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UPI Vision Rounds Out Eco-Sustainability Efforts

Posted by: Erin Harrison | November 6, 2009 9:44 AM |

Data centers typically are high users of energy because of their cooling requirements; in fact, nationally, data centers are responsible for between 1 percent and 2 percent of total power consumption.

Designed to maximize sustainability, global collaboration and innovation, Panduit's new LEED-certified world headquarters building will leverage state-of-the-art visibility and control into all critical building systems, integrated and aligned under a single, unified and "intelligent" infrastructure.

According to the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED is an "internationally recognized green building certification system that provides third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts."

LEED provides building owners and operators - including Panduit and its customers - a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

Panduit's top sustainability goals relative to its new headquarters include a UPI-based connected building solution to optimize energy use at the new facility and fostering initiatives designed to optimize the enterprise infrastructure that are good both for business and for the planet.

But the company's eco-sustainability priorities go beyond convergence of critical systems to drive space savings and energy efficiencies.

Other efforts include: maintaining current compliance with applicable laws/regulations; reducing energy usage and operating costs across all facilities/locations through modern HVAC systems, daylight harvesting, indirect lighting solutions, and maximized space utilization; the use of recycled materials and the creation of recycling programs for employees; preservation of conservation areas, walking trails, natural water filtration; and long-term flexibility of future facilities. Panduit also monitors and reports greenhouse gas emissions at all U.S. manufacturing units.

And to accomplish its eco-sustainability goals, Panduit cannot go it alone. To quote the company's Director of Integrated Marketing Communications Anil Maheshwari: "It is a journey to achieve a truly unified physical infrastructure and it cannot be provided exclusively by Panduit. A wide range of physical and logical devices are required to create a unified physical infrastructure, as well as the services required to design, deploy and operate. It is accomplished through an eco-system of partners - integration, design, deployment - and technology alliances."

Panduit's PIM Software Calls the Plays in the Data Center

Posted by: Erik Linask | November 5, 2009 11:56 PM |

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Today's data centers are leveraging the same IP networking solutions most businesses are deploying for converged communications capabilities - and with good reason. Converged networking allows for more effective and simplified resource management, increased security, significant cost savings, and support of environmental initiatives.

But, to win the benefits of a converged data center environment - Panduit's UPI vision - a converged physical infrastructure must be supported by appropriate management software. Why?

Let's look at the offensive unit on a football team. There are eleven players, each with his own unique responsibilities based on position and in-game situations. Those responsibilities are defined by a playbook, which not only accounts for ideal circumstances, but also contingencies based on what the defensive team does.

Without the playbook, the center would snap the ball, and the quarterback and the rest of the players on his team would have to decide on their own what routes to run, how to block, and how to react to defensive schemes - the likelihood of a successful play being minimal.

On the other hand, calling predefined plays from the playbook indentifies the responsibilities for each play for each player, from blocking schemes to pass routes, and even contingency plans for different defensive schemes, including blitzes. Suddenly, with all eleven players acting as a collective unit and knowing what each of the other ten players is doing, the success rate does up exponentially.

Think of the playbook as the management platform in a data center - it allows the infrastructure (team) to operate effectively and adapt to changing circumstances in a manner that is consistent with the other elements of the infrastructure. When a security breach (blitz), for instance, has been identified, it defines how to effectively mitigate that risk so the data canter can continue to operate effectively.

The intelligence that is built into today's data center network requires the visibility and flexibility of an integrated management platform in order to function as a cohesive unit. Panduit's PIM (Physical Infrastructure Manager) solution provides that same capability to identify, isolate, and react to connectivity changes in the data center's physical infrastructure, which is critical to supporting the overall business objectives of the enterprise, because it enables access to the data center resources.

Panduit, in fact, has not only developed the solution to support its partners and customers, but has built its own new LEED certified world headquarters based on its UPI vision, supported by its PIM software.

Read more here about the benefits of Panduit's PIM solution, and how it helps deliver the winning proposition of a unified physical infrastructure.

Business Operations Depend on Physical Infrastructure Manager

Posted by: Erik Linask | November 5, 2009 9:31 PM |

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With the convergence of communications media onto converged all-IP networks, the task of managing those networks effectively becomes significantly more critical to the livelihood of any business. Now, if there are issues with the network infrastructure, the entire business effectively comes to a standstill, since all communications runs on that single, converged network.

On the other hand, because the network is built on a single integrated infrastructure, management platforms have been developed that simplify the management and troubleshooting of the end-to-end network infrastructures, increasing their reliability and security.

