Have you ever noticed that there are some people that you can send an email to and never get a response.  Not a delayed response, none at all. Ever.  How to they stay organized?  If you have more than a 100 messages in your inbox as you read this, you might be one of those people!

In today’s business world I challenge you to consider your inbox as a great work-flow tool.  People that work with me frequently will often hear me say “Please send me an email reminder and I will see that it gets done”.  It might not get done right away, but you can rest assured that if you email me a request, I will either do it, delegate it AND follow up with whom I delegated it to, or reply telling you that I will not have time to perform the task.  You see – I use my inbox as a work flow tool – I am constantly pushing myself to complete the email thread/task/request etc., so that I can archive the email.  Until such time as the email thread is complete, it does not leave my inbox.  In such a manner, I can assure myself that nothing slips through the cracks.

You can accomplish the same thing by simply creating a way to organize your old emails and then moving them from your inbox when they are complete.  Any email system will allow you to create sub-folders, here is what you might create when you set up your work mailbox:

You should have these by default:
- Inbox
- Drafts
- Sent Items
- Deleted Items
 
I propose you create at least a few additional folders:
- Clients
- Prospects
- Vendors
- Personal
- Staff
- Other

If you want to get HIGHLY organized, add sub-folders:
- Clients
   - Acme Tool
   - Big Time Auto
   - Charlie Cheap Seats
- Prospects
   - Delta Digging
   - Echo Excavating
- Vendors
   - Phone Company
   - Plumber
- Personal
   - Family
   - Hobbies
- Staff
   - Direct Reports
   - co-workers
- Other

While it might take a little bit of time to set up and keep on top of, you will find that you can always find things easily when you need them by opening up the appropriate folders and you will have a great feeling of accomplishment knowing that as your inbox remains clear that you are staying caught up on things.  You can rest assured that not only will your boss notice, but your friends & family will enjoy how you always respond to them and never ‘drop the ball’ on something requested of you.

Lastly, set a reasonable limit to how many messages you will allow to ‘pile up’ in your inbox before you dedicate an evening to dive in and get caught up.  A good rule of thumb is no more than double the average number of emails that you get in one day!

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Jim

When I first started in the Data Center Services Industry, I was with an International provider working out of headquarters in NYC.  Man, I thought that was the place to be…..New York City, the most important metropolitan city in the world with the latest and greatest that technology had to offer. Things were going great.  We had a beautiful data center and NYC was overflowing with companies that needed our services.   Customers were lining up at our door….we couldn’t build cabinets fast enough.  The Data Center industry was on cruise control and I was driving it in New York City.    Then came Sept. 11, 2001.  We were located about 10 blocks from the World Trade Center – not that far when you’re talking about city blocks in Manhattan.  The city stopped, nobody was allowed access to our building for weeks.  Yes, the generators kicked on when the power failed, our multiple access providers allowed us to maintain connectivity and our staff did a great job keeping our customers online.  As we all experienced, everything came to a screeching halt after the attacks.  Without downplaying the tragedies of that day, my focus for this message is that although the data center performed exactly as it was supposed to, our customers quickly changed the way they viewed where their data center is located and their disaster recovery plans.

Well, now it’s 2009 and I’m fortunate to continue my career within the Data Center services industry with LogicalSolutions.net.  I followed the lead of a lot of my clients from NYC and moved away from the metro area and headed north to Upstate, NY.  Most of the customers I had in NYC either moved their primary  infrastructure out of the NYC data center and into one located in this region, or setup a DR site in a data center located in this area.  Either way, they quickly discovered that data center services provided in Upstate, NY are not only as good (if not better), but the price is right too.   One of the many things that Upstate has to offer is the climate.  Our climate lends itself very well for data center cooling and power management.  I’m sure you’ve heard that Yahoo has even recognized this and is building their newest data center in Buffalo.  LogicalSolutions.net has built its newest data center in Pittsford, NY – a suburb of Rochester.  With our data center located in this area, we are able to accomplish many things.  One of those is the ability to reduce power costs by utilizing the latest technologies by taking advantage of the cooler climate.  Combined with the ability to provide metered power, we are able to manage power utilization more efficiently which enables us to pass tremendous cost savings on to our customers.  When you are considering data center services, start to consider the Upstate, NY region for the energy efficient processes, robust backbone options, and skilled engineering support.

Jonathan Koomey, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory calculated that from 2000 to 2005, the aggregate electricity use by data centers doubled and today Data Centers consume over 1 percent of the world’s total electricity use.  To add fuel to the fire, the number of data centers continues to grow at an alarming rate!  (Hell, even we jumped on the bandwagon in 2008 adding one more data center to the mix)

Data centers are extremely inefficient – with often less than half of all the electricity used being dedicated to actually powering the servers.  So where does the rest of all that electricity go?  While some goes to lighting, and a some more to electrical losses from large batteries and transformers – the majority of that non-compute power goes to cooling.  Monster air conditioners that could make even an Eskimo shiver!

Now, what if someone came to you and asked you to design a data center that used HALF as much energy.  Could you do it?  The answer is actually quite simple and is called Free Data Center Cooling or Outside Ambient Air Cooling.  With servers being built today able to withstand a much broader range of temperatures, there are many climates where it is able to design a data center to use very efficient fans and the air outside to cool the computers, saving upwards of 90% of all that electricity previously used for cooling.  Granted it might not be right for every data center, and it will take some time for the skeptics to become believers – but it is definitely on its way.

