Schneider Electric Calls for Radical Change in Data Centre Planning

At the ASEAN Data Centre Summit held in Singapore on 14 September 2011, Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, highlighted the importance of an integrated data centre management system and discussed how companies can model their data centres for greater operational efficiency and availability through effective planning and intelligent energy management tools.

According to Schneider Electric, a radical change is pertinent for future data centre planning and management to address challenges such as regulatory requirements, increasing energy costs and power density. The previous method of improving products on a “product-by-product” basis is no longer valid and these issues must be addressed in a holistic manner to make a significant and impactful change.

Bernard Tan, Principal Consultant, Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China, Schneider Electric, also highlighted the need to move from inefficient fossil based energy system to a new integrated approach that is designed for the new Digital Economy. Rack density has been doubling every eight years with increased density through blade servers, server virtualisation, and consolidation since 1992, according to IDC. The average data centre power density is also increasing at approximately 15 percent per year. These significantly increased quantities of power make cooling unpredictable and expensive, and as a result, physical infrastructure costs will equal, then surpass IT equipment costs as power and cooling comprise significant portions of the IT budget.

Recognising that existing networking management systems are unable to meet increasingly complex data centre requirements, Schneider Electric is announcing the launch of two new solutions – StruxureWare for Data Centres and Galaxy 300. StruxureWare for Data Centres will be launched today at the ASEAN Data Centre Summit.