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AFCOM's Inaugural Asia/Pacific Symposium: A Rousing Success

A recent report shows that in the 14 countries that make up the Asia/Pacific region, the data centre services market's size reached about $8 billion in 2009. Growth is expected to expand 16.4 percent and explode into a $10.68 billion industry this year.

It doesn't come as a surprise that more than 100 IT professionals from the region attended AFCOM's inaugural Asia/Pacific Symposium Sunday 15 May – Tuesday 17 in Sydney, Australia—presented by the same association that has provided unparalleled educational programs and services to tens of thousands of IT professionals around the world for more than 30 years.

Like their counterparts in the United States, data centre and facilities managers from this region are experiencing never before seen challenges and the need to find solutions as IT and business meld in 2011.

That's why this first of many AFCOM events addressing the entire data centre attracted top professional from the Asia/Pacific region. The Symposium sessions addressed it all—from day-to-day operations to facilities-related issues, including the latest technology and management techniques, best practices, disaster recovery, power and cooling, asset management, cloud computing and more.

Applause From Start to Finish

The program began with the keynote presentation, "The Next Wave: Data Centre's and Asia/Pacific's Roadmap to the Cloud," given by Andy Parham, CEO of the Bick Group. He addressed what effect Asia/Pacific's emerging markets, along with the explosive digital growth expected, will have on data centre professionals and owners.

"He provided excellent historical insight into how the data centre has become the resource of the individual worldwide consumer and no longer the domain of the corporate enterprise. This will no doubt have enormous implications for how the data centre evolves to meet new information demands. Very thought provoking!" commented Gregory Goode, Australia and Asia Data Centre Practise Manager, The Frame Group, Pty, Ltd.

As the Symposium continued, attendees got a taste of some good, old-fashioned lessons from IT experts, including:

• How to Minimize the Risks of a Natural Disaster, Mike Andrea, Director, The Strategic Directions Group

• Is Cloud Computing a Data Centre Paradigm Shift for Data Centre Efficiency? Gregory Goode, National Data Centre Practice Manager, The Frame Group Pty Ltd.
 
• A Case Study: Implementing Virtualisation at UC, Tom Townsend, Data Centre Manager, University of Canberra

• Challenges of Data Storage Management, Naveen Sharma, Associate Director, Information Services, Griffith University

• The National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) for Data Centres, Andrew McEachern, Manager Data Centres Facilities and Networks, DECCW and a member of the technical advisory group for Nabers

• ITIL in the Data Centre, Glenn Allan, DC & Sustainable IT Strategy, National Australia Bank

• The Next Frontier in Optimising Data Centre Infrastructure, Tim Hill, Country Sales Manager of Avocent Australia & New Zealand, a division of Emerson Network Power

• State of the Data Centre, Jill Yaoz, CEO, AFCOM, Leonard Eckhaus, President and Founder, AFCOM, Mike Andrea, Director, The Strategic Directions Group

What Attendees Had to Say

Attendees were very pleased with quality, content and presentation:

"It proved to be a very high value for our money with the quality of the speakers and the appropriateness of the subjects in today's marketplace." — Rodney Westbury, business consultant, data centre rationalisation and sustainability, Hitachi Data Centres

"I found the sharing session from the State of the Data Centre survey particularly useful as a benchmark against the region and industry." — Cheah King Hoong, head of data centre and operations, RHB Investment Bank

"As a possible new player in modular data centres it was an education to listen to what main issues are impacting/influencing data centre design and operations." — Kevin Boylan, manager, Nexium Telecommunications

"I got a good understanding of industry trends, issues and concerns." — Ian Martin, business development manager, iseek Communications

"I like not having to listen to vendors pushing their own agendas in the sessions and hearing real experiences from the people at the pit face." — James Crossley, managing director, CENTEROS Ltd

Special Thanks

We'd like to extend a special "Thank You" to The Strategic Directions Group for its role as AFCOM's Strategic Partner for this event and supporting the data centre industry by providing thought leadership, education, resources and solutions to the challenges and issues that IT and facilities professionals tackle daily. Their strong commitment to this industry is demonstrated through the support they show to AFCOM's members.

We would also like to thank the sponsors of the Asia/Pacific Symposium: Eaton, Emerson Network Power, APC, Raritan Asia Pacific, Inc., Rittal Pty Ltd, Tape Management Services, ebm-papst A&NZ Pty Ltd, S&C Electric Company and PAGE DATA.

 

Local Chapters

Although new to the Asia/Pacific region, you can find AFCOM local chapters in:

• AUCKLAND-NEW ZEALAND

• BRISBANE

• CANBERRA

• MELBOURNE

• SYDNEY

• PHILIPPINES

For contact information and/or to start a chapter near you, email Robyn Goldstone at rgoldstone@afcom.com