November 5, 2008

Eaton Director: Create Synergy Between IT and Facility Strategies

Kenneth Uhlman, director of data center business development for Eaton Corp., writes in Computer Technology Review, that for companies to remain competitive in a global market, organizations should work collaboratively to operate more efficiently and sustainably. Uhlman recommends companies to create synergy between IT and facility strategies.

Here are Uhlman’s recommendations for the data center:

1. Energy efficiency needs to initiated from the CEO down
An optimized organizational structure should have proper metrics and incentives in place to ensure that risks and rewards are fairly distributed throughout the organization, including IT, facilities and supply chain.
2. Have a senior facilities executive report the CIO
This ensures that power and cooling issues are addressed in strategic planning with the IT kit.
3. Have metrics in place
Metrics help organizations to measure progress on their data center’s efficiency goals and their global corporate sustainability goals.
4. End users should develop processes to evaluate their data centers using total cost of ownership
This ensures end users obtain the lowest energy consumption and carbon footprint while meeting business objectives.
5. Utilize virtualization technologies
These technologies allow IT and facilities to proactively manage their systems with a holistic view.

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