Upcoming class: Data center essentials for executives
Photo credit: By Hugovanmeijeren (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons
I’ve been struggling for years to convince executives in large enterprises to fix the incentive, reporting, and other structural problems in data centers. The folks in the data center know that there are issues (like having separate budgets for IT and facilities) but fixing those problems is “above their pay grade”. That’s why we’ve been studying the clever things eBay has done to change their organization to take maximal advantage of IT, as summarized in this case study from last fall:
eBay: A Case Study of Organizational Change Underlying Technical Infrastructure Optimization
That’s also why I’ve worked with Heatspring to develop the following course:
Upcoming online class (Nov 10 to Dec 12, 2014)–Data center essentials for executives.
Here’s the course description:
Spend five weeks learning from Jonathan Koomey, Ph.D., a Research Fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University, and one of the foremost international experts on data center energy use, efficiency, organization, and management. Jon, along with help from other industry leaders, has developed this course to help experienced executives bring their internal information technology (IT) organizations into the 21st century. For the Capstone Project, students will propose management changes to their own organizations to help increase business agility, reduce costs, and move their internal IT organization from being a cost center to a profit center.
I’m excited about this class, but to make it happen, we need lots of signups by mid September. Please spread the word by sending this to upper level management in the company where you work.
