Uptime Institute Says Data Center Energy Growth May Exceed EPA's Forecast
Uptime Institute research shows data center energy consumption in the top quartile of sites researched grew 20-30 percent annually in 2006 and 2007. This far exceeds the EPA's prediction of 9 percent growth from 2006 to 2010. Available online are preliminary findings of this new research, which were presented March 13 at the Ziff-Davis 2008 Data Center Summit, in a McKinsey & Company/Uptime Institute report titled Revolutionizing Data Center Energy Efficiency to be released April 30 at the Institute Symposium: Green Enterprise Computing, and by Ken Brill during his presentation at a Mission Critical webinar on March 18th.
Ken Brill also discusses these unexpected findings in a podcast on the Uptime Insitute's site. they validate the Institute's Economic Meltdown of Moore's Law model, and the positive impact participation in the Institute Symposium 2008 can have on your organization and the industry's data center energy consumption crisis.

Energy Star Plans Data Center Stakeholder Teleconference
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be hosting an online stakeholder discussion on Wednesday, April 2 from 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. EDT.  The objectives of the meeting include:

• To encourage continued discussions among industry members and provide updates between draft specification releases and larger stakeholder meetings
• To summarize stakeholder comments received on the Draft 1 specification to date and provide EPA's initial perspective
• To provide additional clarification on proposed requirements, overall objectives, next steps, and upcoming opportunities for further discussion

The Draft 1 specification is available electronically. Meeting notes will be posted to the Energy Star web site within 2 weeks of the meeting.  
 

HP Offerings Speed Data Center Transformation from Standalone Assets

HP announced a set of products and services designed to help its customers transform their data centers from a standalone collection of physical assets into a virtual and adaptive infrastructure designed to rapidly meet changing business needs. Research conducted on behalf of HP shows that more than one-third of chief information officers believe that in two to five years their data centers will be unable to meet the rapidly growing demand for business services and applications.
To meet this demand, HP is providing businesses with the technology tools and strategies needed to address top data center initiatives: energy efficiency, automation, virtualization, consolidation and business continuity.
HP infrastructure additions include new services, plus a powerful HP ProLiant server:

• Critical Facilities services - As a result of its February acquisition of EYP Mission Critical Facilities, HP is expanding its Data Center Services offering with three new critical facilities services focused on consulting, design and assurance
• Data Center Consolidation services - These include design, transition and support services to help customers reduce the number of their facilities
• Data Center Virtualization services - The HP virtualization portfolio has been enhanced with new design, support and education services that help customers create a virtual infrastructure from their physical technology assets
• Adaptive Infrastructure as a Service (AIaaS) - HP AIaaS offers customers access to HP owned and managed data centers that deliver an optimized platform for Microsoft Exchange, SAP applications and other critical business applications.

• Insight Dynamics - VSE - This is the industry's first software to analyze and optimize physical and virtual resources in the same way.
  
• Operations Orchestration enhancements - New integrations extend comprehensive automation across all physical and virtual infrastructures.

News Briefs

BICSI CONNECT, the online interactive learning network for information transport systems (ITS) professionals, is expanding its educational offerings with three new courses starting in April.

• Conquering F.E.A.R. A Simplified Approach to Data Center Layout and Design familiarizes ITS professionals with a technique known as a Footprint-Energy-Arrangement-Redundancy (F.E.A.R)
  
• Confined Spaces is an introductory level course that focuses on the characteristics of confined spaces, acceptable entry conditions, and protective equipment
  
• Network Security is an entry level course focusing on the technologies used to safeguard vital equipment, software, data files and operations on organizational networks

Geared to help ITS professionals earn continuing education credits (CECs) through online courses, BICSI CONNECT is a user-friendly educational solution that provides students the flexibility of 24/7 Web-based training, at their own pace, without incurring travel expenses and at a reduced cost compared to traditional classes.
 
Applied Math Modeling Inc. announced today that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with ANSYS, Inc. for the distribution, support, and ongoing development of CoolSim, a product focused on modeling the thermal environment of data centers. CoolSim is a hosted product that utilizes advanced ANSYS CFD solvers to compute the temperature, pressure and airflow within a data center. www.coolsimaudit.com for more information.

APC launches redesigned partner programs created to align key industry trends with business opportunities for its channel partners. The redesign began with global focus groups amongst partners and leading edge users of technology, and the conclusion was both quick and clear: the challenges customers and partners are facing in regards to power and cooling and overall energy efficiency are simply unprecedented. New tools, techniques and technologies are required, including new ways for the vendor community to optimize higher learning requirements and shorter sales cycles. APC also developed a tiered certification program that provides partners with an opportunity to develop sales and engineering competencies in power, cooling, security and environmental management. Officials said the improved program provides partners with an opportunity to differentiate themselves by providing a more reliable and highly available infrastructure for the technology their customers are deploying.
APC's newly enhanced programs have four levels: Registered, Select, Premier, and Elite. The programs offer clear and differentiated paths allowing partners to leverage pricing and promotional benefits, gain full access to its network of qualified and dedicated solution engineers, and ongoing support and visibility to where the market is going and where partners can take their business.

Emerson Network Power announced its 2008 webcast schedule for its Business Innovators Series. The series  offers information that helps IT and data center managers maintain and improve IT system availability while optimizing total ownership costs.
The Business Innovators Series, sponsored by Emerson Network Power and Liebert Products and Services, brings together leading technology experts to address key issues facing IT and business management. The series will include the following web casts:

• May 21 - Controlling Power and Cooling 'Creep': Optimizing Efficiency and Maximizing Availability Through Critical Systems Monitoring
• July 16 - Anticipating Growth: Modular, Scalable Power Protection and Distribution
• Sept. 17 - Maximizing Performance and Efficiency with High-Density Cooling

APC announced the availability of parallel capability for its Smart-UPS VT three-phase power protection line. Providing customers with greater flexibility for capacity growth and redundancy, this new functionality makes the Smart-UPS VT ideal for small data centers, large retail stores, regional offices, wiring closets, and applications with dense power requirements. Customers can now easily expand their power protection system by connecting up to four Smart-UPS VT units in a parallel configuration in any combination of capacity and redundancy.  
The Smart-UPS VT family, currently available in 10-40 kVA in 400/230 V, offers centralized uninterruptible power protection. Its patented cool-running, three-stage inverter technology delivers high efficiency even when operating at less than 30% load, which is typical for UPS running in parallel.  The system's scalable runtime and modular design allows for easy expansion as necessary.

Panduit introduced its Net-Access Overhead Cable Routing System to protect, route, and manage large quantities of data cable into and out of Net-Access Cabinets. This system quickly mounts to the top of the cabinets and easily integrates with other cable pathways used throughout the data center for reduced installation costs.
The rigid, smooth molded design features:
6-in. (150mm) high sidewalls and 3-in. (75mm) bend radius control to support and physically protect cables for improved network reliability. Multiple cable spillouts allow cables to be routed at the front, middle, and rear of the cabinets to provide increased routing versatility.

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