The events at Three Mile Island (TMI) essentially shut down expansion of a rapidly growing US nuclear power industry for 40 years. Chernobyl resulted in multiple fatalities among operating personnel and those responding to the accident. It caused contamination of a wide area that is cordoned off to this day. Fukushima added to the already immense tragedy of a massive earthquake and tsunami that killed over fifteen thousand people.  In this session Steve will discuss the errors in maintenance, testing, and value engineering that led to the three events. Management oversight and policies are implicated in all three. None of these failures were due to malicious acts. All involved personnel were motivated by the best of intentions, but operating within systems of perverse incentives and inadequate supervision. These accidents were preventable.  Disturbingly similar self-inflicted injuries are the bane of data center uptime. No data center performs as well as its designers intended. Excessive maintenance, limited use of reliability design standards, and limited recognition of risk in operational decisions are nearly universal.  Our society’s increasing reliance on data centers for life and safety-critical services threaten to produce the data center industry’s equivalent of the TMI crisis. People hurt or killed because of a data center failure leads inevitably to close scrutiny by the press, public, attorneys, regulators, and political actors. Over-reaction and regulation by temper tantrum are nearly inevitable. Curtailment of a rapidly growing large industry has happened before and could happen again.  There are ways out of this trap, but it requires a level of cooperation and mutual awareness of our shared fate that is lacking at this time. After TMI the US nuclear industry reformed itself and now boasts a truly impressive safety and operational record. With commitment and hard work, the data center industry can do the same before disaster strikes.

Steve Fairfax (bio)
President
MTechnology

This presentation will focus on how to build a zero deficiency culture on a data center construction project through closed loop, quantitative feedback on quality performance and constant analysis of successes, areas for improvement, and lessons learned via definitive and holistic KPI’s that help drive continuous improvement.

Shaun Selha (bio)
Global QA/QC Program Manager
Facebook

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 in 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
Dennis D. Cronin (bio)
CEO, Resilient Solutions and
Founding Member, 7x24 Exchange International

From January 2016 to June 2019, CyrusOne added over 150MW to its Northern Virginia portfolio, growing it from its smallest US market to its largest. This entailed the development of four base building projects totaling over 1M Gross Sq. Ft.; conversion of two warehouses into data centers and over twenty-five data hall projects. This case study examines the planning and execution of this expansive capital building program as a textbook example of the market for hyperscale data centers.

Craig Deering (bio)
Director, Design & Construction
CyrusOne

With a relentless focus on cost and speed to market in the data center sector, it’s hard to not think of the old saying that, depending on how you hear it, goes something like Fast, Good or Cheap. Pick two. Target Value Delivery (TVD) allows you to have all three. TVD has become popular in the healthcare sector for its ability to drive down the cost of a project without sacrificing the quality of the final product or extending the schedule. This presentation will share success stories from the healthcare sector and show how TVD can be adapted for the data center sector to ensure projects meet operational needs, are delivered within the allowable budget, and promote innovation throughout the process to increase value and eliminate waste.

This session will discuss trends in free cooling, specifically discussing how the applications of this technology, like direct evaporative cooling or liquid cooling, drives lower operating expenses (OPEX) and lower power-usage effectiveness (PUE). Cooling costs eat up nearly 40 percent of operational expenses, making advancements in free cooling not only financially appealing to data center owners and builders, but also crucial to moving mission critical spaces beyond traditional mechanical cooling solutions. This session will show how data center operations can transition their systems to create a more energy efficient, reliable, smart future for data centers.

Mukul Anand (bio)
Global Director of Business Development for Applied HVAC Equipment
Johnson Controls

This spring, Vertiv initiated a pair of research efforts that provided important new insight into the future of the data center ecosystem. With 451 Research, Vertiv conducted a study on the future of 5G and its enablers and what that means for the data center industry. Additionally, it surveyed more than 800 data center industry leaders around the world to capture their thoughts on the future of the data center and compare those perspectives to where we were just five years ago. Together, this research paints a picture of the future of the data ecosystem. Where and how will computing take place? What are the key enablers of 5G adoption? How will the network infrastructure need to transform?

