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A Big Month Underway
I have already received calls and emails from readers who found our just-released Summer 2008 issue compelling reading. This reader response is not a tribute to me or the
Mission Critical staff. We are here mostly as gatekeepers; the true authors of any success we experience are our
editorial board-a true band of experts, the columnists who track all parts of the industry for us, and you our readers.
Our magazine serves a vital industry, and all its participants seem inclined to play a role in helping solve technical problems plaguing data centers. You are the reason I'm excited about our
September 10th webinar on UPS selection and operation and industry events, including the
Digital Power Forum 2008, Interop 08,
and
Data Center Dynamics's Chicago event, all scheduled for this month. It is at events like these that I encounter the energy that characterizes this industry and try to keep up with changing events. This month I will be at the Data Center Dynamics event.
Many of you know that I often attend this group's events. Please look for me there and share what's on your mind. To learn more about this event or any of these other shows, read further down the newsletter for more information about this event or simply follow the hyperlinks.
Kevin HeslinEditor,
Mission Critical Subscribe
to Mission Critical today!
I'm also very happy to announce that we have begun developing the
Mission Critical Online Buyer's Guide. We are looking forward to make this directory as complete as possible. Just
click here to be listed.
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Emerson Announces New Data Center for Its Global OperationsEmerson Network Power
has begun construction on an innovative data center at Emerson's corporate headquarters. The data center will showcase a full suite of the leading, energy-efficient technologies from Emerson Network Power. The 35,000-square-foot data center, set to open next summer as a technology showcase center for current and potential customers, will support the $22 billion company's global network, including more than 250 worldwide manufacturing and engineering operations. The new state-of-the-art facility will feature numerous Emerson Network Power products from brands such as
Aperture, ASCO Power Technologies,
Knurr, and Liebert
interacting with technologies from the world's leading IT companies. The data center will have three layers of redundancy, with dual utility feeds, redundant UPS protection, and onsite generators. Additionally, the data center will be scalable, with redundant dual-bus power capacity starting at 1,350 kW and ultimate UPS systems scalability up to 4,050 kW across dual paths. Cooling capacity will be upwards of 300 W per square foot.
Based on the data center architecture and technology infrastructure, Emerson anticipates receiving LEED Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Fox Architects, the project's lead architect, estimates that the design will provide Emerson an energy savings of 17.5 percent as compared to a traditional data center. The energy-saving attributes include daylighting features, a reduced building footprint, and
one of the largest roof-top solar arrays used by a data center, which will provide 100 kW power to the IT load. The data center is part of a global data center consolidation effort at Emerson that will integrate the operations of more than 100 data centers into four facilities.
Runtime, Capacity Dominant in Battery ChoicesAn engineering and marketing survey conducted by Nexergy, Inc.
identified runtime and battery capacity as the most important factors in selecting battery chemistry and technology in portable products. Additionally the survey indicated a lack of familiarity and understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the many battery
chemistries available on the market today. The survey was distributed via email in August 2008 to approximately 3,000 Nexergy customers and prospects. Runtime and capacity were the most important elements of battery performance among both design engineers as well as marketers, according to the survey. Cost ranked fifth most important on a list of seven criteria by engineers; among marketers it was even less important, just sixth out of seven. Rounding out the most important factors after runtime, in order of priority, were safety, cycle life, power, cost, size and weight.
"Runtime, cycle life and power are at the beginning of nearly every discussion we have with our customers," noted Phil Glandon, Nexergy president and CEO. "Based on what we see in the survey data, engineers and designers believe that with the proper cell selection and battery electronics they can create a competitive advantage for their products with a better battery pack." |
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FAA Selects EDSA Power Analytics Software The Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) selected EDSA Micro Corp. (www.edsa.com) to provide a power
analytics electrical power infrastructure protection system for
mission-critical facilities nationwide. The selection is part of a
five-year "Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity" (IDIQ) award, under
which EDSA will deploy its Paladin Live platform at major air
traffic control facilities across the United States. The total value
of the contract is expected to exceed $8 million over the life of the
agreement. "The financial consequences of an outage somewhere in
the FAA network- not to mention the disruption of business and
personal travel - can be severe," said Mark A. Ascolese, Chairman and
CEO of EDSA. "The direct and indirect financial toll can quickly reach
millions of dollars in higher fuel expenses, lost landing revenue,
increased employee costs, and spoiled perishable cargo...not to mention
the disruption of airline schedules, passengers' missed business
meetings, canceled vacations, and so on. This award by the FAA is
evidence of their commitment to passenger safety and convenience."  In an unrelated incident that highlighted the importance of reliable FAA operations, media reports blamed a software glitch for causing widespread travel delays of up to 2-1/2 hours on August 26th. According to Eweek, the FAA runs an antiquated system that consists of two 20-year-old
redundant mainframe configurations--one in Georgia, one in Utah. The
award is part of the FAA's continuing efforts to increase air safety by
alleviating potential electrical power problems in its facilities,
which are responsible for controlling the 17 million square miles of
America's airspace. As the FAA operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
365 days a year, and moves more than 760 million passengers and 40
billion tons of freight a year through its airspace, the agency must
have a reliable power system. Paladin Live will be deployed in FAA
facilities nationwide to help accurately predict potential power
problems in their formative stages - while there is still time to
affect repairs, avert an outage, and prevent a disruption in flight
operations or safety. Initially, Paladin Live is being deployed
in two types of critical National Air Space (NAS) facilities: Air Route
Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs) and Terminal Radar Approach Control
facilities (TRACONs.) While individual control towers are responsible
for air traffic arriving and departing from a specific airport, ARTCCs
and TRACONs are responsible for traffic between airports in a
geographical area: one facility can service as many as 60 airports and
manage over 500,000 square miles of airspace. As such, these
facilities have enormous electrical power requirements - for computing,
communications, navigation, air traffic control, weather, and other
systems on their premises - so the FAA is constantly researching the
most advanced technologies to protect its electrical power
infrastructure. 