For data center environments, which are the central hub of business operations, storing and providing access to data and applications, management solutions must be in place not only for the logical infrastructure, but, more importantly, for the physical layer as well, because it controls access to the logical layer and its resources.

Fortunately, the convergence of physical infrastructures onto all-IP networks enables the unification of physical layer systems - computing, communications, power, control, and security - that collectively enable the data center to support business operations. The principle behind a unified physical infrastructure is to drive operational efficiency, mitigate risk, and lower capital and operational costs by eliminating physical and operational redundancies through an integrated infrastructure.

It's only natural, then, that to fully realize the potential of a UPI-based design, a management system must be in place to handle all of the infrastructure systems, which have traditionally operated on disparate networks with their own unique management platforms. That's what Panduit's Physical Infrastructure Manager software has been created specifically for - to deliver on the promise of the company's UPI vision.

Effective management of a UPI-based data center requires end-to-end visibility into the various elements, which is among the key features of Panduit's PIM solution. Real-time monitoring of the end-to-end physical infrastructure - including 24/7/365 patch field scanning - provides insight into the activities within the infrastructure at all times, allowing data center IT staff to effectively monitor, configure, and troubleshoot any real and potential connectivity issues.

With such visibility, and ability to isolate and repair connectivity issues rapidly, enterprises are assured of increased network uptime and availability of all data center assets, allowing their operations to function at maximum efficiency at all times.

Read more about how Panduit's PIM solution enables real-time end-to-end visibility into the physical layer infrastructure here, and for more on the PIM platform and Panduit's UPI vision, check out the extensive resources on the Smart Data Centers community on TMCnet.

PIM Offers Web-Based System to Optimize Network Resources

Posted by: Erin Harrison | November 5, 2009 1:53 PM |

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Data center solutions that help businesses minimize risk to their physical infrastructure through troubleshooting and more comprehensive asset tracking quite simply results in greater business agility and operational efficiency.

A recent study revealed that the world's largest IT departments have millions of servers that are not doing anything useful, which proves the argument that enterprises need to consolidate and unify resources in the data center to effectively manage mission-critical data.

"With U.S. data center energy consumption at an all time high, it's only logical that we reconsider how we are using IT resources. An unnecessary amount of data servers are plugged in 24/7 in an age when power-saving tools are available to businesses," said Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy.

A unified approach to physical and logical systems architecture is imperative to pave the way for solutions that address requirements for reduced risk, lower costs, increased agility and enhanced sustainability, according to the experts at Panduit.

Panduit's Physical Infrastructure Manager Software helps to ensure integrity throughout the enterprise, while providing asset and work order management, real-time change notifications and remote and on-site accessibility to network systems for enhanced visibility and control, company officials said.

The PIM Software Platform offers a Web-based management system that allows access to remote facility devices from one web access point, cost-effectively extending monitoring and management capabilities to offices or locations either regionally or globally.

The company is working with EMC to develop solutions that help customers manage risk within the physical infrastructure by intelligently converging physical and logical systems and provides EMC Ionix real-time information on the status of connectivity within the network cabling infrastructure. The PIM solution helps to drive operational and financial advantages across the enterprise, allowing businesses to improve reliability, reduce costs, heighten agility and support sustainability initiative.

PIM: Ensuring Data Center Resource Availability

Posted by: Erik Linask | November 1, 2009 11:17 PM |

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When it comes to business success, there is little that can damage a business' reputation than the quality of its network and access to its resources. Specifically, network downtime, resulting in an inability to access data and applications, can have the same detrimental impact as poor customer service.

To help drive efficient operations, enterprises are upgrading their data center to operate more efficiently and more cost effectively, and to be more environmentally friendly, and to generally support the data and application requirements of their operations, including providing access to those resources from a growing range of fixed and mobile devices.

Among the ways they are achieving resource optimization and operational efficiencies is through what Panduit calls a unified physical infrastructure. That is, they are leveraging IP networking solutions to enable all data center physical systems to run on a single converged network, allowing for more efficient resource utilization and management.

Naturally, simply running the entire infrastructure on a single network platform provides cost savings in a variety of ways but, in order to derive maximum benefit, a single, integrated management platform must also be deployed that allows visibility into the converged network and its assets, to increase performance and ensure network availability.

Panduit's Physical Infrastructure Manager (PIM) software, designed to integrate into a flexible UPI-based design, provides that visibility, offering end-to-end visibility and enabling both manual and automated features to ensure that network resources are optimized and to troubleshoot any real of potential points of failure.

Importantly, the PIM solution also integrates easily into existing management software, allowing those platforms to be brought under a single management umbrella for efficiency, while increasing the value of those solutions rather than requiring investment in and training on new software.

