Liebert's Bauer Focuses on Rate of Change in Data Center Speech
Bob Bauer, group vice president, Emerson Network Power, raised the issue of the changing pace of data center change in a keynote address delivered at Emerson's AdaptiveXchange 2007 event in Baltimore, MD, on November 29th. He also shared new industry survey results during his speech, which was heard by approximately 1000 attendees.
Significantly, Bauer distinguished between reduced energy consumption and increased energy efficiency, pointing out that no one runs a zero-emissions data center. The difference between the two goals is significant for data center owners and operators not only because of rising energy costs but also because the data center floor spacing savings expected from trends such as virtualization can be absorbed in three years at a modest 6% compound annual growth rate. At the same time, the data center space becomes more complex as redeployment of servers, rather than reduction in  numbers contributes to a more diverse data center.
Smaller and mid-sized data centers have begun to experience many of these challenges regarding availability and flexibility as large companies, but must deal with those issues with more limited resources.
“The accelerating rate of change is putting pressure on IT managers and forcing them to deal with issues such as rising heat density, demands for 7x24 availability, and the need for greater flexibility and scalability,” said Bauer. “That is elevating the need for a dynamic critical infrastructure that allows an organization to manage continuous change without disrupting business processes.”
The accelerated pace of change in the data center was echoed in new results from Emerson’s fall 2007 industry survey conducted by the Data Center Users’ Group (DCUG), a group of influential data center, IT and facility managers formed by Emerson Network Power. The survey covered a variety of data center topics, including power management, precision cooling, energy efficiency, technology implementation and consolidation.
Results confirmed that density is a major IT concern, with the majority of respondents citing either heat density or power density as the biggest issue they are facing. The other top concerns, in order of importance, were energy efficiency, availability, space constraints, adequate monitoring/data center management capabilities, and technology changes.

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Courtesy of Data Center Dynamics, the first 15 data center end users/operators to email dan.scarbrough@datacenterdynamics.com and provide contact details will receive free tickets to the Data Center Dynamics Dallas event. Full price for the tickets is $495. Please reference Mission Critical in the subject line. Full details are available at www.datacenterdynamics.com/dallas07.

Alcan Packaging Selects Flywheel System
Alcan Packaging selected Active Power’s one-megawatt CleanSource UPS system flywheel-based UPS (uninterruptible power supply) system to protect its production process against electrical disturbances.  at Alcan’s operation located in Tulsa, OK. The system protects Alcan’s plastic bag manufacturing process and extrusion lines from power disturbances.
“We produce approximately one million plastic bags a week using extremely sensitive manufacturing equipment,” said Frank Genay, project engineer at Alcan Packaging. “Power sags, fluctuations and outages can wreak havoc on our extrusion lines bringing them to a halt. In 2006, the facility experienced approximately 30 micro outages, lasting only a few seconds; however, a majority of these caused our extrusion lines to go completely offline. Within the first 30 days of deploying CleanSource, the system recorded approximately 36 events, but with no interruption to the lines. We haven’t needed to replace any of our variable frequency drives. The system is a virtual work horse taking hit after hit while providing seamless and continuous power.”
 

Corsair announced the latest addition to its power supply lineup: the Corsair TX Series. Corsair has engineered the TX Series to be a family of high-wattage, high-performance power supplies. The Corsair TX Series of power supplies delivers optimal performance through the use of advanced technology and industrial-grade components typically found only with more expensive power supplies. With design features, such as a dedicated single +12-V rail, the TX Series offers the maximum compatibility with the latest system components. Energy-efficient circuitry capable of delivering greater than 80-percent efficiency ratings across 20, 50, and 100-percent load conditions make the TX Series of Power Supply Units (PSUs) ideal for high-end PCs using dual-graphics cards for both gaming and professional audio and video applications.

Schneider Electric  announced a web-enabled Ethernet communications card option for its compact Square D PowerLogic PM800 series power meters, designed to optimize the monitoring of electrical installations in industrial, commercial or critical power environments. The new Transparent Ready Ethernet port offers fast access to a meter’s three-phase energy and power quality data using a standard Web browser, e-mail, or power and energy management software. Facility and operations personnel can use the power meters as part of a complete PowerLogic solution to help reduce energy-related costs and avoid power disturbances or other conditions that put equipment and productivity at risk.

Emerson Network Power announced the availability of a new version of the 6-kVA Liebert GXT2 UPS that is designed specifically for 208-V applications.
Configurable as a tower or rack-mount model, the compact 6-kVA Liebert GXT2 delivers on-line double-conversion UPS protection for up to 4,200 W of equipment in just 5U of rack space. The 208-V Liebert GXT2 increases the ability of IT and network managers to adapt to the requirements of new applications and IT equipment, including servers, routers and switches, that can handle either 120 or 208-V power with no modifications necessary.