Schneider moves into data centre efficiency market

Energy management specialist Schneider Electric has launched a new service to allow companies to measure the efficiency of their data centres.

The EnergySTEP Data Centre Assessment is a detailed and customisable assessment of the power, cooling, physical infrastructure and operational efficiencies of data centres. The assessment allows data centre managers to benchmark the performance of their facilities against industry standards, such as the Green Grid Data Centre Maturity Model. 

The "assessment focuses on improvements that will help the data centre manager drive down the spiralling cost of energy, while ensuring maximum availability", said Schneider.

The reports provide vendor neutral recommendations including findings illustrated with graphics and benchmarks of performance. The specific recommendations for improving efficiency and maximising availability include estimated cost savings and an ROI analysis.

Additionally the findings and recommendations can be presented in accordance with the Green Grid Data Centre Maturity Model. This model benchmarks performance in 46 aspects of the data centre and enables mapping of the steps required to achieve greater energy efficiency and sustainability.

Jim Simonelli, senior vice president at Schneider Electric, said: “The recommendations will result in optimised energy usage, reduced operating costs and will enable the data centre manager to prioritise data centre improvements to better manage capital expenses.”

In other data centre efficiency news, Sanofi, the global pharmaceutical company, to help reduce its 26 data centres around the world to just three, saving bundles in the process.

Sanofi is using EMC systems to help manage 4,000 applications, in a move to increase utilisation and improve efficiency and agility across its IT environment.