The seventh annual Data Center Efficiency Summit will take place on Nov. 5, 2014, and will be hosted by the Santa Clara University School of Engineering. Presented by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) in partnership with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and California Energy Commission, the one-day event will run from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM on the Santa Clara University campus.
Data center owners and operators who need to run their facilities in a more energy-efficient manner will benefit most from attending noted Dale Sartor, a staff engineer and applications team leader with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, one of the summit co-sponsors. “Attendees will learn from their peers what advanced technologies have been tried and the results of those projects”, he told Datacenter Dynamics. “The event’s theme remains the same: to share practical experience in data center efficiency efforts.”
The summit’s agenda contains keynotes from Aziz Safa, vice president of IT for Intel, and Commissioner Andrew McAllister of the California Energy Commission. The educational sessions include a panel debate on temperature for energy efficiency, in addition to breakout sessions with speakers from Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Pacific Gas and Electric, the National Resources Defense Council, eBay, Microsoft, and the US Department of Energy.
“We go to great lengths to avoid repeats”, said Francesca Wahl, senior associate for Energy and Environment at the SVLG. “We are always looking for what’s new in energy efficiency technologies”, she commented, adding that novelties at this year’s event include presentations on advanced servers and immersion-cooled IT equipment. “We are trying to focus this year more on the IT side of data center energy efficiency”, Wahl told us.
Sartor said the 2014 summit will highlight two relevant issues. The ongoing drought in California has spawned two sessions on water efficiency. Another is demand-response, and the utility companies that have to deal with dynamic supply.
“There are opportunities to connect with some of the vendors that provide energy-efficient technology,” Sartor continued. “Besides the learning opportunities there are networking ones as well.”
General registration fees for the 2014 Data Center Efficiency Summit are $400 per person, $285 for SVLG members, and $165 for government/non-profit attendees. Those interested can register online for the event up until the evening of Nov. 4.