Introduction

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            Calls for Papers: International Journal of Information

            Technologies and Systems Approach (IJITSA)

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Special Issue On: Critical Management and
            Technical
            Issues of Data Center Systems

          Submission Due Date

            September 30, 2017

          Website:

https://www.igi-global.com/calls-for-papers-special/international-journal-information-technologies-systems/1098

          Introduction

          Data Centers are installations specifically built with the
          primary purpose

          to house and provide the adequate environmental conditions
          (space, power,

          cooling, and physical security) for the computer and
          telecommunication

          equipment used in an organization (Snevely, 2002). However, by
          extension

          Data Center Systems can be defined as the whole system rooted
          in a

          physical Data Center installation that includes the human
          resource, the

          service, the financial, the procurement and the operations
          sub-systems.

          Data Centers (and Data Center Systems) have become in relevant

          organizational assets for generating valuable information
          resources and

          providing Information Technology and Communication (ICT)
          functionalities

          to local and remote internal or external end users.
          Furthermore, in the

          last decade, with the explosion of web-based and
          inter-organizational

          systems for these type of end users, in large and medium-sized

          organizations with international operations, the Data Centers
          Systems can

          be considered as mission-critical assets whose availability,
          performance,

          power efficiency, security, continuity, and overall
          effectiveness must
          be

          guaranteed in order to avoid critical downtimes (Arregoces
          & Portolani,

          2003; Bilal et al., 2013). Industry reports (Siemon, 2005;
          ENP, 2011)

          indicate that 1-hr downtime costs in Data Centers installation
          varies from

          US $10,000 to US $6,000,000 to organizations providing
          services such as:

          ATM, cellular services, air line reservations, on-line
          shopping, package

          shipping, credit card authorizations, and brokerage
          operations. Additional

          to direct financial costs, organizations can also suffer
          negative impacts

          from a data center’s downtime on: image by business
          disruption, end-user

          productivity, IT productivity, and third-party operational
          delay (ENP,

          2011). Thus, Data Centers installations are currently key
          organizational

          assets, and their high value proposition in ensuring business
          continuity

          operations has been highlighted.

          However, the planning, design, implementation, operation and
          control,

          maintenance, evolution, and disposal (when the useful data
          center’s life

          has been reached) of data centers, in modern times represents
          a complex

          intertwined net of processes (Holtsnider & Jaffe, 2012).
          The explosion
          of

          ICT has introduced both critical technical engineering
          problems and

          challenges for Data Centers managers (Greenberg et al., 2006;
          Daim et al.,

          2009; Alaraifi et al., 2013; Covas et al., 2013). In turn, the
          economic,

          and socio-political environmental international issues have
          also

          introduced managerial challenges for Data Center managers
          regarding green

          IT initiatives, IT service management initiatives, IT
          managerial cost

          reduction, provision of effective valued IT services, timely
          release of
          IT

          services, and assuring a high IT service availability and
          continuity

          status (Conger et al., 2008; Galup et al., 2009). In
          particular, the

          conceptualization of Data Centers as service systems (Mora et
          al., 2009;

          Törhönen, 2014) and the link with the design of IT services
          (Mora et al.,

          2015) as well as their final implementation in Data Centers is
          missing
          in

          the literature.

          Furthermore, traditionally the knowledge sources on data
          center processes

          have come from the ICT industry. Thus there is a wide
          knowledge gap

          between the academic and industry sectors on critical
          management and

          technical issues on Data Centers at present. This is due to
          the explosion

          of ICT, the high costs for having laboratories type Data
          Centers in the

          academic environments, the lack of textbooks on Data Centers,
          and the

          scarcity of undergraduate and graduate courses on these topics
          (Schaeffer,

          1981; Gusev et al., 2014; Memari et al., 2014). Nevertheless,
          we consider

          that knowledge with rigor and relevance must be produced from
          both

          academia and industry. ICT academia has published research on
          IT service

          management process frameworks, cloud computing performance
          models (Bilal

          et al., 2014), and other related issues. On the other hand,
          ICT industry

          has advanced with green IT metrics (Daim et al., 2009; Loos et
          al., 2011;

          Wang and Khan, 2011), maturity models (Singh et al., 2011) and
          best

          practices for software development such as DevOps (Kim et al.,
          2015; Stier

          et al., 2015) where data center engineers are included for a
          fast and

          correct software release (Pollard et al., 2010; Kliazovich et
          al., 2012).

