Emerson rolls out new management tool; new cold-aisle containment product

Manufacturer of data center power and cooling equipment Emerson has unveiled two new products this week. Both are aimed at increasing energy efficiency in data centers.

NEW TOOL OFFERS INTEGRATED CAPACITY ASSESSMENT OF ENTIRE INFRASTRUCTURE

The new Aperture Integrated Resource Manager is a tool for performance optimization of an organization’s entire data center infrastructure. The tool uses real-time data from monitoring and building-management systems as input to generate a comprehensive representation of power and cooling capacities within the data center.

The tool is aimed at helping operators better pinpoint areas within their facilities that can safely accept and support more equipment, a capability that can potentially delay the capital expenditure of building a new data center or expanding the footprint of an existing one.

Users of the tool are able to set their own algorithms for analysis and application of the data collected in data center planning and ensuring SLA compliance.

COLD-AISLE CONTAINMENT FOR USE WITH EXISTING MONITORING TOOL

SmartAisle is a cold-aisle containment system, consisting of a clear Plexiglas ceiling, either swinging or sliding doors and horizontal and vertical blanking panels for airflow optimization. Emerson ships the system with its Knurr cabinets but it can be used with existing IT racks. As an alternative to the Plexiglas ceiling, Emerson offers a curtain system.

The containment system is to be used in conjunction with company’s monitoring and control system Liebert iCOM, which includes remote sensors for temperature and humidity in both hot and cold aisles and controls variable-capacity compressor and cooling-unit fan speed dynamically.

The solution can be used in either a raised-floor or a non-raised-floor environment, according to Emerson. It is capable of cooling up to 30 kW per rack, depending on the type of cooling set-up in the facility.

One of the first customers to deploy SmartAisle was data center provider Bay Area Internet Solutions, which installed the system in its new 30,000 square foot data center in Santa Clara, Calif., to cool more than 1,000 IT cabinets.

“Our goal was to find a solution that would provide us with efficient cooling, while we gradually expand our customer base,” BAIS President and CEO Tom Wye said in a statement. “Carefully comparing the various technologies, we found that the SmartAisle solution from Emerson Network Power would provide us with the most efficient and flexible cooling system available.”