Emerson and Sun announce global alliance for data centre solutions

Emerson Network Power and Sun Microsystems have announced a global alliance that will help provide businesses and organisations with road maps and technologies to increase the productivity and energy efficiency of their data centres. Globally, data centre energy consumption is driven by business demand for greater computing capacity and increased IT centralisation. When combined with increasing global electricity prices, the financial implications are significant.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimated that US corporations and public agencies spent US$4.5bn in 2006 to power their data centres; and current projections suggest that this will grow in the next five years to over $7.4bn annually, making data centre efficiency a leading priority for these organisations. Not surprisingly, the power and cooling infrastructure that supports IT equipment in data centres can account for over 50% of total data centre energy consumption.

To address the need for energy-efficiency improvements, Sun's data centre efficiency consultants will work directly with Emerson’s Liebert power, cooling and services specialists throughout the world to assess, develop and maintain solutions for a variety of customer data centre problems. The companies will deliver not only the plans but also the products and services for improved data centre productivity and efficiency.

Sun Services Vice President of Marketing Amy O'Connor said: “Data centre efficiency is a leading priority for our customers and our alliance with Emerson will help enable us to collaboratively assess a customer’s current IT operations and identify opportunities to increase productivity and improve efficiency of the data centre. Together, we’ll help customers minimise capital investments that can be used to fund changes based on the savings from operational costs — an appealing approach in today's economy.”

Bob Bauer, Emerson Group Vice President and Liebert Global President, added: “Our vision for this program is centred on the enterprise customer who needs to increase productivity, improve efficiency and optimise capital investments. We worked successfully with Sun on numerous technology development projects, including Sun’s own data centres. We are looking forward to extending this relationship to the front lines of both organisations to deliver the flexibility and efficiency our joint customers require.”