Data centers are becoming complex, highly automated computing dynamos that are essential for all forms of large-scale and distributed computing. Recent advances in both the hardware and software aspects of data centers have drawn considerable attention to the needs for corresponding advances in development of high-performance analytics, automation, and control methods specifically aimed for the needs of large-scale data centers, and to the needs for continual improvement in support for cloud software stacks, grids, hyper-converged and container-based infrastructures and automation of associated methods. It is no longer the case that data centers can be designed or operated without deep understanding of the specific workflows to be supported.

This workshop will provide a forum to discuss fundamental issues on real-time operation of highly automated data centers, including methods to provision, debug, analyze and control data center equipment and to improve how machines are operated, monitored, and used. Topics to be covered will include how software stacks are deployed and provisioned, how data is processed and transferred in real time from the data center to the cloud as well as challenges in design and implementation of novel automated data center architectures and systems. New methods, techniques, hardware, software, and standards for data center automation and control will be discussed and in scope.

With the development of various large-scale cloud and Big Data processing applications for handling real-time processing of vast amounts data, optimized hardware deployments are becoming among the most important issues in cloud computing. Government, industrial and academic institutions have already begun to pay close attention to how to efficiently process large amounts of data from all sources to be integrated, filtered, and analyzed in real-time using automated cloud computing data processing technologies. These architectures increasingly require customized and highly automated data center designs that are closely coupled with the needs of the applications to be supported. Further advancers to the design and operation of data center equipment to optimize components for operation in large-scale data centers will also be covered.