Microsoft's Brian Janous to present 'Resilient Thinking in System Design' March 14

Brian Janous, general manager of Energy Strategy for Microsoft, will present "Resilient Thinking in System Design: from the power grid to cloud infrastructure" from 4-5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 14 as part of the Institute for Energy Studies Speaker Series.​

This Lecture is free and open to the public.

Janous will discuss resilient systems design in the context of electricity grid and the datacenter networks. This lecture will be through the lens of the history of the electricity grid and how it's evolved (and evolving) in response to new technology, regulations and market architecture. He will also discuss the parallels to the datacenter industry (the electricity grid of the 21st century) and how we can apply learnings across this and various other spheres. In addition, he includes a broad overview of the work that Microsoft is doing in this sphere.

Janous is responsible for leading the development and execution of Microsoft’s global data center energy strategy. These data centers provide the foundational cloud infrastructure for Microsoft’s online and cloud services for consumers and businesses worldwide. His responsibilities include oversight of all energy supply agreements, renewable energy purchasing, distributed generation, and strategic partnerships to ensure a power supply that is reliable and sustainable. As Director of the Energy Strategy and Research team, he creates end-to-end strategies that will drive innovations in the next generation of cloud data centers, and supports efforts to establish energy market policies that will foster end-user innovation.

Janous joined Microsoft in 2011 after 12 years in the energy industry where he worked as a senior consultant at Brubaker & Associates, assisting Fortune 500 companies with energy procurement, policy, and sustainability matters. Janous has an MBA from Webster University and bachelor's degrees in both Finance and Philosophy from the University of Missouri.