HP StorageWorks 2/16V ISS Technology Update Volume 8, Number 7 - Page 7

ISS Technology Update Meet the Expert-Alan Goodrum Volume 8, Number 7 Alan Goodrum is a Fellow with HP Industry Standard Servers (ISS). His career with HP actually began in 1985 with Compaq and over the last several years, his primary focus has been power management both in servers and the data center as a whole. Today, power management is arguably the "hotest" area of the server industry, but it hasn't always been. Dwight Barron, Alan's manager says, "Alan started working on power efficiency of servers long before it was recognized as one of the most critical problems to be solved by the computer industry." Power efficiency appears to be a perfect venue for Alan's skills because "he understands and solves problems by simultaneously working at multiple levels of abstraction and detail," according to Dwight. A solid foundation Alan's experience has taught him that the spiritual aspects of life are the most important. Most of his activities outside of work revolve around his church. He teaches a weekly adult Bible study class and visits nursing homes around the Tomball area as part of a group of volunteers. Several years ago, he discovered that residents of nursing homes appreciate a smile, a kind word, and a prayer. He also discovered that "once you have a solid foundation based on who you are and where you want to go, all the other things just seem to fit into place." In the beginning, there was math and science His enjoyment of math, science, and problem solving drove him to become an engineer. He liked the challenge of understanding the tools of mathematicians and scientists and then applying those tools to build things that actually work. Name: Alan Goodrum Title: Fellow, HP Industry Standard Servers Years at HP: 24 University: BSEE 1975 University of Houston MSEE 1985 University of Houston Patents: 26 His favorite accomplishments Alan's favorite accomplishment to date is Dynamic Power Capping. Several years ago, he was on the team that conceived the technical possibility of allowing system administrators to manage server power consumption. Dynamic Power Capping controls the maximum power that a server can consume, allowing administrators to fit more servers into the same power and cooling space. The goal of Dynamic Power Capping is not to save energy but to provide predictability in server power consumption. Predictability allows for better planning, which can delay enormously expensive data center expansions. Alan helped with early testing of the power capping concept; nurtured it through a complex joint development process with Intel; drove the detailed functional specifications; and finally saw it launched as a key Thermal Logic Technology in ProLiant G6 servers. Alan had a similar sense of satisfaction during the development of the PCI-X bus. PCI-X extended the bandwidth of the popular PCI bus to 133 MT/s (megatransfers per second) and later to 266 MT/s. The concept was first proposed by some key ASIC designers at Compaq. And although other companies had proposed abandoning the PCI bus, a coalition of Compaq, HP, and IBM eventually took the idea to the PCI SIG. Alan chaired the committee that published the specification. Eventually, Compaq servers were the first to market with PCI-X slots. Alan noted that for several years a major competitor used our PCI-X ASIC inside their servers but had to put a heatsink on top of it to cover up the Compaq logo. He has a strong customer focus Alan believes that customer input is critical, but finding the right solution can be difficult because often, customers can describe only their problems, not the solutions. He says that the key is to talk to enough customers to be able to anticipate the kinds of solutions they will find useful. Dwight believes that Alan's strength resides in understanding the business constraints that customers face in adopting new solutions and then helping them work through those issues. 7