          Hence, updated, integrative, scientific and practical
          knowledge is

          required to address critical managerial and technical issues
          on planning,

          designing, implementing, operating and controlling,
          maintaining, evolving,

          and disposal of Data Centers Systems.

          Objective

          This special issue pursues to encourage in the Information
          System

          community the interest and engagement in doing high quality
          research on

          critical management and technical issues found, lived and
          expected to be

          solved in thousands of Data Centers spread in worldwide
          (mainly in

          well-developed economies).

          Recommended Topics

          Topics to be addressed in this special issue include (but are
          not limited

          to) the following ones:

Conceptual studies on:

                 Fundamental concepts on Data Centers
          from deep literature review

                 Classifications of Data Centers (business
          vs scientific; centralized

                 vs distributed, tiers I, II, III or
          IV; private vs cloud vs ISP)

                     Data Centers Architectures

                     Organizational Designs
          for Data Centers Systems

                     Data Centers as Service
          Systems

                     Taxonomies of Services
          delivered by Data Centers Systems

                     Value of Data Centers
          Systems

                     Methodologies for Designing
          Data Center Systems

                     Methodologies for Designing
          IT Services in Data Centers Systems

                     Literature review on
          ICT Tools for Data Centers Systems

                     Risk Management in Data
          Centers Systems

                     Data Centers Metrics

                     Data Centers Maturity
          Models

                     Data Centers Standards
          (TIA 942, Uptime Institute Framework, IEEE 493,

                 ISO/IEC 27000, NIST standards, among
          others)

                     Simulation Models on
          Data Centers Systems

          Empirical Studies on:

                     Implementation of Best
          Data Centers Practices (ITSM frameworks, standards)

                     Critical Success Factors
          for Implementing Data Centers

                     Economic Benefits of
          Data Centers

                     Impacts of ICT Tools
          for Managing Data Centers

                     Risks Factors found in
          Data Centers Systems

                     Impacts of Data Centers
          Disaster Recovery Plans

                     Quality of IT Services
          in Data Centers

                     Emergent Practices in
          Data Centers Systems (Green ICT, DevOps, Cloud,

Business Analytics tools, among others)

          Submission Procedure

          Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit papers for
          this

          special theme issue on Critical Management and Technical
          Issues on Data

          Centers Systems on or before September 30th, 2017. Prospective
          authors

          should note that only original and previously unpublished
          articles will
          be

          considered. INTERESTED AUTHORS MUST CONSULT THE JOURNAL’S
          GUIDELINES FOR

          MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS at

http://www.igi-global.com/journals/guidelines-for-submission.aspx

          PRIOR TO

          SUBMISSION. All article submissions will be forwarded to at
          least 3

          members of the Editorial Review Board of the journal for
          double-blind,

          peer review. Final decision regarding
          acceptance/revision/rejection will

          be based on the reviews received from the reviewers. All
          submissions must

          be forwarded electronically through the eEditorial Discovery

          All submissions and inquiries should be directed to the
          attention of:

          Guest Editors

          Prof. Dr. Jorge Marx Gómez, Carl von Ossietzky Universität
          Oldenburg, Germany

          Prof. Dr. Manuel Mora, Autonomous University of
          Aguascalientes, Mexico

          Prof. Dr. Rory O’Connor, Dublin City University, Ireland

          International Journal of Information Technologies and Systems
          Approach

          (IJITSA)

Emails: jorge.marx.gomez@uni-oldenburg.de;
          dr.manuel.mora.uaa@gmail.com;

          rory.oconnor@dcu.ie

Betreff:	[wkwi] CFP on Critical Management and Technical Issues of Data Center Systems, InternationalJournal of Information Technologies and Systems Approach (IJITSA), Extended
Datum:	Sat, 16 Sep 2017 16:11:47 +0200 (CEST)
Von:	jorge.marx.gomez@uni-oldenburg.de
Antwort an:	postmaster@seda.wiai.uni-bamberg.de