LR Blitzes Data Center Market

Attention data center junkies: Light Reading, Byte and Switch's parent site, has your fix.

Light Reading has launched a new site, Next-gen Data Center Forum (NDCF), which will provide news, research, and expert advice on all of the data center's moving parts -- the mainframes, middleware, switches, and security.

NDCF will serve as an online meeting place where IT managers can read and discuss the latest news, technologies, and trends affecting corporate data centers.

So why a new site? Well, data centers -- the information hubs of modern corporations -- are growing like mad. They're increasingly big and confounding (and confoundingly big). In fact, even traditional outsourcing companies have found that they can save money by -- wait for it -- outsourcing their own data centers! (See Data Centers on the Rise.)

NDCF will attempt to cut through the complexity by writing about end users and how they use technology to get the most out of their data centers.As the inaugural column of James Rogers, Site Editor of NDCF, has it: "We've got everything you need to get through your working day. [Ed. note: Except the coffee, pills, clown wigs, and fishnet stockings. We're only a Website. What do you want from us?]"

NDCF is owned, operated, and managed by Light Reading Inc. The site is sponsored by Allied Telesyn Inc., Force10 Networks Inc., Inkra Networks, NetScaler Inc., Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE/Toronto: NT), and Redline Networks Inc.

Site Editor Rogers adds: "This Website will put a human face on the data center by focusing on the people responsible for it -- and presenting them with an outlet to debate competing approaches, share experiences, even air complaints. We will also be offering specialist advice in our 'Ask the Expert' section, as well as providing a wealth of opinion pieces, columns, and case studies."

Case in point? A fresh case study examines how the U.S. Army is reaping the benefits of high-availability storage area networks at its largest Pentagon data center. And check out Alan Rodger and Alan Lawson, of Butler Group. They are deadly serious about software patches.

Read on!Phil Harvey, News Editor, Light Reading