Uptime Institute Symposium is the must-see Green IT event of the year. Our keynote presenters are pulled from today’s headlines. Our annual Green Enterprise IT Award Winners provide groundbreaking, repeatable case studies. And Uptime Institute and 451 Research experts provide you with the information and leadership you need to drive Green IT initiatives at your own organization.

Highlights from Symposium’s Green IT sessions below:

-Facebook’s senior data center engineers will discuss details of the social media juggernaut’s Open Compute Project.

-Greenpeace’s Senior IT policy analyst Gary Cook will discuss his organization’s latest report on carbon and cloud computing.

-Deutsche Bank’s chief scientist Andrew Stokes will show how this financial institution’s investment in hyper-efficient operations has paid off.

-Dean Nelson will walk us through eBay’s engineering marvel in the Arizona desert – Project Mercury, a hot-water-cooled data center that operates at temperatures as high as 115 Fahrenheit.

-Winners of the Inaugural Uptime Institute Server Round-Up, AOL, will show you how they decommissioned and recycled 9,484 outdated servers to take home the trophy.

-The Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps, MBA students partnered with companies to drive energy efficiency, will discuss how their projects so far have saved 1 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually and $1billion in net operational costs over the project lifetimes.

This is your last chance to register for the most important Green IT event of the year, featuring leadership sessions from Uptime Institute Founder Ken Brill, The Green Grid and Stanford Professor and energy researcher Jonathan Koomey. Sign up today, and follow Symposium on Twitter at #Uptime12.

The Modular Campus and Exhibition Hall will be open on May 14th and 15th and is available to Symposium Delegates and holders of Free Modular Data Center Campus & Expo passes. Free Modular Data Center Campus & Expo passes also provide access to Symposium content on May 14th, including keynote presentations from eBay, as well as presentations from companies such as Greenpeace and HP; an evening networking reception; and Green Enterprise IT Awards Presentation Ceremonies.

The videos below feature three leading modular data center providers who are presenting at Symposium and exhibiting modular data center campus:

Register today for free access to the modular data center campus.

For years, the data center industry has braced itself for extreme increases in computing density and the alarming consequences those increases are supposed to bring. But for as often as data center vendors have claimed the sky is falling, such dire predictions may not reflect reality.

The Uptime Institute set out to determine how prevalent high-density data center deployments have become, and surveyed its members in North America and EMEA on the power density in their facilities. The data is in, and it suggests that while high-density server deployments are out there, they are the exception.

Uptime Institute Professional Services VP Vince Renaud and Consultant Matt Mescall will be at Uptime Symposium 2012 to present the findings of the latest Data Center Density Report. They will analyze this year’s report as well as trends from previous years and discuss what it all means for the data center industry.

There’s no question that the cost and capacity demands of today’s high-density computing environments require a greater level of visibility and control than ever before. And data center infrastructure management, or DCIM, is a critical integrating technology that fills the need for real-time information. But just as data centers are evolving, DCIM technology is evolving even faster. Simple tools with monitoring capabilities are developing into sophisticated control systems, and asset systems are evolving into auto-populating configuration management systems. How much can DCIM do? And where does it go next?

Even once-skeptical organizations are buying into what DCIM has to offer, but face challenges selecting and deploying these tools. As adoption of DCIM technologies continues to grow, organizations struggle with varying vendor pricing models that make comparisons difficult. There are also issues with scalability and integration, as well as the question of DCIM coexisting with legacy systems.

In this session, Andy Lawrence, Research Director at 451 Research, will explain the current capabilities and limitations of DCIM software; explore the emerging IT convergence trend; and offer insight into the leading vendors and available toolsets.

The Uptime Institute Symposium is one of the most influential events on the IT and data center field. This year Uptime Institute will offer groundbreaking new data, new methodologies and process improvements, and new end-user case studies that will deliver immediate business value to our delegates.

