Upcoming Industry Events

AIA Convention June 26—28, 2014

Connect with the world’s brightest architects, designers, innovators,

and provocateurs at AIA Convention 2014 at McCormick Place in

Chicago.

We’re inviting you to be a part of an experience that is designed with

purpose. A reimagined AIA National Convention that presents a

fresh, new approach to how architects learn, engage, and connect

with one another.

Learn more.

ASHRAE Annual Conference June 28— July 2, 2014

Abundant rain and thriving evergreens keep the city of Seattle green

and lush, but the city has taken the concept of “green” to a whole

different level. Sustainability is promoted in all aspects of life, which

makes Seattle the perfect location for ASHRAE’s 2014 Annual

Conference. The Conference addresses topics such as ground

source heat pumps, operations and maintenance and indoor

environmental quality, as well as the second annual ASHRAE

research summit. Not to mention, social events, networking

opportunities and technical tours.

Learn more.

PANDUIT

JOURNAL OF

TECHNOLOGY

DESIGN TRENDS

DesignerLink

PROFESSIONAL

DEVELOPMENT

USGBC NEWS

Strategies for increasing

energy efficiency:

Address the envelope

Install high-performance

mechanical systems and

appliances.

Use high-efficiency

infrastructure.

Capture efficiencies of

scale.

Use energy simulation

Monitor and verify

performance.

Read full article.

AIA NEWS

Billings at U.S. architecture

firms dipped in March to a

score of 48.8, the third

decline over the past five

months. While the modestly

positive ABI scores for

January and February

suggested that the end of the

year weakness might have

been just a weather-related

blip, and that architecture

firms could see a recovery in

billings in the spring, the weak

March reading indicates a

broader soft spot in design

activity..

Read full article.

Industry Business Trends

Data Center Power Strategies

One of the most common metrics for measuring

efficiency in data centers is power usage

effectiveness (PUE) created by The Green Grid. It

compares the total data center facility power to the

power used to run the IT equipment. The optimum

data center would have a PUE value of 1.0, where

all the power going into the data center is being

directly used to power the IT equipment. Any value

above 1.0 means that a portion of the total facility

power is being diverted to data center support

systems such as cooling, lighting, and the power

system. The higher the PUE number, the larger

portion of power is consumed by the support

systems relative to the IT equipment itself, resulting

in a less efficient data center.

In the recent past, the primary focus with lowering

the PUE and increasing efficiency has been on the

mechanical systems and the ability to use free

cooling. As data center owners strive to further

reduce costs, the focus has shifted toward electrical

systems. Electrical systems waste energy in the

form of losses due to inefficiencies in the electrical

equipment and distribution system. On average,

the electrical distribution system losses account for

12% of the total energy consumed by the data

center. For a data centers with 2000 kW of IT load

(2700 kW total load), that equates to an annual

cost of $280,000.

Read full article.

In this data center power consumption example, the IT load makes up the bulk of the electrical load.

this issue

Industry Business Trends P.1

You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure P.2

Thermal Management Delivers Business Gains P.3

Transform Your Data Center from Basic to Strategic P.4

Case Study: Zen Internet P.6

Learn More about Panduit P.7

I S S U E

Q 2 2 0 1 4

07

DesignerLink Issue 07 Q2 2014

WHITE PAPER

A Zone Approach for

Energy and Physical

Infrastructure

Management

As data centers continue to grow

in scale, density and complexity,

many data center professionals

struggle to understand how to

effectively manage their energy

expenses and evolve their

physical infrastructure. Within

budget and corporate

requirements for lower operational

expenses (OpEx) and total cost of

ownership (TCO), the list of

critical operational management

challenges facing data center and

facilities professionals is

Considerable.

Learn more.

