Video: eBay's data center guru offers efficiency tips

I first became interested in what eBay was doing with its data centers during an Uptime Institute conference two years ago. I was struck by the company's data center guru, Dean Nelson, concise argument tying his company's data center efficiency to eBay's long term business survival. 

More recently, I interviewed Nelson (who is eBay’s Vice President of Global Foundation Services, notice the word data center isn't even in his title) about a massive modular data center project on top of a building in the Arizona desert. The resulting post, "5 green data center tips from Project Mercury," convinced me that Nelson would be a great guest for a ZDNet "Hot Topics" webcast. 

The resulting conversation "Is Modular Design the Secret to Data Center Efficiency?" explores the potential of data centers that deployed in a modular or container format.

Let's be clear: there are still very people doing this, but the number of committed modular data centers has more than doubled over the past 12 months with an estimated 220 projects now completed or in the pipeline (according to some IDC projections). 

If you're thinking about whether or not modular design is an option for your organization, I encourage you to tune in for some tips from Nelson -- especially if you need to add capacity fast or you're in the process of investing in private or public cloud infrastructure.