Listed below, please find the top ten reasons to join us at Uptime Institute Symposium 2012:

Uptime Institute will unveil new research at this year’s event. Quit guessing, and base your data center decisions on Uptime Institute’s newest data from your peers.

REASON 1: BENCHMARKING RESULTS At Uptime Institute Symposium, we will release the results of the 2012 Data Center Industry Survey so you can benchmark your organization against the latest industry trends, data center designs, and operational best practices.

REASON 2: DATA CENTER DENSITY STUDY We will also be unveiling for the first time, the results of our Annual Data Center Density Study – learn how the predictions by the equipment manufacturers differs from the reality on the computer room floor, and how that should impact your capacity planning going forward.

REASON 3: DOWNTIME DATA In a rare occurrence, Uptime Institute will publicly analyze data from its end-user Network’s Abnormal Incident Reporting database. The session will outline data center failure rates and causes, and offer expert advice on avoiding downtime risks.

Uptime Institute has developed two new tools in recent months to help data center and IT executives manage their Digital Infrastructure resources more effectively.

REASON 4: M&O STAMP The Uptime Institute’s Management and Operations Stamp of Approval provides a score-based assessment of a data center operations team, independent of the site’s design principles. Find out how you can use this assessment to improve your own organization, and to evaluate the operations teams of your third party service providers.

REASON 5: CHARRETTE FINDINGS Earlier this year, Uptime Institute hosted two dozen leading global data center operators at Charrette 2012 to discuss and develop a methodology for evaluating cloud computing, colo and internal data center options when deploying new application workloads. The output of that Charrette, the Uptime Institute FORCSS Methodology will be unveiled for the first time publically at Symposium.

REASON 6: MODULAR CAMPUS For the first time, this year’s Symposium will feature a unique Modular Data Center Campus within the Santa Clara Convention Center. Symposium Delegates and Exposition-registered visitors will have an unprecedented opportunity to actually walk through the leading modular data center designs and make side-by-side comparisons, enabling a better understanding of their respective pros and cons for more effective decision-making. Also, delegates will find the solutions they have been looking for in Symposium’s Exposition Hall.

REASON 7: MODULAR CASE STUDIES Symposium will also feature modular data center deployment case studies from leading enterprise organizations, as well as new research into the economics of modular data center designs versus traditional construction, as well as guidelines for applying Uptime Institute’s Tier Topology to a Modular Campus.

REASON 8: GEIT AWARDS Data center operators from around the globe will attend Symposium and discuss their cutting edge data center designs and retrofits, innovative product deployments, and audacious ideas to reduce data center resource consumption and improve efficiency. Uptime Institute’s Green Enterprise IT (GEIT) Awards program grows stronger each year, and 2012 promises to be bigger and better than ever. We also host the 2011 GEIT Award winners to discuss how their projects are delivering results, twelve months later.

REASON 9: KILLER KEYNOTES EBay’s Dean Nelson will discuss his organization’s hyper-efficient, brand new modular data center deployment, Project Mercury. Deutsche Bank’s Andrew Stokes will demonstrate how a mission critical Manhattan-area data center now operates on 100% free cooling. Greenpeace’s Gary Cook will challenge data center operators to engage with their utility suppliers to reduce fossil-fuel dependence. And noted author Nicholas Carr will share his insight on the commoditization of IT and the current shift from enterprise-owned data centers to utility-supplied, hybrid organizations.

REASON 10: NETWORK Hear from your peers how to avoid costly mistakes in data center planning, design and operation. Testimonials below from last year’s attendees:

“Symposium connects you with your peers across the industry. If I’ve learned anything from Uptime Symposium, it’s that your peers have so much knowledge buried in their minds. Being able to deploy that information – because it is live – into your organization, can save countless dollars.” Mike Wills, Director of Facility Management, BMO Financial Group.

“When you sit down at a table with somebody and start talking to them at Uptime Institute Symposium, you find out that they are leaders in their organizations and the data center industry. That makes every conversation interesting, and every hour that you spend here worthwhile.” Robert McFarlane, Principle Data Center Designer, Shen Milsom Wilke.