Thermal Management Delivers Business Gains Take Your Thermal Management Strategy from Tactical to Strategic and Drive Return on Investment

Managing today’s increasingly complex data centers means juggling a variety of priorities,

including improving sustainability, boosting energy efficiency and reducing the total cost of

ownership (TCO). These aims have to be balanced against the need to achieve uptime goals

specified in service-level agreements while maintain regulatory compliance.

New technological advances such as virtualization and cloud computing are increasing power

rack density requirements, which are now reaching 10 to 20 kilowatts. High-density

applications are reaching 20 to 30 kilowatts, effectively driving the utilization of any server

from 10 percent to more than 70 percent. As a result, the requirements for power density and

airflow are exceeding the available capacity at the rack level, resulting in power resilience and

thermal challenges.

Legacy data centers and their cooling systems have traditionally been designed with an

average power density per square foot in mind. In reality, data center leading can vary by

rack and row depending on IT equipment and utilization, and this means varying levels of

airflow and cooling can be required in different areas of a data center. An understanding of

the airflow within a data center is vital to ensure cooling is being delivered where it is actually

required, rather than blanket overcooling which is costly and inefficient. Unfortunately, it is all

too common within legacy data centers to have available space capacity, yet to not have

enough power or cooling capacity. This often leads to the outdated and expensive

practice of over-cooling the entire data center, which results in increased energy

consumption and expense. The key is to understand the interdependencies between

power, space and cooling to unlock capacity in order to extend the life of the data center

and defer capital investments in a new facility.

The triad of utility costs, regulatory requirements and the need to reduce carbon

emissions is forcing data center managers to take a more strategic approach to thermal

management, which begins with understanding airflow.

In legacy environments, it is all too common for an aging infrastructure to limit the

effective airflow that can reach servers and switches. Proper airflow management is

one of the most critical aspects of designing and operating your data center. It ensures

the efficient performance and uptime of IT equipment and applications, improving the

bottom line.

Download full article.

New Resources You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure: A Predictive Approach to Energy Efficiency

Rising energy costs are a fact of life. The need to control

those costs requires data center managers to increase

energy efficiency not only in the data center, but to work

with facilities management to improve efficiency across

the entire organizational estate. For a majority of

organizations, improving energy efficiency is about saving

money. Therefore, managing power consumption and

optimizing cooling are at the top of their to-do list.

Managing power consumption could involve deploying

new energy-efficient equipment, but due to the expense,

most companies put that off until it is time for a scheduled

technology refresh. As a result, cooling is the single-

largest data center operational and energy cost that can

generate a return on investment when remediated. So,

optimizing cooling is one of the first areas data center

managers should look in order to reduce costs and

increase efficiency.

Energy Efficient Metrics

Many data center managers are lacking the visibility on rack power capacity utilization along with the tools

to identify opportunities to improve energy efficiency due to unmonitored or partially monitored systems

that are leaving them with an incomplete picture of the data center. Few legacy data centers have

automated energy and environmental management systems, and other relay on outdated manual data

collection and documentation creation. The increasing demand for energy efficiencies has led

organizations to investigate or implement data center infrastructure management (DCIM) tools to

automate the creation of documentation and the collection of energy and environmental data upon which

optimization decisions can be made.

In search of better insight into their company’s energy efficiency, some data center managers who have

implemented DCIM solutions use their facility’s Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating as an indication

of energy efficiency. PUE was established in 2009 as a metric for measuring and reporting data center

energy performance. The perfect PUE rating is 1, but it is impossible to achieve. The average PUE rating

is 1.8 to 2.5, but the rating depends on the type and size of facility. Most data center use just as much or

more non-computing or “overhead” energy (like cooling and power conversion) as they do to power their

servers, which reflects in a higher PUE. A high PUE number means you are operating at less than

optimum efficiency and that there are opportunities to improve. But what, exactly, should you do?

Download full white paper.

The Importance of Comprehensive Asset Management

Download full article

Driven by explosive data growth, data center managers are juggling multiple, competing

priorities. They need to hold down operational costs, improve energy efficiency and

optimize capacity—all while maintaining network availability and reliability. To meet these

demands, data center space is often underutilized and overprovisioned with power and

cooling capacity, a situation that may be too costly to sustain.

