04Nov
Author: dan
Categories: Green IT, Ramblings
This past spring Applied Trust took its third-floor deck space to a new level!
Although the deck has always been a desirable aspect of Applied Trust’s office environment, we felt the space wasn’t being used to its full potential. Some employees said that it was too sunny and got too hot to work out there with a laptop. Others said it was the lack of acceptable work space and the presence of pigeons that deterred them from working out there. We decided to make an effort to provide our engineers with a more inviting outdoor workspace that would be fun to use and would add value to our work space for years to come.
After looking into options we decided on some sun shades, some new workspaces, a way of providing music, and deck plants. The plants were a key element; not only do they add to the aesthetics of the deck, but they also add to the “green” image of the office, by helping to offset our carbon output. We chose the following plants to fill the planters:
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05Oct
23Jan
Author: ned
Categories: Green IT, Infrastructure
As part of Applied Trust’s commitment to conservation in IT, we’re now running our machine room at a significantly higher temperature. Like many folks, we used to cool our data center to a chilly 60 degrees Farenheight (the purple line is ambient temperature):
One key strategy for reducing cooling load (and thus saving money and the environment) is to crank up the temperature of your machine room - cooling alone uses a third of all the power consumed by the data center! Back in the days of giant monolithic servers, it really was important to keep the temperature below 70 – with today’s modern hardware, that thinking is history like the Ice Age. Here’s what our server room temperatures look like now:
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04Jan
Author: ned
Categories: Green IT, Infrastructure
While most people are making New Year resolutions like “exercise more” or “eat healthier food,” us IT wonks are busy making our own! Here are ten New Year resolutions that every IT department should consider:
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24Nov
Author: ned
Categories: Green IT
Last week’s 10 For Change meeting was a success – there was a great turnout and lots of good conversation. I had fun sitting on the panel, and each of the other panelists had something interesting to share…
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19Nov
Author: ned
Categories: Green IT
31Oct
Author: ned
Categories: Green IT
At Applied Trust, we’re often known as the company with the cool outdoorsy schwag. Has your Applied Trust schwag traveled to exciting and unique places with you, or does it otherwise have an interesting story to tell? If so, we’d love to hear about it!
Send your “schwag brag” ideas (with photos) to schwagbrag@atrust.com. Whoever submits the most outrageous story and photo between now and December 31, 2008 wins a 3-day trip for two to beautiful Cozumel, Mexico!
We’ve already received some great submissions – hurry up and get yours in the door!
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28Sep
Applied Trust has been producing the print version of The Barking Seal (our quarterly publication for our clients, supporters, and friends) for almost 4 years now. While we’ve received a lot of positive feedback about its all-original content, it’s left us feeling, well, like we could do more. We often have a desire write about topics that are time-relevant, which doesn’t fit well with the rigidity of the print production process at all.
One of the greatest features of being consulting IT infrastructure engineers is that we have the opportunity to see, touch, and experience a wide variety of technologies and their successful (and sometimes, not so successful) application. We have the opportunity to solve problems that have never been solved before. And, every once in awhile, we make mistakes that provide good lessons. It’s our hope that sharing some of these experiences will better our community as a whole. We’ll probably rant occasionally too; we’re blessed to work with some very rant-inclined folks.
Our goal is for this blog to become one of your trusted sources of useful information about the IT security and infrastructure arena. We hope you enjoy it.
I’m excited to say that 