As data center technology continues to evolve, and as enterprises resource needs continue to grow, the strain on their data centers will only increase. A UPI-based approach will allow them the flexibility to grow, while reducing operational costs and, in many cases, reducing physical footprint through strategic consolidation.

But, the success of such projects will ultimately rest with the ability to manage the data center's physical infrastructure in a way that will ensure connectivity to its logical infrastructure. Without that connectivity, any cost savings and operational efficiency will be for naught.

Read more about Panduit's UPI vision and its PIM solution on the Smart Data Centers community.

UPI Approach the Answer for Infrastructure Management

Posted by: Erin Harrison | October 30, 2009 10:28 AM |

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With the rapid growth of IP-based communications across converged buildings and communications, each point of connection across the physical infrastructure is "mission critical."

The U.S. data center industry is in the midst of a major growth period stimulated by increasing demand for data processing and storage. According to an Energy Star report to Congress, during the past five years, increasing demand for computer resources has led to significant growth in the number of data center servers, along with an estimated doubling in the energy used by these servers and the power and cooling infrastructure that supports them.

A key component of Panduit's unified physical infrastructure approach allows for integration and risk management by aligning and balancing critical systems - power, communication, computing, security, and control - throughout the enterprise. Many of the so-called pain points in data centers are a direct result of the current economic climate, with a major focus on energy costs and sustainability.

Panduit's vision for a unified physical infrastructure focuses on optimizing power and cooling resources to not only cut costs, but to maximize the potential of a data center's physical footprint in providing additional capabilities without having to invest in additional resources.

A key pillar of the company's UPI vision is cost reduction, whereby the scalability of platform capabilities provides cost‐effective growth as business needs change, including future software platform capabilities for power, cooling and space. In addition, it focuses on automated documentation that assists with industry compliance and reporting regulations, eliminating costly and time-consuming manual reports.

This comprehensive approach to infrastructure design, deployment and management allows benefits to be realized across the entire enterprise.

The company's physical infrastructure management solution gives businesses the ability to: minimize downtime; perform a rapid restoration of failed connections; respond faster to configuration changes; assimilate usage and connectivity data quickly; save costs associated with troubleshooting network connectivity problems; provide accountable records that can be used for regulatory compliance; and cost-effectively grow with the changing needs of the business.

To learn more about Panduit's vision for a unified physical infrastructure, read this whitepaper.

Eco-Sustainability through Unified Physical Infrastructures

Posted by: Erik Linask | October 26, 2009 9:56 AM |

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As businesses grow, they are faced with the inherent technological challenges that accompany the addition of both headcount and physical footprint - namely, the task of effectively integrating disparate systems and technologies to create a single, unified environment to enable collaboration, business process efficiency, and cost effectiveness.

This holds equally for large enterprises looking to consolidate several large data centers and for smaller, mid-market businesses looking to consolidate their facilities into a single corporate headquarters - like Thornhill, Ontario, Canada-based MMM Group did.

MMM Group had, over five years, grown organically and by acquisition, and had managed to make do by bandaging together its disparate networks and management platforms, but realized this was highly inefficient from a cost and a business process perspective. So, it made the strategic decision to build out a new facility to house the majority of its staff and technology under one roof and a single network architecture.

Of course, MMM Group needed a reliable solution that would provide it the performance and reliability it required, but it also needed to ensure operational efficiency and environmental awareness - but keys to long-term sustainability. Along with operational sustainability, scalability was a key consideration, so that its new data center would be able to accommodate expected continued growth, including system upgrade and expansion.

MMM Group chose Panduit as a partner for its data center build-out, primarily because its unified physical infrastructure approach closely aligned with MMM Group's own ideal of a single, converged network to manage and control all of its network-based systems, including communications, computing, power, control, and security. The goal was to provide a smarter physical infrastructure that would provide the foundation for reliable real-time access to the resources delivered by the logical infrastructure layer, including the integration of all of MMM Group's IP network, including VoIP, video and data, wireless connectivity, security systems, and building access control.

MMM Group, after struggling to achieve cost and operational efficiencies with its disparate staff and networks, realized that its continued success would be dependent upon its ability to build a flexible infrastructure that would ensure real-time availability of applications and services, maintain compliance with industry standards and regulations, reduce power and cooling costs, increase environmental awareness and long-term sustainability, and increase operational efficiency.

Read more about how Panduit helps mid-market enterprises evolve their infrastructures to accomplish all of these goals.

