The Soft Pitch

I wanted to write about Avnet’s award for the “greening” of its data center, then I saw that one of our IT directors has written about it internally and he has provided a much better write up than I could – so this comes from Bruce Gorshe, IT Director – Data Center Operations.  The list of small and big things show, Kermit the Frog got it all wrong. It can be easy to be green, you just have to be a little bit innovative:

Green Computing, Energy Efficiency and the Data Center – Avnet won!

Avnet was selected as the winner of InfoWorld’s 2009 “Best Practices in Green Computing, Energy Efficiency and the Datacenter.”

Jennifer McConnell (Director, IT) accepted the award for Avnet at the “Storage Networking World” annual storage convention held in Scottsdale, Arizona. The award represented the cumulative efforts of multiple teams and demonstrates how Avnet is a leader in the Green IT space.

Jennifer McConnell Accepting SNW Award

The winning entry included these main points, specifically, Avnet:

• Consolidated more than 300 pieces of hardware by retiring or collapsing systems into larger vertically-scaled servers.
• Created a heavily virtualized environment with 24 VMware ESX hosts supporting 378 virtual guests
• Deployed 15 product AIX frames, representing 538 systems across only 39 physical systems.
• Installed StorageTek’s Virtual Storage Manager system to move a storage area network environment.
• Replaced older less efficient air conditioners with newer air conditioners, which were more power efficient.
• Re-foamed the ceiling of its datacenter roof and applied additional insulation.
• Installed “subzero” air flow leakage cubes and high-flow perforated tiles.
• Replaced 250 T12 lighting ballasts with more efficient T08 ballasts.
• Developed a script that would run on all desktop and laptop systems connected to the datacenter to automatically place idle systems in hibernation.

The gains from these changes included:

• Avoided spending more than $5 million to expand the power supply to its datacenter.
• Decreased power consumption by 44% per image through its vertical scaling and virtualization efforts. It also freed a considerable amount of valuable raised flooring space within Avnet’s datacenter. Avnet now has 5,000 square feet of available raised flooring, up from 1,000 square feet, allowing Avnet to avoid structural build-outs costs.
• The new room air conditioners are 20% more efficient.
• Re-foaming the datacenter ceiling and applying additional insulation lowered Avnet’s datacenter cooling costs by $7500 per year, and increased the longevity of the cooling systems and roof.
• The “subzero” air flow leakage cubes and high-flow perforated tiles helped improve air flow by 90%.
• The new power efficient lighting reduced related costs by 30%.
• By placing idle computers in hibernation during non-business hours, Avnet will save an estimated $150,000 annually. Also, it significantly reduced Avnet’s power consumption. A desktop PC consumes approximately 137 watts of electricity; however, by placing it in hibernation, it only consumes one watt.

By now you’ve either seen the Hulu commercials, heard the buzz about online video or – more likely – you’ve watched online video (more than 75% of Internet users have) probably to the tune of about 5 hours during February alone – at least that’s according to comScore Video Metrix March 2009. The research company estimates 145.2 million people watched online video in February, up 8 percent from a year ago.  Think it’s all dancing babies and sports blunders?  Think again:  Microsoft was #5 in the top 10 sites for video viewers with more than 28 million visitors who watched an average of 9.1 videos.  Those aren’t funny videos from someone’s 40^th birthday party – those are technical and training videos produced by software engineers and marketing teams to help customers use or sell a Microsoft solution.

And that’s just one vendor. So next week Avnet is launching “Avnet OnDemand” – a video portal for the technology distribution industry and it will have videos from many, many vendors.  It’s the first of its kind as a matter of fact.  No dancing babies here – technical and training videos from the top manufacturers like  HP and Molex.  Videos from Avnet on design kits, industry opportunities and general informational videos.

Take a sneak peak here, and let us know what you think.  Online video is taking off, and Avnet is helping our partners take advantage of it. Al calls this “catch the wave” – I think it’s more like catching a tsunami.

Avnet Tech Games drew nearly 200 students this weekend to compete for scholarships in nine different games – a record number of students participated representing colleges and universities from across Arizona — there was even a team from University of Arizona in Tucson that trekked in for the event!.

Winners were announced this morning via press release and photos from the event can be found on Flickr.

