Data Centers Don't Make Sex Tapes posted by Kyle Peterson at Friday, September 19, 2008

Hollywood may have Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and whoever the latest “American Idol” winner was. It can have them. In Silicon Valley, we have our own celebrities. Sure, teenage girls probably don’t have posters of Larry Ellison hanging in their rooms, and certainly no paparazzo has thus far snapped photos of Jonathan Schwartz in his skivvies. But damnit if these stalwarts of software aren’t deserving of that kind of attention.

At Page One, I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with one of these Silicon Valley icons. Bill Coleman founded BEA Systems (the B stands for Bill) and is the current CEO of Cassatt, a company that he began in order to rethink the way data centers are operated. In lieu of poorly conceived reality shows, however, the leaders of our valley contribute to society by offering thought leadership articles on the industry they are most closely aligned with. For Bill, this means green technology and cloud computing. For me, this meant working with Bill to craft his message as clearly and with as much impact as possible, while also making sure it was an interesting read. After all, some people don’t readily see the utter sexiness of data center management. Yes, yes, I know, I’m not one of those people either.

Collaborating with Bill has been a delightful experience, and it’s exciting to see the articles come out in print or online. After some brainstorming, it’s always fun to see what the final piece looks like. Where else have you heard Columbus and Magellan compared to data center energy efficiency, or learned about the strange coincidence between fantasy football and data center power usage? Putting a message together is easy when there are a lot of interesting things to say. Fortunately, Bill's innovative years on the floor of the Valley make my job that much easier.

So keep living The Simple Life, Paris. We’ve got business to take care of up here.