Summer Book Update and Back to School Reading

August and thus Summer 2009 in the northern hemisphere are swiftly passing by and start of a new school year is just around the corner which means it is also time for final vacations, time at the beach, pool, golf course, amusement park or favorite fishing hole among other past times. In order to help get you ready for fall (or late summer) book shopping for those with IT interests, here are some Amazon lists (here, here and here) for ideas, after all, the 2009 holiday season is not that far away!

Here’s a link to my Amazon.com Authors page that includes coverage of both my books, "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) and "Resilient Storage Networks – Designing Scalable Flexible Data Infrastructures" (Elsevier).

The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC)Resilient Storage Networks - Designing Flexible Scalable Data Infrastructures (Elsevier)

Click here to look inside "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) and or inside "Resilient Storage Networks" (Elsevier).

Its been six months since the launch announcement of my new book "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) and general availability at Amazon.com and other global venues here and here. In celebration of the six month anniversary of the book launch (thank you very much to all who have bought a copy!), here is some coverage including what is being said, related articles, interviews, book reviews and more.

Article: New Green Data Center: shifting from avoidance to becoming more efficient IT-World August 2009

wsradio.com interview discussing themes and topics covered in the book including closing the green gap and shifting towards an IT efficiency and productivity for business sustainability.

Closing the green gap: Discussion about expanding data centers with environmental benefits at SearchDataCenter.com

From Greg Brunton – EDS/An HP Company: “Greg Schulz has presented a concise and visionary perspective on the Green issues, He has cut through the hype and highlighted where to start and what the options are. A great place to start your green journey and a useful handbook to have as the journey continues.”

From Rick Bauer – Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) – Education and Technology Director”
“Greg is one of the smartest “good guys” in the storage industry.
He has been a voice of calm amid all the “green IT hype” over the past few years. So when he speaks of the possible improvements that Green Tech can bring, it’s a much more realistic approach…”

From CMG (Computer Measurement Group) MeasureIT
I must admit that I have been slightly skeptical at times, when it comes to what the true value is behind all of the discussions on “green” technologies in the data center. As someone who has seen both the end user and vendor side of things, I think my skepticism gets heightened more than it normally would be. This book really helped dispel my skepticism.

The book is extremely well organized and easy to follow. Each chapter has a very good introduction and comprehensive summary. This book could easily serve as a blueprint for organizations to follow when they look for ideas on how to design new data centers. It’s a great addition to an IT Bookshelf. – Reviewed by Stephen R. Guendert, PhD (Brocade and CMG MeasureIT). Click here to read the full review in CMG MeasureIT.

From Tom Becchetti – IT Architect: “This book is packed full of information. From ecological and energy efficiencies, to virtualization strategies and what the future may hold for many of the key enabling technologies. Greg’s writing style benefits both technologists and management levels.”

From MSP Business Journal: Greg Schulz named an Eco-Tech Warrior – April 2009

From David Marshall at VMblog.com: If you follow me on Linked in, you might have seen that I had been reading a new book that came out at the beginning of the year titled, “The Green and Virtual Data Center” by Greg Schulz. Rather than writing about a specific virtualization platform and how to get it up and running, Schulz takes an interesting approach at stepping back and looking at the big picture. After reading the book, I reached out to the author to ask him a few more questions and to share his thoughts with readers of VMBlog.com. I know I’m not Oprah’s Book Club, but I think everyone here will enjoy this book. Click here to read more what David Marshal has to say.

From Zen Kishimoto of Altaterra Research: Book Review May 2009

From Kurt Marko of Processor.com Green and Virtual Book Review – April 2009

From Serial Storage Wire (STA): Green and SASy = Energy and Economic, Effective Storage – March 2009

From Computer Technology Review: Recent Comments on The Green and Virtual Data Center – March 2009

From Alan Radding in Big Fat Finance Blog: Green IT for Finance Operations – April 2009

From VMblog: Comments on The Green and Virtual Data CenterMarch 2009

From StorageIO Blog: Recent Comments and Tips – March 2009

From VMblog: Comments on The Green and Virtual Data CenterMarch 2009

From Data Center Links John Rath comments on “The Green and Virtual Data Center

From InfoStor Dave Simpson comments on “The Green and Virtual Data Center

From Sys-Con Georgiana Comsa comments on “The Green and Virtual Data Center

From Ziff Davis Heather Clancy comments on “The Green and Virtual Data Center”

From Byte & Switch Green IT and the Green Gap February 2009

From GreenerComputing: Enabling a Green and Virtual Data Center February 2009

From Sys-con: Comments on The Green and Virtual Data Center – March 2009

From ServerWatch: Green IT: Myths vs. Realities – February 2009

From Byte & Switch: Going Green and the Economic Downturn – February 2009

From Business Wire: Comments on The Green and Virtual Data Center Book – January 2009

Additional content and news can be found here and here with upcoming events listed here.

Interested in Kindle? Here’s a link to get a Kindle copy of "Resilient Storage Networks" (Elsevier) or to send a message via Amazon to publisher CRC that you would like to see a Kindle version of "The Green and Virtual Data Center". While you are at it, I also invite you to become a fan of my books at Facebook.

Thanks again to everyone who has obtained their copy of either of my books, also thanks to all of those who have done reviews, interviews and helped in many other ways!

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Cheers – gs

Greg Schulz – twitter @storageio

Visit my new Amazon authors page

Amazon.com

In addition to my books The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) being on Amazon, I now also have an Amazon Authors page.

If you are an Amazon shopper, you may already know about authors pages, if, not, they are a feature available for book authors to tie together information about their books, blogs and other material in one venue, similar to what other social networking and medium sites provide.