Martin Olsen (bio)
Vice President, Global Edge and Integrated Solutions
Vertiv

Don’t we all want to improve our speaking ability and overcome what is considered the world’s greatest fear? Come and learn from a sought after speaker who will share her secrets to being a great speaker during this interactive session.

Organized by the Women in Mission Critical Operations (WiMCO^®) Committee
SPONSORED BY:

Carrie Goetz (bio)
Principal/CTO
StrategITcom

School’s out… Summer is here and Mom n Dad have you all set to ship off to CAMP!… That’s right “7x24 Exchange DATA CENTER CAMP!” Join the 7x24 Exchange camp counselors as you spend your summer vacation networking with attendees and visiting our Marquis Plus+ Partners to see what new technologies you can bring back from camp! Complete with Tug of War and traditional camp games, this is one night you won’t want to miss!

Special thanks to our Marquis Plus+ Partners that made this event possible:

Kevin Kealy (bio)
Chief Information Security Officer
Scientific Games

In this talk, Kevin will give his insights into the current threats and attack vectors, and then discuss what is likely to be front of mind over the next five years. With his usual wry humor, Kevin will tell stories from the front line, telling tales of Etch-a-Sketches, frequent flyers and the constant disappointment that every security person feels. With plenty of time for questions, Kevin will – as always – deliver a talk full of information, humor and horror.

Data center campuses continue to get larger, end users are innovating with unprecedented schedules, bringing new technology to market faster than ever, and they need the fabric of data center delivery to respond in kind. In parallel, the construction industry continues to result in 20% of workplace fatalities annually. How are the innovators in the industry working at these scales, mitigating risk, keeping people safe, and still making their deadlines. What can the supporting cast of characters building the required facilities do to keep pace?

Clients choose Equinix, the largest vendor-neutral colocation and data center company in the world, for two reasons: reliability and resiliency. Equinix has a corporate goal of running its 145 data centers across five continents on 100% clean and renewable energy. Equinix wants not only to support its customers in an environmentally friendly way, but also to reduce its own $300M annual energy bill. As of 2016, Equinix had achieved 56% of its renewable goal through wind and fuel cell power. Working with Bloom Energy and a subsidiary of Southern Company, Equinix is rolling out fuel cell deployments at 15 North American data centers. By 2019, Equinix will generate 40+ megawatts of clean fuel cell power. Over their lifetime, these deployments will avoid 660,000 tons of carbon emissions and save 87 billion gallons of water that would have been used by natural gas or coal fired utility generation.

Amidst a backdrop of increasing computing demand, warm liquid cooling is among the cutting edge technologies that have emerged to lower energy bills and improve resiliency in data centers. In this panel presentation, experts from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will give an overview of the applications and benefits of warm liquid cooling in data centers. Industry-wide efforts to develop open specifications for liquid cooling will also be discussed. Experts from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sandia National Laboratory will share their success stories and lessons learned in implementing warm liquid cooling solutions as the industry approaches New Horizons.

With the emergence of hyperscale data centers and hundreds of MW deployment, power shortage becomes one of the main drivers for on-site self-generation solutions, along with community pressure to go green. Providing power supply in a reliable, environment-friendly and socially-acceptable way becomes increasingly challenging. We will discuss possibilities created by using modern gas-fired on-site generation for both backup and primary power supply. The presentation will cover technical aspects and design’s adaptations which are required to make it usable in such applications in terms of reliability, and market opportunities and challenges related to utilizing this technology in real-life applications.

This presentation will review the various emissions reduction technologies available today for generator applications, their impact on generator operation, Emissions Codes/Standards/Regulations and CFD modeling of Stack Emissions as required for Code Compliance. A case study will be provided for a new data center facility with a proposed scalable generator plant of 80MW. The design with be reviewed along with the proposed analysis and solutions required to be implemented to comply with national and local regulations.

