The Happiest Place on Earth: Data Center World in Orlando

Tom Roberts is President of AFCOM, the leading association supporting the educational and professional development needs of data center professionals around the globe.

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As I write this article, I’m on my way to Data Center World in Orlando, FL, where I’ll be meeting and greeting data center and facilities management professionals from around the world.

I’m especially excited about this event—Sept. 30-Oct. 2—because it focuses on an issue many of you in the IT industry are being challenged with in the face of today’s business-driven demands.

You don’t need me to tell you that pressure to perform has increased exponentially. It used to be enough to know your way around the data center. Today, the melding of business and technology requires that your skills stretch much further than they did even a few months ago. . .when we held our last Data Center World event.

We specifically designed our fall program to ensure that when attendees return to their data centers, they will have the knowledge and insight to stay ahead of the curve in these new roles.

Because a day-to-day operation is as important as long-term strategic planning, our educational program has the perfect balance of both. That way you can get better at what you do now, and prepare for anything that might fall on your plate in the near future.

Thinking With The End-User in Mind

For example, as the massive growth of information technology services places increasing demand on the data center, managers must create an infrastructure that allows companies and end-users to benefit from an increasingly services-oriented, mobile world.

As more mobile devices connect to the Internet, cloud-based software and applications get smarter by learning from the billions of people and machines using it, thus resulting in a new era of context-rich experiences and services. It also results in a massive amount of network connections and a continuous stream of real-time, unstructured data.

Looking at Challenges Ahead

New challenges for networks, computing and storage are emerging as the growing volume of data is transported, collected, aggregated and analyzed in data centers. As a result, data centers must be more agile and service-driven than ever before, and easier to manage and operate.

That’s why we’re very excited to have Shannon Poulin, VP of Intel’s Data Center and Connected Systems Group, as our keynote speaker. He will address “Transforming the Data Center for a Services-Oriented World” on Monday, Sept. 30 at 8 a.m.

Attendees will also have nine full hours to meet with the more than 100 exhibitors at our trade show, giving them the opportunity to spend quality time reviewing all of the latest technology and services from top international vendors.

If you can’t make it to Data Center World in Orlando, Data Center Knowledge will fill you in on the details as the week progresses. Hope to see you there!

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