Showgirls, Slots & Sarbanes-Oxley

Afcoms Data Center World Conference in Vegas last week was certainly an eye-opener – even ignoring the dancers in the floor show at the hotel where I was staying (and who could?).

Even if you tune out the flashing lights and frenzied gambling of the Rio Hotel and Casino (and who could?), there was much to see and hear as more than 500 of the folks responsible for running some of the largest data centers in the U.S. got together to swap stories and discuss what's bugging them.

One subject that created a fair amount of hot air was that of blade servers. Blades are living up to their hype and most delegates appeared keen to get their hands on the technology. But the catch is that blades are hot in more ways than one. Dealing with the physical heat that blades produce is going to be a big problem over the next few years (see Data Center Heat Wave).

Blade heat is such a problem, in fact, that some data centers may have to be redesigned, according to experts at the conference.

Savor the salacious details at the Next-gen Data Center Forum.— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-gen Data Center Forum