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• Data center design best practices from a pro

  From Colorado to Illinois, Tehran to New York, Robert McFarlane has innovated in data center design, power and cooling. Here are his tips for data center operators. Continue Reading

• Five COBOL interview questions to land a new job

  Time for a new job on the mainframe? Brush up on your COBOL basics and prepare for these strategic interview questions. Continue Reading

• total benefit of ownership (TBO)

  Total benefit of ownership is the sum of measurable and intangible returns that a company receives from investing in assets and/or personnel. Continue Reading

• Intel E7 v3 designed for scale-up BI workloads

  The Intel E7 v3 processor entered the ring against IBM Power and other systems. But will the new BI features be enough to take over scale-up workloads? Continue Reading

• Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe, PCI-E)

  PCIe is a high-speed serial interconnection standard for connecting peripheral devices to a computer's motherboard. Continue Reading

• Definitions to Get Started

  • data center
  • parallel processing
  • blade server
  • shell script

  • ambient temperature
  • OLTP (online transaction processing)
  • statistical mean, median, mode and range
  • free cooling

  View All Definitions

• TCO (total cost of ownership)

  Total cost of ownership is a calculation to assess direct and indirect expenses and benefits related to the purchase of a product or infrastructure component.Continue Reading

• Pop quiz: Know the ABCs of data center spending

  There are a lot of acronyms that define data center spending, but which letters will save you money? See how well you know IT budget vocab.Continue Reading

• The FPGA server promises flexible app acceleration

  FPGAs offload tasks from server processors more flexibly than other accelerator options. Hyperscale data centers are keen to deploy the technology.Continue Reading

• New eco UPS systems save energy, minimize operational risks

  Eco UPS installations promise higher energy efficiency in the data center, with new designs that respond quickly to an outage.Continue Reading

• What are the best ways to prep for CompTIA exams?

  I took the CompTIA Security+ online exam once and wasn't able to clear it. How can I prepare to pass the test next time?Continue Reading

• Second guessing the third platform of IT

  The third platform is a broad term for social, mobile, cloud and other applications, united in the need for a scalable IT back end.Continue Reading

• Is geothermal cooling a viable data center option?

  We are looking at a building surrounded by several acres of land for a new data center. Should we consider geothermal horizontal loops for cooling?Continue Reading

• Small updates meet big data center requirements

  Not all IT infrastructure projects require a large budget and lengthy schedule. These relatively inexpensive updates boost performance and reliability.Continue Reading

• What kind of VM management tools help plan growth?

  What tools can I use to manage capacity to accommodate further VM growth in a complex IT environment?Continue Reading

• How to tell if OpenStack infrastructure is right for you

  Your data center may -- or may not -- need a flexible open-source cloud. Is your facility ready to handle the infrastructure overhaul of storage and hardware?Continue Reading