Networks Europe Nov-Dec 2017 | Page 10

10 NEWS IN BRIEF Panduit opens London Customer Briefing Centre New EkkoSoft Critical 3D data centre Thermal Visualisation UK-based data centre thermal risk expert EkkoSense has released EkkoSoft Critical 3.2 – the latest version of its SaaS-enabled 3D thermal visualisation and monitoring software offering for managing critical data centre thermal risks. EkkoSoft Critical helps data centre operators to improve the real-time management of the power, cooling and space aspects of their data centre capacity – helping to identify problems that could threaten IT availability, achieve better visibility of their DC assets and current status, and also significantly reduce data centre cooling energy consumption. With powerful new features, including live Airflow Analytics, comprehensive Estate Dashboard support, and tighter integration with Internet of Things (IoT) enabled sensors, EkkoSoft Critical 3.2 enables organisations to see exactly where and how they’re currently under-cooling or over-cooling their data centre estate. Organisations taking advantage of EkkoSoft Critical’s live 3D immersive views and rapid 3D room builder capabilities typically achieve an average 23% energy saving on their data centre cooling costs. n Panduit EMEA, has opened its new UK Customer Briefing and Demonstration Centre in London. The new facility, based in the heart of the City, provides 200m2 of data centre, enterprise and industrial automation demonstration, conference and office space. This facility doubles the space available in the previous London site and expands the company’s customer experience capabilities in the EMEA market. The centre contains an operational data centre to illustrate the company’s and its partners’ hardware and software capabilities. Visitors will interact with all aspects of the data centre including contained environment cabinets, white space security, heat and cooling systems, structured cabling and thermal analysis, control and management systems. Ralph Lolies, Managing Director at Panduit EMEA, stated: “The new London Customer Briefing Centre expands our investment and capabilities for our UK customers. It provides a showcase for our world-class products that will help define Panduit’s level of resources to a wider audience. Based in the heart of the City, the Customer Briefing Centre is located close to London’s Technology Hub and is within easy reach of key, road, rail and airports. This centre joins Panduit’s Customer Briefing Centres in Brussels, Milan, Paris, Singapore, Shanghai, Mexico City, Schwalbach, Germany and Chicago. n Virtual Power Systems and Schneider Electric collaborate to improve efficiency Schneider Electric has collaborated to bring power efficiency improvements and to increase the density of IT systems in the data centre. Together, both organisations are improving the return on investment for data centre operators worldwide. Equipped with Virtual Power Systems’ ICE solution, the Schneider Galaxy VM UPS delivers a peak load – peak shaving – capability to any data centre. Traditionally, data centre operators had to implement a centre’s power infrastructure to accommodate peak load conditions even though these peaks might only be required periodically. This resulted in an inefficient utilisation of the available energy. With peak shaving, power that's stored in the mostly unused batteries of the Galaxy VM UPS provide the power to meet peak load conditions. Using this approach, data centre operators can design their power infrastructure to meet normal operating loads, thus helping to achieve a higher equipment density and capacity in addition to increasing revenues and ROI. Jeff Samstad, Schneider’s Director of Innovation and New Businesses commented: “Galaxy VM UPS with ICE from Virtual Power Systems can be an absolute game-changer for the medium-sized data centre. Data centre managers can get a much higher and faster ROI on their Galaxy VM investment, and delay new infrastructure expenses by creating more headroom for additional IT load within the existing power infrastructure. It also increases the effectiveness of the Galaxy VM UPS, since the batteries will be used regularly” n www.networkseuropemagazine.com