Three CIO’s to share current data center concerns

What do a diesel-electric locomotive manufacturer, an electric utility and a colocation and managed-service provider have in common? All three operate data centers and all three have chief information officers that are feeling the energy-efficiency pressure.

All three will also participate in an HP-hosted webcast this Thursday, sharing their most pressing concerns of the moment and their ways of addressing those concerns. In a panel titled “The Value of Green Technology,” the CIOs will share lessons learned and offer tips on maximizing the value of organizations’ IT investments.

“The point is really to discuss key issues,” HP Spokesman Michael Herrera said. “What are the hot issues with CIOs and technology leaders right now? You’re going to hear three pretty different stories.

They’ll talk about what they’re doing and what their green initiatives are.”

The panel is first in a series of like webcasts HP is planning to organize. The series – expected to continue throughout August – is called CIO Real Talk.

This week’s panelists are Pat O’Day, CIO for colocation and managed-service provider BlueLock, Anuraag Bhargava, VP and CIO for diesel-electric locomotive builder Electro Motive Diesel Inc., and Chuck Tick, VP of IT for Kansas City Power and Light, the primary utility for Kansas City metropolitan area. They will discuss the cost, capacity and long-term benefits of adopting energy-saving strategies across the data center.

While all three are HP customers, Herrera said the host company wants to keep the panel as vendor-neutral as possible. “We’re trying not to make it an HP commercial. We don’t want it to be all HP all the time. We want them to really talk about their challenges.”

The live audio webinar will begin at 8 a.m. PDT. Click here to preregister or to hear a recording of the call afterward. It will be available online for about 90 days after the event.