APC and TAC Management Platforms to integrate with IBM Software to provide customers with energy efficient data centre solutions

APC by Schneider Electric, a global leader in integrated critical power and cooling services, has announced plans to integrate APC and TAC software management platforms with IBM Tivoli Monitoring energy management software. 

APC and TAC, part of global energy management specialist Schneider Electric, offer innovative physical infrastructure and building management systems, respectively, to customers worldwide.  The integration, currently in development, will allow APCs InfraStruXure Central management platform, TACs building management system and IBM Tivoli Monitoring software to share key data points including alarm notifications, historical data and asset tracking information.  The combined solution will deliver the visibility, control and automation needed for a more efficient enterprise by enabling optimisation of data centre physical infrastructure and building systems while maintaining IT service levels.   

By integrating InfraStruXure Central and TAC with IBM Tivoli Monitoring software, administrators will be able to view, correlate and profile the dependencies of business process and IT assets to the underlying physical infrastructure.  The result will help monitor and manage efforts to reduce risk, raise data centre system availability levels and increase energy efficiency.             

Once we complete the integration with the IBM Tivoli Monitoring software, IT administrators will have the ability to make informed decisions about critical business processes, their physical infrastructure and building management systems and how to efficiently deploy their infrastructure, said John DiPippo, senior vice president, APC Data Center Solutions, Software and Services. 

For example, a user may choose to move business critical applications to an alternate rack, row or even data centre in the event of loss of redundancy in cooling, or may choose to leave a less critical application running in the higher risk environment.  Customers soon will have the ability to determine not only optimum location (physical or virtual) of IT assets, but also adapt their application usage based on historical and real-time information regarding energy use and power and cooling availability. 

We are delighted to have APC and TAC partner in IBMs efforts to help customers become more energy efficient, said Stuart McIrvine, director, Emerging Markets, IBM Tivoli.  Working together, we have a comprehensive suite of management capabilities that will provide clients with the proper tools to manage and control their power consumption and energy costs proactively, but not at the expense of critical business services." 

APCs suite of innovative enterprise software solutions enable the efficient management of company-wide IT physical infrastructure including floor space, power, cooling, cabling and threat protection.  APC InfraStruXure Central lowers support costs and prevents downtime through rapid problem resolution of physical and environmental issues.

InfraStruXure Central gives us a great level of visibility and control, said David Shaw, executive director of data centre services at Sisters of Mercy Health System in St. Louis, Mo.  Information systems infrastructure is a critical element in our ability to deliver the highest quality health care.  InfraStruXure Central provides both the monitoring tool and the management reporting required to maintain the infrastructure foundation of our environment.  This allows us to resolve proactively areas of risk or address interruptions before they become service outages.  By sharing alerts and notifications with the IBM Tivoli Monitoring software, we will be able to understand further the mission-critical applications that may be affected by problematic events and, in turn, determine the best course of action to take to eliminate downtime. 

TAC Building Management Systems today provide integration with IBM Tivoli Monitoring software via SNMP, thus supporting timely exchange of critical process data and alarms.  Through this integration, administrators will have visibility and control of the facilities systems that manage electrical distribution, heating, ventilation, lighting, air conditioning as well as security.  This will provide a complete dashboard for energy management that can report on when and what is consuming the most energy.  Administrators will be able to enable manual or automated facility controls based on need, power consumption and cost.   Furthermore, the integration will centralise security functionality including access control, intrusion detection, event notifications and digital video management.   

"TAC is very excited about working with APC and IBM Tivoli to deliver a comprehensive energy management and monitoring solution that can help customers increase energy efficiency across data centres and building systems," said Rodman St. Amand, TAC's director of strategic accounts. "The new solution expands on our level of alarm notification and redundancy." 

The combined APC, TAC and IBM Tivoli Monitoring solution will allow a user to: 

• Detect and monitor real-time changes in power and cooling as well as understand the corresponding IT assets and business applications that may be affected by the change;
• Track moves, additions and changes of physical IT assets;
• Optimise utilisation of actual power, cooling and rack capacities while right-sizing the IT environment;
• Better predict and avoid potential downtime due to hardware failures or energy events;
• Track historical information regarding usage of IT assets and subsequent power and cooling requirements to better implement current and future data centre strategy;
• Integrate and centralise data centre security functionality such as access control, intrusion detection and digital video management;
• Gain visibility of enhanced building management controls for heating, ventilating and air conditioning.

APC expects that customers will have access to the integrated APC InfraStruXure Central, TAC building management system, and IBM Tivoli Monitoring solution worldwide in 2009.  Today, clients can contact any of the participating companies to start the process of evaluating their current facilities and data centre strategy to manage and control their energy consumption and costs better.  

APC InfraStruXure Central is available worldwide and starts with an estimated resale price of less than 5000.

About APC by Schneider Electric 

            In February 2007, APC and MGE UPS Systems combined to form a $3.5 billion (2.4 billion) Critical Power & Cooling Services business unit of Schneider Electric.  Together, APC and MGE offer the industrys most comprehensive product and solution range for critical IT and process applications in industrial, enterprise, small and medium business and home environments.  APC and MGE solutions include uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), precision cooling units, racks, physical security and design and management software, including APC's InfraStruXure architecture the industrys most comprehensive integrated power, cooling, and management solution.  Backed by the industrys broadest service organisation and an industry leading R&D investment, the combined companys 12,000 employees help customers confront todays unprecedented power, cooling and management challenges.  Schneider Electric, with 112,000 employees and operations in 190 countries, had 2007 annual sales of $25 billion (17.3 billion).  

About TAC 

TAC's mission is to provide added value through building environment services for indoor climate, security and use of energy, delivered with advanced technology to end users and property owners throughout the world. 

With over 80 years of experience in the HVAC, building automation and security arenas, TAC employs more than 7,500 people worldwide, with partners and branches in 80 countries.