How to graze a herd of cats?

Recently I happened to hear the complaint of one of the leaders of a large investment company: "To lead this team is like grazing a herd of cats." It’s clear that cats cannot be controlled (all over the world, it seems that only Yuri Kuklachev managed to do this) - their character is too independent. But what about the team of such a responsible facility, which is a data center that should operate in 24 x 7 x 365 mode?

How to ensure that the team in the data center project effectively solves the tasks? By what measures should one approach a candidate for the role of an employee of a data center so that he not only does no harm, but also brings maximum benefit? These and other issues are covered in articles that reveal the theme of the issue: “Data Center Staff”.

Despite the economic turmoil, the data center market is developing, new high-quality objects are appearing on it, the creators of which are thoughtful about their design, construction and management. The incredible pace of building an energy-efficient and reliable data center was once again demonstrated by DataPro, launching the first stage of its second site in Moscow on the promised date. In an interview with Evgeny Bogdanchikov, Executive Director of DataPro, reveals interesting details of the approaches that the company used in the construction of its new generation data centers.


Another focus material of the issue - a photo tour to the IXcellerate data center - will allow a much larger number of interested persons to get acquainted with the object, made in the best European traditions, than IXcellerate guests could at a party organized by the company in honor of the opening of the first phase of the data center. The highlight of the site’s visit program is a fire extinguishing system using finely divided water.

Familiarity with the construction methods of advanced data centers will undoubtedly enrich everyone who is interested in the design and construction technologies of such facilities. But no less valuable is the experience of real difficulties or even problems that performers face in projects. Experts of SKB Kontur company share the experience of migration to a commercial data center. And about what surprises the staff of a poorly designed data center may encounter, says Fedor Klimenko, CEO of GreenMDC in his article.

The heading traditionally enjoying attention is “Questions to the Expert”. In this issue, Pavel Romanchenko, head of the OViK group (Department of Mechanical Systems) of ADM Partnership, answers fairly complex questions.

This summer, we conducted a survey among our readers, trying to find out, in particular, what materials interest the audience. In response to our wishes, we publish in the current issue under the heading “Designing a Data Center” recommendations for managing a data center consolidation project — the project itself was considered earlier in the February issue.

The year is nearing completion. For the employees of Media Gruz it was fruitful and eventful. It was possible to do almost everything conceived: they released four issues of the magazine “TsODy.RF”, launched the site www.alldc.ru, which confidently takes the leading position, organized two DCExpedition expeditions (along the Lukh River in the Vladimir Region and to the Scandinavian data centers). The guests of the DCParty parties, which we organized together with Mastertel, managed not only to have a good time, discuss the problems of the data center and telecommunications industry, but also play the popular game “What? Where? When? ”With real experts.

Another interesting project has recently started - the DCLady contest among women holding leadership positions in data centers (materials on the last expedition and the “female” project are published in this issue). We also launched a tablet version of the magazine “In the Cloud. Russian Federation” and are preparing to release a version of “Data Center.RF” for tablet users (the release of the current issue is scheduled for January 15, 2015).

But most importantly, the editors were involved in the midst of the events of the data center market, thanks to which we were able to attract new authors, almost double the audience and increase the subscription. And ahead of our readers there is still a lot of interesting and useful - participate in our projects!