My personal favorite – and of course for many of the on-lookers – was the robot obstacle race.  Under the direction of faculty advisor Bassam Matar, the Chandler-Gilbert team won again this year.  Their robot was one of the few that made it around the entire obstacle course and the only one to successfully to transport a red rubber ball around the 5-ft. course.  Robot races sound much easier than they are, apparently, as most of the robots couldn’t make it around the course at all.  The students had to use a robot kit with about a gazzillion Lego parts and some electronics to design and build their own robot.  Each team came up with their own design (they didn’t have to use all the parts) and had some interesting twists on how to capture the ball.  One team built a pair of pincer arms like on a scorpion (must be the desert influence) and another a little scooper arm like on a skip loader (didn’t work at all).  The winning team had a little trap contraption that descended on the ball (sort of like from the game Mouse Trap if you’re as old as I and can remember that game) and kept it from rolling away while the robot pushed the ball around the course. It was the only design to successfully grab the ball – earning it a great cheer from the audience.

All the teams deserve recognition and gained valuable experience in trying to solve real-world problems – well, okay, so maybe moving a rubber ball around a table doesn’t sound real-world.  But maybe some day, those students will be designing robot arms to perform delicate surgery or better yet, do the dishes.

Rudy Navarro from Chandler Gilbert CC puts the final touches on the winning robot.

By now its well into the evening in China and our Avnet Technology Solutions team in Asia is gearing up to execute on the announcement made in Beijing earlier today that Avnet is now going after the solutions distribution business in China. This didn’t get the same splash as our announcement two weeks ago of the acquisition of Nippon in Japan, virtually doubling our business in that market.  It didn’t get the same splash only because we’re working to build our solutions business in China, not buy it. Several reasons for this, but foremost being that we want the business to work with the rest of Avnet’s culture and offer customers the same dedication to value.  So, the team is hiring key individuals, leveraging our existing infrastructure (more than 15 facilities including warehouses, an integration center, and Avnet Electronics Marketing offices), nurturing relationships with suppliers (we’ll start from IBM and I’m sure very quickly add others), and reaching out to customers.

The world is in an economic crisis – turmoil – upheaval – shift –  whatever – pick your term. (As an aside, is it just me or are the headlines becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy scaring people and businesses into pulling back, thereby triggering more sluggish sales, which triggers a headline, which promotes more fear, leading to less spending, which triggers a headline…?)  Meanwhile, for those prudent and careful business managers this time represents opportunities to invest.  Do we need to readjust for the short term? Yes and yes we, Avnet, are taking the appropriate steps. Will this downturn last forever? No. So while we’re aligning resources for the short term, we’re still investing for the long term. We’re investing in the right places, with the right resources to be ahead of the market and positioned well for the turn. Asia is a great example. Millions of businesses and people, technologically savvy, and ready for expansion.  We’re ready too.

As Announced at NEDA’s conference earlier this week —

Atlanta, GA—The National Electronic Distributors Association (NEDA) bestowed its highest honor, the Gail S. Carter Award, to Roy Vallee, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Avnet, Inc.  The annual presentation was held during the 2008 NEDA Executive Conference at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel. The award acknowledges electronic distributor principals who have made significant contributions to the distribution industry, have taken an active role in NEDA and civic affairs, and are recognized by the industry as leaders.

NEDA President Frank Flynn of Sager Electronics, presented the award and praised Mr. Vallee’s contributions to the industry. Under his leadership, Avnet has been a steady champion of NEDA throughout the years. Mr. Vallee has generously supported its programs and encouraged senior Avnet executives to serve on the NEDA Boards. “It’s not often that an organization enjoys this type of high-level deployment of executive talent and expertise,” said Robin B. Gray, Jr., NEDA Executive Vice President. Mr. Vallee has also been an active leader within the NEDA Large Company Council. Avnet has helped to improve the visibility, importance and growth of electronic distribution, NEDA and raised the professional standard and ethics for the electronic distribution industry.

In his acceptance, Vallee spoke of the rewards of Avnet’s involvement in NEDA and called on others to make the most of their NEDA membership.  “It’s an honor to receive the Gail S. Carter Award and be included with a distinguished list of past recipients. Our industry has been through tremendous changes and challenges during my career. NEDA has consistently been there to provide insight and a critical forum for discussing issues and topics that have helped our industry continue to advance. The opportunity to work closely with NEDA has given me a deep appreciation of the power of collaboration in championing the value and contributions of authorized distribution from a local to a global level.”

NEDA is a not-for-profit trade association representing supplier authorized distributors of electronic components and their manufacturer-suppliers. Dedicated to enhancing the authorized distributor-manufacturer relationship, NEDA represents companies involved in the distribution of electronic components, computers and computer peripheral components and test, measurement and control equipment parts. 

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