Q&A: Troy Toman, Rackspace

• By The WHIR, October 14, 2008

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Q&A: Troy Toman, RackspaceIn an email interview with the WHIR, Rackspace vice president of operations and customer care Troy Toman discusses his panel, "The Evolving Data Center: From Red To Green" at this week's InnoTech conference in Austin, Texas.

By Liam Eagle, theWHIR.com

October 14, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- As we've written more than a few times in the past few months, "green" is a subject of major consideration in hosting at the moment. But that concern spreads well beyond the business to confront IT managers of all stripes.

And at this week's InnoTech conference in Austin, Texas, Rackspace's vice president of operations and customer care Troy Toman will take place in a panel discussion intended to impart some green IT expertise to attendees who are just beginning to understand it.

Rackspace has been issuing information on green hosting and offering its "greenspace" hosting packages for months, making it a company with something definite to impart, in this context.

The panel discussion, scheduled for Thursday at 1:00 p.m. will also include IBM green infrastructure architect Kevin Harris and Austin Energy senior conservation program specialist Michelle Noriega. It will be moderated by David Power, president of Green Planet Energy.

In an email conversation with the WHIR, Toman discusses his company's experience with the green data center, and what parts of Rackspace's experience may prove valuable to the in-house IT crowd.

The intended audience for this discussion would seem to be companies that might not be outsourcing, and might not be sure how to do things "green" in house. Do you think the "green" IT idea constitutes an argument in favor of outsourcing IT in general?

Troy Toman: I think it works in favor of outsourcing. Focusing on "green" does pay benefits, but it can also distract a company from focusing on what it is best at. At Rackspace, getting "green" about IT is our business. We have experts that are learning and experimenting everyday to get more efficient. We constantly invest in our systems and facilities. For many companies, it might be better to offload that responsibility to someone who sees this as its core.

Are there common environmental and energy issues that would be driving people to attend a session like this, seeking a better understanding of the idea of a green data center?

Definitely. First, power is getting more expensive. So, there is a bottom line drive to get more efficient. But, I think we are all getting more conscious of the increasing pressure that we are putting our environment under. I think everyone wants to know more about how they can help minimize that impact.

And how far along are businesses in their green strategies? Do you find its something that, as it says in the session description, "technology vendors are pushing?" To what extent are consumers pushing vendors in that direction?

Business are all looking at how to get more efficient. In this economic climate, it is more important than ever. So, the interest and benefits are real. That said, vendors are probably guilty of over-hyping some parts of this as well. So, there is balancing act as there is in any situation.

Are there green strategies that work at service providers like Rackspace that would translate well to in-house IT operations?

Certainly. There are some basic DC management techniques that can work in any computer room or data center. Using a hot aisle/cold aisle set up is important. Consolidating workloads so that lightly loaded servers can be decommissioned or re-purposed. Those are some basic things almost anyone can do.

I know Rackspace put out some data from a survey of customer opinions on this subject a few months back. From your perspective, how significantly do green initiatives play into customer decision making at Rackspace?

It matters. Some customers have made a real commitment to become more environmentally conscious. They want to know their partners are paying attention. Others want to know that we are doing all we can to keep costs under control. Almost everyone has some level of interest in what we are doing to better manage our infrastructure and systems.

To read an interview with Rackspace's Jeff Reich, on his InnoTech panel "Who Do You Trust? How Knowing Who and What Your Users are Determines How Secure Your Information Is," click here.

Tags:  green hosting  Anet  Directi  ETT  IBM  Rackspace 

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