Register now to attend Uptime Institute Symposium 2012: Digital Infrastructure Convergence.

Greenpeace, the environmental advocacy organization that in recent months has praised Google for its environmental stewardship and refuted Apple’s renewable energy claims, has a message for data center operators: You’re in a position to become a driving force toward greener energy. As high-profile operations with huge buying power, data centers can be invaluable assets in pushing utility providers to offer cleaner sources of electricity.

Greenpeace believes that the IT industry has an important role in enabling energy savings and encouraging the use of renewable energy. At the Uptime Institute Symposium 2012, Gary Cook, Climate and Energy Policy Analyst with Greenpeace, will share how data center owners and operators can succeed in driving green energy adoption where government and environmental groups have struggled. He will offer a comparative look at the options for taking advantage of renewable energy in the data center, and discuss how data center operators can influence renewable energy investments. Cook will also provide the first preview of the upcoming Greenpeace Clean Energy Buyer’s Guide for Data Center Operators, which examines the available options as well as strategies for green energy investment and policy advocacy in key data center markets.

In 2009, Deutsche Bank announced its commitment to achieving an unprecedented level of environmental sustainability in its IT operations. Among the objectives included in the bank’s eight-step program were overhauling its computing infrastructure with the latest hardware; neutralizing its carbon footprint; and achieving four times the energy efficiency in its data centers. As part of Deutsche Bank’s green data center strategy, the organization took a step that was considered both innovative and remarkably risky when it chose to use outside air for free cooling in a mission-critical data center – a move that was basically uncharted territory for the traditionally conservative banking industry.

But fast forward to the present day, and the efforts are already paying off. Last year, the bank met its data center energy-efficiency goal one year ahead of schedule. And in January 2011, Deutsche Bank opened its Eco Data Center in the New York City area, which uses air-side economization to provide free cooling. In a video from last year’s Uptime Institute Symposium, Deutsche Bank chief scientist Andrew Stokes describes how the organization had to contend with the risks of running mission-critical workloads during major infrastructure changes that had never before been attempted in the field.

Stokes will return to this year’s Uptime Symposium to share key lessons Deutsche Bank learned in its first year operating the Eco Data Center. Find out how air-side economization and evaporative cooling, often considered appropriate only for test and dev, effectively handle mission-critical workloads and significantly reduce energy costs for one of the world’s largest financial institutions.
Some of the topic areas Stokes will cover include the following:

• IT equipment performance under varying temperatures;
• data center air flow and room design;
• measuring system-wide efficiency instead of power usage effectiveness;
• system tuning and optimization;
• and the realities of air-side economization and free air cooling in the New York City climate.

Over the past decade, U.S. taxpayers have sunk billions of dollars into the operation of thousands of underutilized government data centers. In fact, according to former federal CIO Vivek Kundra, before the announcement of a huge federal data center consolidation initiative, the U.S. government’s IT infrastructure had an average utilization of only 27%.

Now, take a look inside the biggest data center consolidation project in the world. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget has committed to closing 1,200 federal data centers by 2015 in an effort to combat data center waste and siloed bureaucracy on a massive scale. Over the course of the consolidation initiative, government agencies hope to make better use of tax dollars by halting redundant federal IT spending and excess energy consumption, improving cyber security and taking advantage of hot technologies like virtualization and cloud computing.

So far, the consolidation project has exceeded initial goals. In one success story, the Census Bureau has managed to close a 6,570-square-foot contractor-operated data center, which will save the agency $1.7 million annually. The Census Bureau has reduced its total data center power consumption by 10 percent and is even offering hosting and colocation services to other agencies.

