The First Facility Management Blog

Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson, released its annual Data Center Users Group (DCUG) “Inside the Data Center” report yesterday. More than 165 data center, facility, and IT managers participated in the survey, which reported these findings:

• Data center criticality is rising. Three out of four respondents said in this year’s survey that the data center is more critical today than in past years. Many of these are large facilities that have had high availability goals for years.
• Power densities across the room and within the rack are increasing sharply. In doing so, they’re pushing facility capacity to the max—and fast. In the last two years, average rack power density has risen from 6 kW to 8 kW. More than 10% of respondents said they will be out of data center capacity by the end of this year, and a total of 68% percent expect to be at capacity within the next three years.
• Despite tight capital equipment budgets, changes to the data center are still planned. Thirty-seven percent of survey participants responded that current economic conditions are impacting their ability to operate or expand their data center. However, in a sign of just how dynamic and critical the data center has become, more than 75% of survey respondents are still planning for changes to take place within their facilities.
• Data center managers are unwilling to compromise availability for efficiency. Data center managers will be taking into account corporate initiatives to improve energy usage throughout the data center; yet, this directive is challenged by the understanding that availability remains the top priority. On a continuum of one (reducing energy usage is main priority) to seven (maintaining high availability is our main priority), 69% of respondents identified a priority level between five and seven in favor of high availability.
• Energy usage strategy still missing. A comprehensive energy usage strategy remains elusive for a majority of businesses despite one in four respondents having completed an analysis of the efficiency of their data center equipment. Only 28% of survey respondents have a documented strategy to reduce energy usage. 

The entire DCUG “Inside the Data Center” report is available for download in the white papers section of www.liebert.com.
 
The DCUG is a group of approximately 2,000 data center, IT, and facility managers founded by Emerson Network Power in 2003. The group meets semi-annually to collaboratively discuss the most relevant issues affecting the reliability, availability, and cost of operation for mission critical installations. The group’s membership comprises executives with a wide variety of IT and facilities management expertise from an assortment of companies, including board member companies Vanguard, Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions, and JPMorgan Chase, among others.

Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson, recently announced that construction has begun on an innovative data center at Emerson’s corporate headquarters that will showcase a full suite of the 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 facility will feature numerous Emerson Network Power products from brands such as Aperture, ASCO, Knurr, and Liebert interacting with technologies from the world’s leading IT companies. Collectively, these technologies comprise an available, reliable, and concurrently maintainable physical infrastructure that can be remotely managed. 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. Emerson is one of the first companies to voluntarily participate in the process of earning data center based green credits in the core areas of energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, materials, resources selection, sustainable site development, and water savings.

Fox Architects, the project’s lead architect, estimates that the design will provide Emerson an energy savings of 17.5% 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. As IT equipment is installed, Emerson will follow applicable strategies recommended in Emerson Network Power’s Energy Logic to yield additional energy savings.  

Victor Lee, chief technology officer for Emerson Network Power, said, “This project gives us a chance to show off how implementation of the strategies and technologies we recommend to our customers can deliver best in class business continuity. For example, our recipe for a dynamic critical infrastructure calls for technologies that are flexible, reliable, and operate at the lowest total cost of ownership. We’re eager to start sharing the finished product with the world.”

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.

If the power goes out, will America’s small businesses be prepared? Not really, according to the results of a recent survey commissioned by Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson.

The survey results indicate that the issue is not really “if” the power will go out but “when.” Consider these statistics:

• 79% of the small business decision makers surveyed experienced at least one power outage in 2007.
• 67% of respondents anticipate experiencing outages again in the next 12 months.
• 42% of the small businesses that experienced outages in 2007 had to close their businesses during the longest outages.

And while small business decision makers ranked outages above fire, government regulation, weather damage, theft, and employee turnover as threats to their businesses, only 39% of them have back up power systems, leaving 61% vulnerable to the negative business impacts of outages.

“Keeping the lights on, the computers running, and employees working during a power outage is important for any business, but particularly for small businesses,” said Ed Feeney, an Emerson executive vice president who heads up Emerson Network Power’s Systems business. “Their margin for error is thinner, and the competition’s tighter, so even a brief outage can do significant harm. This makes back up power systems a fundamental part of business continuity.”

In a tight economy, a plunge into darkness could put a small business in the red. On average, power outages cost about $80 billion each year, with most losses—98%—borne by businesses, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

“Emerson’s survey findings are alarming considering that more than 99% of all American businesses are small businesses, with these companies generating 45% of the total U.S. payroll,” said Steve Strauss, nationally syndicated business columnist and author of The Small Business Bible. “It is critical that small enterprises have a business continuity plan that includes back up power systems to keep the business running when the main power source goes down.”

John Zagara, owner of Zagara’s Marketplace, a Cleveland, OH area supermarket, needs no convincing. “During the massive blackout of August 2003, the power went out mid-afternoon. Our back up power system automatically switched my electrical source to a natural gas powered generator which ran all registers and certain refrigerated equipment,” Zagara said. “Our front end staff continued to check out customers until closing at 9 p.m. Our customers were in awe of our service delivery.” Zagara’s back up power equipment enabled him to not only continue serving customers, but to save meat and frozen foods, valuable perishable inventory.

Zagara utilizes a back up generator and an ASCO power transfer switch. A power transfer switch automatically detects a loss of power from the main power source and turns on a back up generator within seconds. When the main source of power returns, the switch safely shuts down the generator and reconnects to the main power source.

To help small businesses understand the impacts of power outages, Emerson Network Power has launched a back-up power information resource at www.emerson.com/smallbusiness. It includes an online tool small companies can use to measure their vulnerability to the impacts of outages.

Emerson Network Power released the findings of the survey in conjunction with the fifth anniversary of the Great Blackout of 2003, which began on Aug. 14, 2003, when an overgrown tree tangled with sagging power lines in Ohio and triggered a series of human and technology gaffes that resulted in the largest power outage in North American history. The blackout left 50 million people in the Northeastern United States and Canada in the dark—some for days—and cost the economy an estimated $6 billion in productivity.

This past May, Emerson Motor Company’s U.S. MOTORS® brand reached its 100th year in the electric motors industry. Founded in 1908 in Los Angeles, U.S. Electrical Motors, Inc. was acquired by Emerson Electric Co. in 1962. Today, the U.S. MOTORS brand is continues as part of Emerson Motor Company.

The U.S. MOTORS brand was an early developer of induction motors and the innovation of the vertical HOLLOSHAFT® motor, a product that continues to be a leader in the liquid pumping industry.

“We look forward to another productive century of growth and developing further  advances in technology,” said Jim Lindemann, Chairman and CEO of Emerson Motor  Company. “As we look back on the first 100 years of the U.S. MOTORS brand, we  embrace a future built on engineering expertise, world class manufacturing, customer satisfaction and product reliability.”

Emerson Motor Company and the U.S. MOTORS brand combine to offer OEMs, end-users, and aftermarket customers solutions to their motor challenges. Recent innovations include:

* API 547®* motors, offering new alternatives in oil and gas processing, using LEAN manufacturing principles;
* A full range of NEMA Premium®* motors that meet the newly enacted energy efficiency legislation (EISA); and
* Variable speed solutions from fractional to thousands of horsepower using technologies including brushless permanent magnet and switched reluctance motors and drives.

Over the past 100 years, the U.S. MOTORS brand has grown to be a global brand. Emerson Motor Company operates 16 manufacturing facilities and seven engineering centers in six countries.