Emerson Network Power has announced the creation of a new Thermal Management business to expand its ability to develop and deliver more holistic, next-generation approaches to controlling the data center environment.
The expanded focus reflects the evolution of data center environmental guidelines from organizations such as the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). John Schneider will lead the new Thermal Management business as vice president and general manager.
“The data center is an active, always-changing ecosystem where IT needs, geographic location and external weather conditions are connected, and changes in any one area have broad implications,” Schneider said. “We are delivering the next generation of data center cooling, with innovative services, software and hardware integrated and optimized to reliably, efficiently and cost-effectively control and manage heat.”
The Thermal Management business, with annual revenues of approximately $800 million, includes Emerson Network Power’s existing Liebert precision cooling assets and expertise. It offers technologies and solutions for data centers and IT facilities of all sizes including air, waterside and innovative pumped-refrigerant economizers in addition to state-of-the-art controls and wireless sensors to maximize efficiency. Included in the solutions are custom air-handling solutions with chilled water, direct and indirect evaporative, and refrigerant technologies.
Introduced in 1965, Liebert computer room air conditioning systems were the first self-contained IT cooling units capable of maintaining air temperature, humidity and air quality within precision tolerances. Today’s data center infrastructure systems use networks of wireline and wireless sensors to monitor equipment performance and environmental conditions and are better equipped to act on that data. These capabilities were not available in the past and, even today, the additional intelligence often is lost in floods of data.
“What we’re doing with our approach to thermal management is helping our customers analyze, understand and act on that data to realize more efficient, more sophisticated real-time environmental control,” Schneider said. That control is realized through innovative hardware, software and services that include everything from more intelligent and versatile cooling technologies to data center infrastructure management systems to remote service delivery programs.
“For 48 years, the Liebert brand has been synonymous with IT cooling and innovation, and today’s announcement represents another significant evolution within that space,” said Scott Barbour, executive vice president, Emerson, and business leader, Emerson Network Power (Systems). “The basic need to manage heat is not changing. There are now more ways to do that, and this expansion of what began as our precision cooling business reflects the entire spectrum of possibilities.”
In addition to Schneider, Emerson Network Power appointed JP Valiulis, vice president, marketing, and Lorenz Hofmann, vice president, engineering, for the Thermal Management business.
