Heating and cooling vendor Trane launched a data center version of its HVAC monitoring and building control platform Tracer. The platform is meant to help users optimize energy use in their data centers through environmental monitoring and data analysis.

 The company built the solution, called Tracer XT, by combining its platform’s capabilities with those of a GE data center monitoring and modeling software product Proficy. Trane and GE unveiled Tracer XT earlier this week at the DatacenterDynamics conference in Toronto.

Joel Lehman, global portfolio manager, systems controls, at Trane, said data center managers needed “fast, integrated information” to manage their facilities most effectively.

“By collecting real-time data and providing actionable information at incredible speeds, Tracer XT integrates with existing Tracer controls to allow for faster decision making about management of data center functions, including critical systems,” Lehman said.

The SCADA-based platform integrates real-time data from security, fire, safety, HVAC, power distribution and monitoring systems. SCADA stands for standards-based supervisory control and data acquisition.

Tracer XT can use more than 100 common communication protocols.

It integrates data from a variety of stand-alone systems into one database to provide information users need. Users can also customize the way the information is served to them.

Trane is a subsidiary of Ingersoll Rand, a global US$14bn diversified industrial firm, whose other brands include Club Car, Schlage and Thermo King.