Datacenter Dynamics Announces Chicago 2008 Conference Program
Conference organizers Datacenter Dynamics unveiled the the program for its upcoming Chicago event, the fifth of seven in their global conference series, to be held September 16th at the Hilton. Future 2008 events will be held in Miami and Dallas (see the
calendar). The one-day technical and networking event includes 36 vendors and three technical tracks as well as approximately 500 end user attendees. Topics to be covered include containerized data centers, automation, and greening, with speakers such as Microsoft's Michael Manos, OSIsoft's Martin Otterson, and Deutsche Bank's Juan Caballero.
Please contact Datacenter Dynamics to register.
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News Briefs
The Uptime Institute
has extended its 50 percent off discount rate to early enrollees until Friday, September 5th. The discount enables the first 100 registrants to attend the 2009 Institute Symposium, LEAN, CLEAN &
GREEN, the Global Energy Future of Enterprise IT and the Data Center,
at Hilton New York Hotel, at half the regular registration prices ($1297.50). Only 18 seats remained available at this price for the April 13-16th event at the time of this announcement. In his most
recent Forbes column, Institute Executive Director Ken Brill made
provocative claims about the usefulness of PUE measures, a topic that's
sure to surface during Symposium. Early registrants also assist in shaping the content of the Symposium by
being part of the Institute Symposium First 100 Focus Group--an email,
web survey, and web-conference advisory group
Onyx Power, Inc. a leading designer and manufacturer of custom power magnetics and power distribution equipment for the data center, telecommunications and alternative energy industries, has been acquired by Richmond, VA-based Power Distribution, Inc ("PDI"), a
Bertram Capital portfolio company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
When the Cedar River crested near 32 feet in mid-June, it reached its highest point in recorded history. In addition to breaking records, the flood shattered homes, businesses and lives. Many parts of the area were under nearly 10 feet of water and a total of 1,300 city blocks lost power due to the heavy flooding. Cummins Power Generation
supplied 35 Rental Power units to 18 companies, helping Cedar Rapids power its recovery with more than 25 MW of emergency electricity.
Kohler Co
.'s Global Power Group, a global leader in engines and power generator systems, has acquired Uninterruptible Power Supplies Ltd. (UPSL) - a leading UPS (uninterruptible power supply) system and service provider for the United Kingdom- from management and from Barclays Ventures, the leading lower mid-market private equity house.
Managed Data Holdings, L.L.C., a leading operator of state-of-the-art data centers, announced today that it has acquired Oak Brook-based Stargate, a local data center operator in suburban Chicago offering colocation, managed servers, and managed services.
Future Facilities and Tubbesing Sales Company's subsidiary Data Center Planners
(DCP) have announced a partnership aimed at providing improved data center cooling solutions to companies in Texas and Oklahoma. DCP will model and simulate data centers using Future Facilities 6SigmaDC product suite. DCP will also sell and support 6SigmaDC.
Rackable Systems Inc. announced that Zoho, a provider of a comprehensive suite of online collaborative
productivity applications and business applications and a division of
AdventNet Inc, has deployed patented Eco-logical, half-depth servers
from Rackable Systems. These servers reportedly host Zoho's extensive suite of online
software, including spreadsheets, wikis, CRM, and project management
applications. The deployment by Rackable consisted of multiple 44U cabinets with dc-powered servers running low-wattage Intel Quad Core processors, and
is spread across multiple physical locations. Zoho estimates that this configuration has saved them about 20 to 25 percent
in power and cooling costs over the past 18 months.
VMware
, a provider of virtualization solutions, announced that Rochester General Hospital (RGH) has deployed VMware Infrastructure 3, a data center virtualization and management suite, to optimize the availability, scalability and performance of nearly every application it has in production. According to a release, RGH, a community-based teaching hospital that includes a heart institute and cancer center, offers surgical procedures and care to the region and beyond.