The federal data center consolidation initiative has saved $14 million to date, but that’s only .0183% of the U.S. government IT budget, and the project is far from over. Find out what the situation is like on the ground for the agencies tasked with the heavy lifting from a panel of federal IT executives, hosted by MeriTalk. Karen Petraska of NASA will provide an overview of her agency’s data center strategy; the Department of Energy’s Jake Wooley will discuss efforts to achieve energy savings and lower PUE; and Anil Karmel of the National Nuclear Security Administration will offer insight on the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Infrastructure on Demand private cloud.

The Inaugural Uptime Institute Server Roundup was announced October, 2011 as a contest to remove and recycle obsolete IT equipment. Participants were required to document the decommissioning of the machines, and provide data on power savings, and photos of the servers.

Decommissioning a single 1U rack server can result in $500 per year in energy savings, an additional $500 in operating system licenses, and $1,500 in hardware maintenance costs. Our winners rounded up close to 10,000 head.

Matt Stansberry, Director of Content and Publications, said, “The intent of the Server Roundup was to encourage and recognize the removal of obsolete computing hardware. So much of the past several years’ efforts around data center efficiency has focused on the facilities infrastructure and PUE. This contest was specifically designed to engage the IT community to get serious about asset utilization and energy efficiency.

“By taking unused servers out of the data center, you’re also reducing the amount of supporting infrastructure necessary. Removing unused servers has a huge impact on overall energy use, which is the goal of most data center owners and operators.”

AOL sent 9,484 head to the stockyards, representing a 26% turnover in server assets across the company. The roundup resulted in a total savings of $5.05 million from reduced utility costs, maintenance, and licensing costs, and includes cash in hand of $1.2 million from asset sales and reclamation. Environmental benefits were seen in the reduction of almost 20 tons of carbon emissions.

“AOL decided to pursue this contest due to both the prestige of the Uptime Institute, whose programs are typically well-respected in the data center arena, and the fun associated with the program, since AOLers do have fun at work,” said Brenda Rian, AOL’s Senior Manager, Environmental Health & Safety. “AOL has been working on data center energy efficiency for a number of years, and this contest allowed us to pause and quantify the carbon footprint and utility savings of these ongoing efforts.”

NBC Universal’s Infrastructure team culled 284 head. Those 284 servers removed represent approximately 7.4% of the total enterprise. Only about 3,800 physical servers remain in their herd.

“The concept behind the Roundup was unique. Taking a routine activity that most people never see and moving it to the forefront of the conversation is a great mechanism to inspire not only our team but healthy competition between like minded organizations,”said Saul Mankes, Director, Data Protection & Infrastructure Continuity NBC Universal, MediaWorks.

“As energy costs continue to rise, rationalizing the portfolio to achieve increased efficiencies has been critical to meeting the growing needs of the business. Through intense virtualization efforts and rigid reviews of infrastructure NBCUniversal has been able to retire over 60 tons of recycled hardware. As a result the company has been successful in lowering power consumption, support costs and increasing awareness of these challenges.”

You can congratulate the cowpokes at AOL and NBC Universal during the 2012 Uptime Institute Symposium in Santa Clara, CA, 13-17 May. They’ll be taking off their spurs and coming in off the trail to present and collect their rewards – genuine Texas rodeo belt buckles. Symposium will feature an awards ceremony, and presentations regarding the specific process, protocol, and benefits of their efforts. Buy them a sarsaparilla and listen to their tales of technology gone bad.

Let’s “head ‘em up, move ‘em out, get those doggies rollin” for Uptime Institute Server Roundup 2012. Contest rules are the same as last year. Deadline for submissions is Feb 1st 2013.

According to the panelists, modular data center designs are becoming increasingly common in Brazil. The panelists also said Brazil’s data center designs tend to look more like European installations with smaller data center deployments than are typically built in the U.S.

The data center design panel also noted that economization or free cooling is becoming viable in Brazil as data center operators start raising inlet air temperatures. But Brazil’s climate can complicate issues, and mechanical cooling for some part of the year is still necessary.

Below are more photos from this week’s event in Sao Paulo.