Amid budget restrictions and corporate requirements for lower operating expenditures

and total cost of ownership (TCO), the critical operational management challenges facing

data center and facilities professionals include:

Ensuring resilience and uptime

Optimizing physical capacity and IT assets

Balancing increasing power requirements with rising energy costs

Complying with tougher environmental regulations

Improving power usage effectiveness (PUE) by bringing their PUE rating down

For most companies, monitoring and managing the data center via instrumentation is key

to increasing energy efficiency, reducing PUE numbers and getting a handle on costs.

The more granular your insight into each row and cabinet, the more information you will have and the better and quicker your decisions will

be, allowing you to be productive.

For example, temperature sensors deployed in the data center can give you visibility into a particular cabinet. If the temperature spikes in the

middle of the cabinet, you can quickly provide more cooling to that spot, or you can move it to a place that is better suited from an

environmental perspective.

Understanding where your equipment is can reduce

break-fix time in identifying and locating the source of

a problem, whether that is due to a lack of

connectivity, a power supply issue or something else.

The ability to receive an alert with detailed information

on the problem and its source greatly speeds the

mean time to repair (MTTR).

Read full white paper.

WHITE PAPER

Physical Infrastructure

Optimization: A

Foundation for Growth

According to Gartner, the rise in

big data is one of the forces that

will change IT. The proliferation of

data is accelerating, and most IT

departments are not prepared to

handle the demands of managing

and storing so much data. At the

same time, corporate data centers

are ill-equipped to handle the

flood, driving the need to

consolidate and optimize the

physical infrastructure.

Learn more.

Transform Your Data Center from Basic to Strategic by Increasing Operational Efficiency and Optimizing Intelligence

Click here to see full infographic

Data Center Energy Efficiency

WHITE PAPER

Optimizing the Energy

Efficiency of the

Modern Data Center

The modern data center has

changed. There are new

demands around cloud

computing, big data and

infrastructure power efficiency.

Furthermore, this change in the

data center is being driven by

more users, more data and a lot

more reliance on the data

center itself

Learn more.

SmartZone™ Solutions

Learn how Panduit Data Center Infrastructure Management solutions can

help you improve energy efficiency, asset management, capacity

management and uptime and resilience. Visit the site.

SmartZone™ Rack Energy Kits

Panduit supports the needs of small data centers with SmartZone™ Rack

Energy Kits, a DCIM solution specifically designed to provide cost-effective

power and environmental monitoring for small data center environments with

30 or fewer racks and cabinets. Download the brochure.

Architects, Engineers and Consultants

The Architect, Engineer and Consultant resource center was created

specifically for the design community. This site gives you easy access to

relevant business and technology information as well as links to design tools

and Panduit’s innovative products and solutions. Visit the site.

Panduit Solutions and Resources

Leveraging State-of-the-Art Power and

Infrastructure Solutions to Realize Energy and

Operational Efficiencies

Business Challenges

Construct a new leading-edge and energy efficient

data center and decrease the company’s power and

energy footprint.

Panduit Solution

Zen Internet deployed the following elements of the

Panduit SmartZone™ Solutions:

SmartZone™ Gateways and Appliances, which

monitor and capture real-time data in each zone

SmartZone™ Services, which helped analyze the

physical infrastructure condition and

requirements at the onset of the planning process

SmartZone™ Solutions are part of the Panduit

Intelligent Data Center Solutions portfolio

Business Benefits

A power and environmental management infrastructure with a holistic view of energy, and environmental

parameters in Zen Internet’s data centers and sites, resulting in improved operational and energy

efficiencies with significant cost reductions, and improved facility performance.

Learn more.

Case Study: Zen Internet

Panduit Acquires SynapSense

On May 8th, Panduit acquired SynapSense, who specializes in

thermal risk management and cooling energy savings for large

enterprise, colocation, and cloud computing service providers.