TrendPoint Systems
announced a four-point plan aimed at dramatically reducing energy costs and carbon emissions at data centers. TrendPoint projects that by implementing only a part of its plan--focused on managing cooling costs--data centers can reduce energy cooling costs by a third or more. The four-point plan from TrendPoint provides a comprehensive approach for actively monitoring and managing energy use in data centers in order to help companies tackle this urgent problem. The plan will enable companies to set and manage energy budgets at the user and departmental level, allowing them to comply with proposed regulations on energy emissions, such as those slated for enforcement in the Western United
States and Canadian Provinces by 2012.
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New Technologies
To simplify predictive/preventive motor maintenance programs,
Electro Static Technology
introduced two AEGIS SGR Split-Ring Bearing Protection Kits - one for NEMA motors and one for IEC motors. Developed for easy field installation without disassembly of coupled equipment, these Split-Ring kits are designed to provide clearance for shaft shoulders, slingers, and other end-bell protrusions while protecting bearings from electrical damage caused by circulating or shaft currents.
Kits include the new split-ring version of the SGR Bearing Protection Ring. The ring prevents bearing damage by safely channeling shaft currents to ground. Its conductive microfibers provide the path of least resistance to the motor frame. Kits also include a sturdy aluminum mounting plate and all mounting hardware. When used by HVAC service contractors, motor repair shops, and plant maintenance departments, the SGR Bearing Protection Ring dramatically extends motor life and prevents bearing noise, downtime, and costly motor repairs/replacements.
Used increasingly to save energy, variable frequency drives (VFDs) induce currents on motor shafts which discharge through bearings, causing fusion craters on bearing race walls. Over time, this can lead to noise, vibration, bearing failure, and catastrophic motor failure. Unlike conventional shaft grounding brushes, the SGR ring is maintenance-free and lasts for the life of the motor, regardless of RPM. It works with virtually no friction or wear and is unaffected by dirt, grease, or other contaminants.
APC by Schneider Electric, a global leader in integrated critical power and cooling services,
 announced its next-generation Fuel Cell Extended Run (FCXR) product that provides hydrogen-
based, environmentally friendly backup power for the company's InfraStruXure data center solution. APC's next generation Fuel Cell Extended Run product, which produces emission free
backup power using air and stored hydrogen, is available in 10 kilowatt increments up to 30 kW contained in a single 19-inch rack. Developed in collaboration with Hydrogenics Corporation, the FCXR uses Hydrogenics' HyPM XR Fuel Cell Power Modules. The FCXR supports APC's 3-Phase Symmetra PX product line for uninterruptible power and adds a new dimension for extended backup time to APC's InfraStruXure architecture. The FCXR offers a lower total cost of ownership for runtime requirements greater than two hours in this power range when compared to lead-acid batteries.
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The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) provides a standard way to 
share information about devices connected to a network. An SNMP enabled device can be both queried for specific information, but can also (perhaps more importantly) broadcast alerts when events occur. SNMP is presently supported by a range of hardware, including network switches, routers, UPS systems, and even server editions of the Windows operating system. Cellwatch
presently supports a variety of communications protocols, including MODBUS, HTTP (web pages), email, and pcAnywhere and the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) for remote access. The Cellwatch SNMP Agent will report the status of the Cellwatch system and provide detailed information and readings on both a battery and string level. In addition it will broadcast SNMP v1 traps for all major alarm functions and system behaviors. The software runs as an optional standalone component on the Cellwatch iBMU and complements the Cellwatch monitoring software. Cellwatch welcomes beta testers who use SNMP and would like to evaluate the Cellwatch SNMP Agent. Space on the beta test panel is limited.
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Power Distribution Inc. (PDI)
introduced the Rack Distribution System (RDS) product line This product line represents an industry-first combination of both modular and integrated rack distribution solutions for data center managers. The modular system can be field installed into existing server racks, and the custom integrated systems can be ordered, wired up, and shipped from the PDI factory.
Three distinctly custom products comprise the Rack Distribution System (RDS):
Modular Rack Distribution: PDI offers three modules to fit into any 19" server rack. These modules are; an enclosed panel board module with integrated current transformer (CT) strips, a Branch Circuit Monitoring System (BCMS) communication board with a local monitor, and a variety of prewired receptacles. These modules allow a data center manager to "plug and play" when adding power for servers. Installation can be by the customer, electrical contractor, or the PDI service team.
Rack Mounted Distribution: Two unique integrated systems are being offered in a 19" server rack cabinet; one system that mirrors the PDI RPP line and a system that mirrors the PDI PDU line in sizes ranging from 30 - 150 kva. These systems are built to order at the PDI factory and again offer the convenience of "plug and play" power distribution and transformation to a data center as servers are added.
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BNP Media
2401 W. Big Beaver Road, Ste. 700
Troy, Michigan, 48084-3333
U.S.A. |
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