Visit my new authors page at Amazon.com by clicking here and if you have read either of my books, feel free to leave a review or comment, thanks in advance.

Ok, nuff said.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

Getting Caught Up and Holiday Shopping

Its a busy time of the year as things wind down and wrap up, including holiday shopping and applicable gift wrapping unless you outsource the wrapping to the likes of Amazon.com when shopping on-line in a cloud enabled world.

For me this was a busy week with a quick trip out to New York City (NYC) for some meetings and to do another dinner keynote event, in addition to wrapping up some other projects as well as getting a jump on some up-coming projects and adding some additional events to the 2009 calendar (more on those soon).

Speaking of holiday shopping, Beth Pariseau over at SearchStorage has put out her annual what to get a geek for the holidays piece with this edition titled "Jingle bell storage: What to buy a geek for the holidays".

In addition to Beth’s great list, here are some additional considerations.

  • For those who might forget their heads if not attached to their shoulders, or late for their own wake, how about a wrist watch with USB flash drive built in (encrypted preferred)
  • Speaking of encryption, to support increased data growth, replace that too small 8GB encrypted USB flash with a new 16GB encrypted version (My 8GB version I bought a while ago works great).
  • Oh, and upgrade the DVR (add more and bigger disk drives) to support more editions of “Friday Night Lights“, “How its Made”, “Worlds Toughest Fixes”, “Sunday Night Football”, "Factory Floor" and anything on “HDnet” or “HDnet Movies”, a larger capacity external SAS or SATA attached disk with software to copy what I already have saved.
  • For those who enjoy Wine and I/O, check out the Vinturi Essential Wine Aerator (Bought one of these after seeing them in Sonoma on a recent trip)
  • For those who like removable storage media and want to compliment their EMC Retrospect (I have been a Retrospect since well before EMC bought them, I guess that makes me an EMC customer?) or other backups, the Imation Odyssey portable USB adapter (I bought an Odyssey over a year ago) is great for larger backups (beyond a flash drive) when traveling.
  • In order to track those lost tapes to avoid getting on next years Santa naughty or nice list, how about FujiFind (FujiFilm) Tape tracker
  • On the software and tools front, Xobni (a form of eDiscovery and search for Microsoft Outlook) along with OutTwit (twitter interface where you can also find myself) if you are using Microsoft Outlook (have been using both of these, great productivity tools).
  • Still not sure, how about my new book "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (Auerbach) or my other book "Resilient Storage Networks" (Elseiver) both available at Amazon.com and other fine venues around the world (I bought a copy of both to see how on-line sale worked ;).
  • That’s it for now as I need to get a few more things done including more holiday shopping and chores not to mention get ready for the snowstorm that is forecasted to dump several inches of new snow tomorrow here in the Stillwater area.

    Ok, nuff said.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Storage Magazine in a Virtual World

    Despite some internet chatter the other day that the TechTarget Storage magazine (not to be confused with a different Dutch magazine that I happen to have recently appeared in) had ceased to exist, the reality is that the print version like so many other publications is giving way to an on-line, digital only version as has been the trend recently.

    Printed magazines, whether weekly, monthly or quarterly for general interest or industry specific have all been under going a transformation over the past decade with examples including the Sears catalog giving way to new mediums and venues on the internet.

    For the most part, those printed magazines that still exist keep getting smaller and thinner with less and less content to correspond to the decrease in advertising dollars that keeps the publications in existence in many cases. Personally I like and have adjusted to having virtual magazines in the form of on-line HTML or PDF or some other form as part of an on-line, downloadable virtual desktop. However, I still enjoyed being able to take a pile of magazines onto an airplane to read especially when you have to turn off your electronics and before nap time.

    Magazines are not the only publications going to on-line, in addition to catalogs that have given way to the likes of Amazon.com among others, more books are also being published on-line either in PDF or secure download as well as emerging kindle versions. My book Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) is currently available at Amazon.com in both print as well as Kindle versions and while initially my new book The Green and Virtual Data Center (Auerbach) which can be ordered now at Amazon (and other venues) will be in print, rest assured, there will also be a digital version very soon.

    Books have been an interesting scenario talking with other authors who have seen an increase in digital versions being sold, there is still a preference for readers to get a physical version that they can carry with them and make notes or use as a desktop paper weight or what suits your preference.

    Back to TechTarget Storage magazine, what’s interesting is that TechTarget had only a hand full of printed publications with the bulk of their content being on-line at sites like SearchStorage and other sibling sites as well as their conferences, seminars and other custom events.

    While I have not been involved Storage magazine as long as early contributors like Steve Foskett who has a nice posting on his blog, I have been involved with Storage magazine among many other TechTarget as well as most of the other industry related publications (print and on-line).

    My involvement with Storage magazine for many years has included writing some articles (Scaling SANs, Bridging the Gap, and Automate Data Recovery), doing tips, ask the experts (ATE) as well as appearing in other authors articles providing commentary and industry trends and perspectives quotes not to mention always looking forward to getting my monthly hard copy version to take with and read on airplanes or trains when traveling. Storage magazine and many of the people involved with producing the publication from what I understand will continue to produce a publication inconjunction with SearchStorage and sibling sites such as SearchSMBstorage among others where you can find various articles, tips, podcasts and other material from myself and others in the industry.

    Storage Magazine
    December 2008 Storage Magzine

    The final printed version is the December 2008 version and while I do not have any articles in this edition, I am honored to appear via interviews and providing quotes in a couple of articles including How you SAN will evolve by Alan Radding as well as Next Year’s hot technologies by Ellen O’Brien.

    So here’s to one more printed version of a publication going to the archives, and look forward to the future of the on-line version as well as all of the other on-line venues that are doing what they need to do to remain viable in a changing world.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved