Chief Technology Officer, First Data Corporation (NYSE: FDC)
You have reached the personal blog of Michael Manos. Often described as “a scale technology leader with a masochistic thirst for difficult problems,” Mike is currently the Chief Technology Officer at First Data, using technology and his own particular brand of chaos to drive the turn-around of one of the worlds largest Payment and #Fintech companies. He previously led Technology efforts in the successful turn-around and technology modernization at AOL before its eventual purchase by Verizon. At Microsoft, he led the creation and largest expansion of technology infrastructure in the company’s history building out a global technology platform and data center footprint in support of the Online, internal and Azure Cloud Platform. With other Senior Technology Roles including technology leadership roles at Walt Disney, Nokia, and a host leadership and board memberships of start-ups, he has enjoyed a career full of terrifying moments and monsters.
He holds multiple Cloud and Technology based patents and is an active voice in the cloud, data center, and large scale Internet technology communites.
Michael can be contacted via email at: mike@scayle.net
PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DISCLAIMER: The views and commentary on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent my current or previous employers.
LooseBolts 
Hi Mike,
I’m studying MSc in IT (Part time), in Dublin Ireland, I am carrying out research in the use of Web 2.0 applications for supporting virtual IT Operation teams , in particular things like mashups and collaboration tools like wikis, mainly in a data centre environment. Is this something Microsoft have reasearched or currently use?
Regards
Derek
Michael-
I loved your packaged data center concept.
As they say, ‘and now for something completely different’
Perhaps some lateral thinking can increase the MIPS/(Meter^2-Watt) that must be the asymptotic measure of data center capability.
We are a Windows Embedded Partner, and recently developed a board based on the Intel Atom CPU. We are running 1.7 Ghz, decompressing HD Video at 20% load and consuming only 3 Watts. With power management active (the Atom has 6 levels) power can drop another 50%.
Here is a simple benchmark:
Click to access Intel_Eurotech_Industrial_Control.pdf
So here is the lateral thinking bit- I seems the the MIPS/Watt value is minimized a the low power end of the spectrum. (We ave lots of benchmarks that seem to suggest this). If some new OS (Lets call it ‘Red Dog”) could use the power management, it would be even better. Finally, we are very good at board layout and we could crams a whole bunch of these tiny chips on a blade or other form factor.
If you want to explore filling a few cabinets in packaged data center with huge numbers of computing cores, contact me- you have the email-
Lawrence Ricci
http://www.EmbeddedInsider.com
Hello Michael,
If you are looking for localizations to build Data Center in the West of Europe, contact me…
See you.
Stéphane Marchal
Mike,
I tried to sumbit a comment yesterday, but I couldn’t find it.
What is MS doing with its surplus data center equipment (servers, routers, switches, etc)? Reselling them could generate huge revenue with little cost. It is also the Green way to get rid of old gear. Thanks
Hunts
Hunter,
We do indeed move our gear to the aftermarket once it has expired in its useful life for us. Microsoft has had a long and successful run at PC and Server Recycling since before I came to the company.
Mike
Mike,
Thanks for the response. I created and manage a global disposal (resell and donate) program and I’m always curious what other companies are doing. It’s surprising how many companies don’t do anything and are missing out on a cash cow. I really enjoy reading about the cool stuff you guys are doing with your data centers. Thanks again and best of luck.
Hey Mike:
We met briefly at a datacenter dynamics show last year – I’ve been on the board at DCP and know you’ve been chatting with Dean N lately – wanted to reach out and reconnect.
Talk soon,
rd
PS – other website is http://www.6connect.net
Mike,
Check out what we are doing for managing the thermal loads for containerized data centers;
http://www.powersystemscooling.com
We’ve developed a very efficient heat pump with COP’s around 100. We can move the heat from the server rack to where ever it needs to go.
Dale
Dear Michael.
Since all the energy is recoverable (less losses) , surely to caprure the rejected energy with water cooled technology and reuse the wast heat should be the initiative in reducing carbon and energy costs within Data Centre Design. Please visit http://www.ecologicdata.eu .
Hi Michael,
Congratulations on the move. I have been reading your blog for quite some time. I would love to show you around our facility if you’re ever in Vegas. Feel free to contact me at any point. Once again, congratulations!
Richard
Mike,
In written form it is “AOL” not “Aol”.
Good luck,
James
Thanks for that, James….New role = new rules. 🙂
hey Mike,
I noticed the AOL network has been shutting down once per day and this can get expensive for people like me who have an expensive bill from Verizon. Is this going to continue?
thanks
Mueller
Mueller – I havent seen or heard anything like this but am more than happy to dig into this for you. When you say shutting down once per day what are you referring to? Are you a classic dial-up user? Any additional details would be helpful and I will get my teams on it immediately.
Mike