The SynapSense data center solution consists of a unique and highly-reliable secure wireless mesh

networking technology, airflow optimization services, and manual or automated cooling control.

Together we will provide our customers with unparalleled capabilities in environmental monitoring,

energy management, power and cooling control, device and network asset management, and capacity

management.

Quick Links

Data Center

www.panduit.com/datacenter

Enterprise

www.panduit.com/enterprise

Industrial Automation

www.panduit.com/ia

Industrial IP Advantage

www.industrial-ip.org

Control Panel Optimization

www.panduit-hoffman.com

Upcoming Industry Events

AIA Convention June 26—28, 2014

Connect with the world’s brightest architects, designers, innovators,

and provocateurs at AIA Convention 2014 at McCormick Place in

Chicago.

We’re inviting you to be a part of an experience that is designed with

purpose. A reimagined AIA National Convention that presents a

fresh, new approach to how architects learn, engage, and connect

with one another.

Learn more.

ASHRAE Annual Conference June 28— July 2, 2014

Abundant rain and thriving evergreens keep the city of Seattle green

and lush, but the city has taken the concept of “green” to a whole

different level. Sustainability is promoted in all aspects of life, which

makes Seattle the perfect location for ASHRAE’s 2014 Annual

Conference. The Conference addresses topics such as ground

source heat pumps, operations and maintenance and indoor

environmental quality, as well as the second annual ASHRAE

research summit. Not to mention, social events, networking

opportunities and technical tours.

Learn more.

PANDUIT

JOURNAL OF

TECHNOLOGY

DESIGN TRENDS

DesignerLink

PROFESSIONAL

DEVELOPMENT

USGBC NEWS

Strategies for increasing

energy efficiency:

Address the envelope

Install high-performance

mechanical systems and

appliances.

Use high-efficiency

infrastructure.

Capture efficiencies of

scale.

Use energy simulation

Monitor and verify

performance.

Read full article.

AIA NEWS

Billings at U.S. architecture

firms dipped in March to a

score of 48.8, the third

decline over the past five

months. While the modestly

positive ABI scores for

January and February

suggested that the end of the

year weakness might have

been just a weather-related

blip, and that architecture

firms could see a recovery in

billings in the spring, the weak

March reading indicates a

broader soft spot in design

activity..

Read full article.

Industry Business Trends

Data Center Power Strategies

One of the most common metrics for measuring

efficiency in data centers is power usage

effectiveness (PUE) created by The Green Grid. It

compares the total data center facility power to the

power used to run the IT equipment. The optimum

data center would have a PUE value of 1.0, where

all the power going into the data center is being

directly used to power the IT equipment. Any value

above 1.0 means that a portion of the total facility

power is being diverted to data center support

systems such as cooling, lighting, and the power

system. The higher the PUE number, the larger

portion of power is consumed by the support

systems relative to the IT equipment itself, resulting

in a less efficient data center.

In the recent past, the primary focus with lowering

the PUE and increasing efficiency has been on the

mechanical systems and the ability to use free

cooling. As data center owners strive to further

reduce costs, the focus has shifted toward electrical

systems. Electrical systems waste energy in the

form of losses due to inefficiencies in the electrical

equipment and distribution system. On average,

the electrical distribution system losses account for

12% of the total energy consumed by the data

center. For a data centers with 2000 kW of IT load

(2700 kW total load), that equates to an annual

cost of $280,000.

Read full article.

In this data center power consumption example, the IT load makes up the bulk of the electrical load.

this issue

Industry Business Trends P.1

You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure P.2

Thermal Management Delivers Business Gains P.3

Transform Your Data Center from Basic to Strategic P.4

Case Study: Zen Internet P.6

Learn More about Panduit P.7

I S S U E

Q 2 2 0 1 4

07

DesignerLink Issue 07 Q2 2014