In January 2008, SearchDataCenter.com put out a call for entries for our first Data Center Manager of the Year competition. This award recognizes excellence in data center project management. Nominations poured in from colleagues, supporting vendors and the contestants themselves.
The data center projects included consolidations, platform migrations, data center moves/renovations, certification projects, and new construction. These projects took place during the 2007 calendar year.
Nominations were judged by an independent panel for innovation, increased uptime or security, lowered expenses, increased performance and environmental awareness. Congratulations to the winners.
Winner:Jeff Lowenberg, The Planet. In his position overseeing six data centers in the Houston and Dallas areas, Jeff has initiated an impressive host of energy efficiency practices that will save his company a million dollars in 2008. Find out the details of his projects, and learn how you can incorporate some of the same concepts into your data center.
Runner Up:Armin Heinlein, Panalpina Group. Overseeing the consolidation of seven outdated data centers located across the North American continent to one site is a significant task, even for a logistics company. Armin's efforts have saved the company a million dollars, and he accomplished it without disrupting services.
Finalist:Ben Stewart, Terremark Worldwide Inc.. Learning a lot about your company by changing jobs and departments can pay off. Ben used this experience to his advantage while overseeing the construction of five new data centers on a 30-acre site in Culpeper, VA. Terramark's data centers are also a bit different, find out how and learn why.
Finalist:William Stewart, Sempra Energy. Severing a disaster recovery contract could save you money, but you have to renovate your facilities and make the business case for the move. That's what William did, saving his company nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in 2007. Find out the key considerations that were made, and how the company's secondary test-environment facility was turned into their disaster recovery site.
SearchDataCenter.com will begin taking nominations for next year's Data Center Manager of the Year in January 2009. If you know an IT or Facilities executive that is working on a major data center project and deserves nomination, please email Matt Stansberry, Senior Site Editor of SearchDataCenter.com.
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