that made this event possible:
7:00 AM - 8:30 AM Breakfast & Registration
8:30 AM - 9:00 AM Opening Remarks
Bob Cassiliano will review day one highlights, recognize the conference Corporate Leadership Program sponsors and give a 7x24 Exchange update.
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Keynote: Twin Sons of Different Mothers: Legacy and Bandwidth and Why
IDC estimates that 50% of existing data center networks cannot support IoT applications. Data center operators need to be developing and implementing their strategies to reduce latency and bandwidth to ensure they can support the escalating requirements driven by more attached devices and the volume and variety of packet sizes that characterize IoT and new large, rich packet applications. This presentation will explore the nature of latency and bandwidth issues, the shortcomings of today’s existing networks, and the solutions and equipment that data center operators need to incorporate into their network plans.
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM Panel: Data Center Delivery & Operations
Organized by the 7x24 Exchange Women in Mission Critical Operations Committee (WiMCO) Panelists will deliver a dynamic discussion sharing real work examples on how to be successful in your career while delivering on your core professional objectives. This panel will provide views from construction, operations and health and safety on current technical and business trends.
MODERATOR Heather Dooley(bio) Data Center Business Operations
Google Data Centers
and
Member,
7x24 Exchange Women in Mission Critical Operations Committee (WiMCO)
PANELISTS: Jenna Dumke(bio) Project Manager, Critical Environment
Mark G. Anderson Consultants (MGAC)
Cindy Joos(bio) Senior Director Global Operations
CenturyLink
Anita Tarab(bio) Director of Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability
Google
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Removing the Final Constraint – The Battery
Lead acid batteries have been the standard transitionary/backup energy source in both mission critical and outside plant applications for many decades. One of their challenges operationally has been the need to ensure they were not exposed to working in elevated and prolonged temperature environments. This in turn placed design constraints on the larger systems they supported. This lecture analyses the impact of newer high temperature capable batteries on the design of, and operation specifically within, the data center and telecom mission-critical environments.
Brian Zimmerman(bio) Senior Technical Support Engineer
East Penn Manufacturing, Reserve Power Division
Benjamin Mitten, P.E.(bio) Vice President, General Manager – Pennsylvania
TierPoint
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM Lunch and Networking
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Mastering Data Center Cooling Supply & Demand with Thermal Optimization
Today, digital demand continues to drive more data—equaling to more heat in the data center and consecutively, a greater need to better optimize cooling. Luckily, facility improvements to address such added heat are no longer constrained by the lack of visibility into your data center.
Utilizing a thermal optimization approach can help you address reliability, consumption and capacity needs in addition to improving efficiency and reducing costs. Additionally, innovative analytics and automation solutions are available to dynamically address energy consumption, IT server utilization, and white space cooling analysis. Attend this session and learn what cooling optimization opportunities exist in your data center, how to achieve operational and capital savings accordingly, and the ROI you can expect from a thermal optimization approach.
Clifford Federspiel(bio) President & Chief Technology Officer
Vigilent
Jay Hendrix(bio) Portfolio Manager, Data Centers, North America Region, Building Technologies Division
Siemens Industry Inc.
Breakout A: Data Center Solar: Opportunities, Reliability and Cost
The price of solar electricity has dropped dramatically in recent years and some data centers have been early adopters of this technology. This session will separate real renewable opportunities from hype. It will shed light on how the growing renewable sector may impact reliability and how to mitigate risks. Participants will also be able to benchmark their company's clean energy commitments, find opportunities where solar can improve the bottom line, and identify red flags when solar is not a good fit. The participants will benefit from survey results of the industry, case studies and a detailed financial analysis.
Michael Shore(bio) Managing Director
Tipping Point Strategies
Breakout B: Implementing Your NFPA 70E Safety Program: A How to Guide
This presentation covers how you go about implementing an NFPA 70E (Arc Flash Safety) program in your facility. It covers the roles that each individual needs to fulfill (from executive to end user) and will address how Engineering and IT can work together to make it successful.
Michael Liberman(bio) Mission Critical Services
BASS Electric
Breakout C: Leveraging Technology to Optimize Data Center Trends
Business case analysis using several recent project examples where the design and construction teams leveraged technology to facilitate data center trends such as total cost of ownership (TCO), reduced capital expenditures (CAPEX), and increased time to market.