Electricity is the life blood of a Data Centers (DCs). As DC’s electricity demand grows, so has the ask for renewable energy (RE).  Energy providers/utilities accommodate RE intermittent generation with fast start resources and transmission to balance the grid.  DC’s employ an energy insurance policy in the form of generators and batteries (UPS) which are underutilized/stranded assets.  With coordination these stranded resources can be monetized by DC operators and utilities.  Black Hills Corp (BHC) has partnered with a hyper scale DC operator to leverage fast start natural gas generators in terms of tariffs and utility operations.   As BHC builds wind generation and accommodates DC growth, fast start natural gas generators are a solution benefitting both DC and grid operators.

7x24 Exchange is 30 Years Young … To Celebrate this Milestone we bring to you “The Voices of Rock Radio” …

STARRING:

John Elefante
Grammy Award Winner and Former Lead Singer of Kansas™
Dust in the Wind/Carry On My Wayward Son

Wally Palmar
Lead Singer and Co-Founder of The Romantics™
Talking in Your Sleep/What I Like About You
And Member of Ringo Starr’s ALL STAR BAND™

Jim Peterik
Grammy Award Winning Artist of The Ides of March™
Vehicle
Formerly of Survivor™ & 38 Special™ fame
Eye of the Tiger/High on You

Kevin Chalfant
BMI Award Winning Songwriter
Performed as Singer The Storm™ & Journey™

The event will start with a networking barbecue and will conclude with a concert for the ages!

Special thanks to the partners that made this event possible:

ABB; ASCO Power Technology; Burns & McDonnell; Caterpillar; CNet Training; Data Aire; Distech Controls Energy Services, Inc.; DPR Construction; East Penn Mfg. Co.; Eaton; Edgecore Internet Real Estate; Enersys; Excool; Fibrebond; Fidelity Manufacturing, LLC; Gordon, Inc.; GS Yuasa Energy Solutions, Inc.; Innio Jenbacher Gmbh & Co OG; JE Dunn; Kohler Power; Layton Construction; MTU; MPI Narada; PDI; PowerSecure; Ramboll; SAFT; S&C Electric Company; Schneider Electric; Siemens Industry, Inc.; Sika Corporation; Silent-Aire; Starline; SUEZ; Sunbelt Rentals; Syska Hennessy Group, Inc.; Systecon, an ENGIE Company; The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company; Thomson Power Systems; Victaulic; Wärtsilä North America, Inc.

This presentation will walk the audience through the joint effort and experiences of the application of energy incentive rebates as a data center owner operator. Presenters from each organization involved will cover in case study style the method, tools, challenges and learning from finding, justifying and applying successfully for energy incentive rebates in one of Digital Realty’s data centers.

In 2015, One Wilshire was considered the most highly connected Internet point in the western U.S., according to Fortune Magazine, with undersea cables allowing one-third of Internet traffic from the U.S. to Asia to pass through the building. This case study will tell the story of how the critical infrastructure in this 53-year-old carrier hotel with 664,000 square feet located in the heart of LA has been transformed with a new state of the art 4,000-ton cooling solution and 20 MW of new critical power.

With the growing need for lights-out Edge sites that may be difficult to access and outside typical contractors who work consistently in the data center industry, the design and maintenance should not be approached with the same standards used for enterprise or hyperscale facility. A holistic approach to the facility from a design that includes automation to operations that include predictive maintenance techniques is critical. We will discuss design techniques that include automation and address redundancy concerns while addressing both electrical and mechanical predictive maintenance techniques to ensure maximum uptime. With power infrastructure so critical to site uptime we will touch on predictive maintenance using VLF Tan Delta and Partial Discharge testing, how they work and what they can give the facility for predicting failures and downtime as well as how to prepare the facility for this type of testing.