While we are proud that we have driven the PUE (Power usage effectiveness) of our current precision cooled data center to a very respectable 1.5, we are already planning on building our next data center using free cooling and will be striving for a PUE of less than 1.1!  Clients will have the option of choosing high-efficiency precision cooled OR ultra-efficient free cooling – either way, we are helping them save money while also being environmentally friendly.

Watch for my upcoming posts where I will be outlining our initial design plans for our next Ultra Green data center that we are designing.  (Of feel free to contact me directly if you are really impatient and can’t wait!)

When the LogicalSolutions team took on the project of designing a new Data Center our goal was to build a facility that was reliable, secure and one that would make our people and our client’s proud.  We started by taking the lessons that we have learned firsthand from operating Data Centers for over 14 years, and combined that experience with state of the art designs and technologies from around the world.  After reviewing all of this material, the area that we saw the greatest opportunity for advancement in was power management and energy efficiency.

The computer industry is currently faced with exponentially increasing operating cost as newer more powerful hardware consume more power per server multiplied with the increasing cost of energy.  Last year alone U.S. Data Centers consumed about 80 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), roughly 2 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption and it is estimated that this figure will double over the next 5 years.  In order to combat this trend of increasing cost both for our clients and the environment, LogicalSolutions.net selected only the most efficient power distribution and cooling technologies available; but this was only the first step. 

To measure the efficiency of a Data Center the industry uses a metric called PUE.  It stands for Power Usage Effectiveness which is a fancy name for a ratio that represents the total power coming into the Data Center divided by the amount of power used by the servers.  Over the last 3 months our team has created a Green Meter that calculates the efficiency of our Data Center in real-time, utilizing the network of revenue grade power meters that we have installed on all of our equipment. This tool has enabled us to tune our systems, which in turn, increased the efficiency of our Data Center by an additional 15%.  This tool also helped us realize that the efficiency of our Data Center is directly tied to outside air temperature.  As it gets cooler outside it takes less energy to keep the servers cool therefore we are able to increase the percentage of our total power usage that goes to the servers. For every degree we are below 80F the Data Center operates approximately 1% more efficient.   With the annual mean temperature of Rochester being 48 degrees Fahrenheit, combined with reasonable electric rates and great fiber paths in and out of the region, it makes upstate New York an ideal location for Data Centers.  Also evidenced by Yahoo's decision to build their next Data Center near Buffalo.

What does all of this mean for our clients?  LogicalSolutions.net is currently the only Data Center in upstate New York and one of the few in the country that offers revenue grade power metering for all of our electrical circuits.  By utilizing this branch circuit monitoring system, we are able to provide our colocation clients with variable rate pricing for electricity based on actual KWh consumed.  This billing system saves our clients money and rewards them for being responsible with their power usage.

How would you like to buy the power you use at your home – pay for how much you use, or pay for the absolute maximum that you could possibly need each month?  I have a hunch you answered “Pay for just what I use”, right?  So why would you rent space in a data center and not pay the exact same way?  Yet still today a majority of all data centers will charge you a flat fee for each electric circuit that you need.

Here is the most typical example if you would allow me to get a little technical on you for just a second:  You decide that colocation is a smart option for your company.  You find a data center that you trust and rent a full cabinet for all of your servers.  Your sales rep tells you that each one comes with one (1) 20amp circuit – just like the ones you have in your home or office, it is a standard US plug that can handle 20 amps of electricity flowing through it at 120 volts. (The first circuit is baked into the initial price of the cabinet) You plug in 8 servers, and your IT team tells you that they need another circuit for the 9th server which costs you $250/month.  Yes – that is correct – you have to pay a full $250/month to get that 9th server running, even though you will only be needing about 2 amps of the 2nd 20amp circuit. 

Doesn’t make sense?  The answer is pretty simple – find a data center that offers revenue grade metered power, and pay for just what you use.  I can assure you that you will save much more money in the long run, here is how:

In summary – power is now the biggest cost in any data center, and that is passed on to you.  By only paying for what you use, you will save money as well as help shift the IT world towards more green & energy efficient computing!  Want to know more on this? Feel free to email me directly.  Also watch for my next part in this series on real time energy efficiency monitoring in your next data center.

When I started at LogicalSolutions.net approximately 4 years ago, our .Net content management system had only recently been put in place and was fairly basic. Prior to that, the sites we built had used an ASP based management system which similarly supplied only basic management functionality. Fast forward 4 years, and logicalCMS, as we now refer to it, has grown into a feature-rich, advanced tool for managing websites and web applications. It is a solid foundation upon which we build most of the sites we implement for our customers. The best part is that it supplies a core set of functionality for every site, while forming the base upon which we can add custom and more advanced features that meet the specific business needs of each client.

There are a few key features of logicalCMS that make it an excellent tool upon which to build a website. These features have been present throughout the evolutions of the product and include:

• Centralized content data stored in a backend database
• Decentralized management of site content through a web browser, nothing to install, ever
• No technical knowledge of HTML or programming required
• Cost savings through increased productivity and less reliance on technical staff
• More timely, relevant content
• No up-front or annual fees for the CMS, includes a full, perpetual license to use the CMS as part of your site, even if you don't host with us
• SEO Friend URLs
• Ability to add new pages to your site anytime, anywhere
• Complete Site Map control - add an unlimited amount of new pages at any level of your site
• Manage admin user accounts and roles, no limits on the number of admin users
• Dynamic generation of Search Engine Friendly menus and URLs
• Complete SEO control from URLs to meta information
• Built in content search