Greg Botteon(bio) Vice President Mission Critical / Mechanical-Electrical Services
The Whiting Turner Contracting Company
Christopher McLean(bio)
Director, Mission Critical Projects
Vanderweil Engineers
6:30PM - 9:30PM Sponsored Event
An Evening at "The Yard" – Games, Grub & Fun!
Join 7x24 Exchange at one of Phoenix’s hottest venues, “The Yard.” Located in a renovated motorcycle garage… “The Yard” houses three of the hippest restaurants in the area; Culinary Dropout, Barrio Urbano and Little Cleo’s. Join 7x24 Exchange for an evening of games, great food and fun. Don’t miss the conference’s final networking and information sharing opportunity at "The Yard."
Special thanks to the partners that made this event possible:
ABB, BASELAYER, Caterpillar, Clune Construction Company, ComRent, Cummins Power Generation, Cupertino Electric, Inc., Data Aire, East Penn Manufacturing, Emerson Network Power, EnerSys Inc., GE Industrial Solutions, Generac Industrial Power, GORDON Data Center Products, IEM Power Systems, Kohler Power Systems, Kratos Modular Systems Division, MTU Onsite Energy, Page, PDI, PowerSecure International, Inc., S&C Electric Company, Saft America Inc., Schneider Electric, Siemens, Sika Corporation, STARLINE, Stulz Air Technology Systems, Sunbelt Rentals, Inc., Syska Hennessy Group, Thomson Power Systems, Whiting-Turner, Virginia Economic Development Partnership
8:30 AM - 8:45 AM Opening Remarks
Bob Cassiliano will review highlights from day two and address housekeeping items of interest.
8:45 AM - 9:45 AM Keynote: Data Center Upgrades: Real World Best Practices for Improving Efficiency without Downtime
Many of the data centers built in the 1990s have reached a point where technology and data demands have exceeded functionality and effectiveness. Once state-of the-art data centers are now unable to support the reliability requirement demanded by the new business needs and level of growth companies forecast. As a result, companies are moving to colocation facilities, building new data centers or upgrading their existing facilities. In 2014, MoneyGram sought to strengthen its electrical and mechanical data center infrastructure and convert their 27 year old infrastructure into concurrently maintainable, dual path topology. The goal of the project was to ensure uninterrupted service to the company’s millions of customers worldwide in 357,000 locations across 200 countries and territories. A critical element for project success was project implementation without interruption to data processing throughout construction; all execution (IT, facilities, server, network, storage) was undertaken during five predetermined maintenance “work windows.” In this session, we’ll explore the project from both the design (facilities supporting concurrent maintainability) and implementation process to coordinate proper cooling for high-density compute equipment.
Tim Kittila, PE(bio) Director, Data Center Strategy
Parallel Technologies
Wayne McGurk(bio) Chief Information Officer
MoneyGram
9:45 AM - 10:15 AM Refreshment Break
10:15 AM - 11:15 AM Natural Gas Opportunities in Data Center Applications
This presentation will educate the audience on utilizing natural gas generators in conventional diesel generator set data center applications, which can favorably impact data center operation. This session will cover the benefits of natural gas generators for data centers, such as energy independence, resiliency, sustainability, and reduced operating costs. It will further explain when natural gas should be considered as a fueling option for reciprocating generator sets while taking into consideration local and federal emission regulations, gas and electric utility incentives, and corporate sustainability goals. The presentation will also cover how, at a high level, natural gas generators can approach the performance of diesel generators with respect to starting capability and transient load performance and acceptance by utilizing new engine designs and control systems.
Brian George(bio) Global Data Center Segment Manager
Caterpillar Inc.- Electric Power Division
Tim Scott(bio) North American Sales Manager
Caterpillar Inc.- Electric Power Division
11:15 AM - 12:15 PM Impact of Cyber Security on Data Center Design and Operations
With Cyber events the fastest rising and second leading cause of data center outages in 2015 we examine the implications on data center design and operations, supply chain security, professional service considerations, and best practices as deployed in a real-world data center.
Jack Pouchet(bio) VP Market Development
Emerson Network Power
