Data Center Pulse Sets First Summit

Data Center Pulse, the data center end-user group leveraging online networking tools, is taking things offline with its first live event. The first Data Center Pulse Global Summit will be held in Santa Clara on Feb. 17-18.

Data Center Pulse is a "vendor-neutral" group launched in September 2008 to bring together global data center owners and operators to discuss best practices and industry trends. The group is restricted to users, with no vendors or consultants allowed to participate. Membership is managed through the online networking service LinkedIN. The model has proven popular with users, as Data Center Pulse has quickly grown to more than 630 members from 400 companies in 38 countries.

The first day and a half of the summit will feature discussions among Data Center Pulse members. The results of those meetings will then be shared with the AFCOM Northern California Users Group meeting the afternoon of Feb. 18, and at Teledata's Technology Convergence Conference on Feb. 19.   

“This summit provides a forum to address critical data center issues and influence the industry through the lens of these end users,” said Dean Nelson, a senior director at Sun Microsystems and founding member of Data Center Pulse. “Data Center Pulse fosters an open dialogue among data center owners and operators, enabling them to freely talk with their global peers.

Nelson said many industry conferences and user groups are focused on presentations by vendors of data center products. "The end users bring a different view," said Nelson. "We're not going to have all the answers. But we can say 'here's the thing we want from vendors. Here's the voice of the customer, right now.' "

Nelson said Data Center Pulse is in the process of launching a web site based on open source technologies (including the Drupal content management system) that will provide additional capabilities for members to contribute content and rate the best material.

Data center operators interested in attending the summit should join the group via LinkedIN and will then receive information about how to register for the conference.