The Data Center Pulse (DCP) presence in EMEA is gaining, with small steps. When I was asked to join the DCP board in 2008 to represent the EU, I thought; where do I start ?
Europe is an interesting place for collaboration; the European Union (EU) currently has 27 member countries with 23 official languages and at least that many cultures. The ‘union’ within the ‘European Union’ has (known) its political struggles. Having seen standards development within the EU from nearby, has also been a interesting process. The creation of the EU Datacenter Code of Conduct has been a positive product of EU collaboration.. but it is no law or standard.
One of the latest (positive) developments is that CENELEC TC215 has started the development of an EU datacenter standard. This should create a common language on datacenters within the EU.
I got Middle East and Africa (EMEA) also thrown in with the DCP board package… don’t get me started on cultural divergences between those countries… (But from a (DC) development perspective allot of interesting things are going on in those area’s.)
After talking to many datacenter owners and operators world wide; we all have the same challenges and issues in our datacenter. The local divergences do not seem to matter that much. Sure, I have 230volts and 400volts feeds to my racks and the outside temperature in the Netherlands will not hit 40C… but I’m also hit by the economy crisis and the ‘Green IT’ wave. So; same game, just an other place.
For the collaboration issue; well that just comes down to trust. I have learned there is an easy way to fix that: If you put technology enthusiasts and geeks in together in one room, this issue is solved quickly. Technology is a wonderful language and brings people together. :-)
So back to the first question; where do I start ? Well; I started pushing DCP in the Netherlands. We partnered with DatacenterWorks (a Dutch DC magazine), and have some conference activity lined up:
This should give a first push for the Netherlands. Because of the Dutch trade spirit and the leading role in some of the datacenter area’s, I’m hoping it will spread like wildfire from here… :-)
The DCP board is preparing and aiming for an large EU datacenter event in 2010. More on this soon…
So.. ready to get onboard for this journey ? I’m looking for (EMEA) members to spread the DCP word within their countries. This does not have to be hard. Just start blogging about DCP (in your language). Write an article about DCP in your local IT or datacenter magazine. Get together with other local datacenter owners and talk.. talk about your challenges… talk and criticize our DCP Stack (and send us the feedback !!)… learn… educate… collaborate… that is what DCP is all about.
Get onboard. The journey is going to be great.
DCP Stack Version 2