Panduit's Living Lab for UPI-based Data Centers

Posted by: Erik Linask | October 25, 2009 11:05 PM |

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Green technology is quickly becoming a focus across enterprises - the question is, are businesses veiling their cost cutting measures as green initiatives or are they truly looking to become environmentally conscious. Panduit's vice president of global marketing Vineeth Ram, believes it's a combination of the two: nearly every business is focusing on the short term (i.e., cost reduction), but there is also increasing pressure to "do the right thing" from an environmental aspect, which actually delivers long-term savings in the way of sustainability.

In a recent video interview, Ram says that the key is really to turn "greenness" into a process, which is what Panduit is reinforcing with its unified physical infrastructure approach. Panduit recognizes that the tangible elements of green IT, like power and cooling conservation and footprint reduction, provide both short- and long-term benefits.

Panduit has built "green" into its overall approach to its data center products and solutions, including working with its partner ecosystem to create the most effective solutions for its customers, but Ram notes that, while it can deliver significant short-term benefits, the idea of a unified physical infrastructure is really designed to provide a long-term sustainability roadmap. This includes an integrated physical infrastructure that can easily adapt to new logical system components - a critical feature since physical layer components typically have a useful life three times that of logical layer elements.

Demonstrating the benefits of a UPI-based data center, Panduit has designed its new corporate headquarters using UPI-based solutions that span the entire facility and its various converged systems. Ram says the new facility will demonstrate what a unified physical infrastructure can deliver in terms of driving the benefits related to power and cooling, footprint reduction, efficiency, management, and sustainability,

"This is going to be living lab," he says. "It's going to be a proof point for the unified physical infrastructure."

For more on how Panduit is driving green technology through its UPI vision, watch the video with Vineeth Ram, and listen to a recent interview with Panduit's Anil Maheshwari about eco-sustainable enterprises.

Virtualization, Web 2.0 Calls for Greater Network Security

Posted by: Erin Harrison | October 23, 2009 4:48 PM |

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With increased acceptance of virtualization, cloud computing, Web 2.0, and software as service, physical infrastructure management is becoming more critical and will only continue to increase in importance.

However, laptop computing, remote workforces, messaging, and peer-to-peer Internet applications have widened the scope of security risks.

Roughly 16 percent of data runs through virtualized machines, which simulate multiple servers, therefore making them more efficient. Last year, there were 5.8 million virtualized servers; Gartner predicts that number to rise ten-fold by 2012, the Dow Jones recently reported.

Real-time monitoring and visibility into the physical infrastructure allows IT managers to see what is occurring in their infrastructure - at any given moment.

A significant aspect of Panduit's PIM system is the combination of software and hardware that "empowers" enterprises to meet both current and future requirements for real-time monitoring of patch field connectivity speeds alerts of changes or security risks to administrators. This can also facilitate multiple notifications to other management systems via email or pager, according to Panduit officials.

This approach is ultimately changing infrastructure design and management strategies and synchronization of critical systems - communication, computing, power, control, and security - which is key to improving performance throughout the enterprise and managing risk.

The growing interdependence of systems and applications, and the increased demands that they place on physical infrastructures, requires the integration of traditionally disparate and proprietary systems. This trend is dramatically changing infrastructure design, management strategies and effective synchronization of critical systems, opening the door for seamless convergence and interoperability of all core business systems.

The Message for Smart Data Centers Being Heard Loud and Clear

Posted by: Erin Harrison | October 22, 2009 10:30 AM |

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As the need to optimize the physical infrastructure through simplification, increased agility and operational efficiency comes into greater focus, it's clear the message for smart data centers and a unified physical infrastructure is resonating with enterprises.

I had the opportunity to speak recently with Panduit's Mike Pula, the company's analyst relations manager, and he explained how Panduit's relationship with industry leading advisor and research firm Gartner has formed a coalition to promote a reduction in risk for customers. Companies have the opportunity to ultimately turn today's improvements in IT infrastructure and process efficiency into business advantages in the near and far future.

"One of the key messages that both of us embrace is risk reduction for our clients," Pula said. "As customers are making some very hard decisions and going forward in taking a look at how they are going to get more density in the data center, how they are going to be able to consolidate and be able to bring more value to their customers, it is necessary for the customers to be educated. It is necessary for them to be able make the right decisions and have the whole picture in front of them so that they are not just making decisions based on the current standards, which are great in and of themselves, but they are only a piece of the whole puzzle that must be taken into account."

That is one of the key points in understanding Panduit's UPI vision. The industry tradition has thus been a "piece-part" approach, which unfortunately doesn't address your power, cooling or space kinds of challenges. Panduit's approach is to put together a complete reference architecture around all of these different pieces, and bring them together to help customers manage risk within the physical infrastructure by intelligently converging physical and logical systems.

And with the economy seemingly stabilizing, Panduit's UPI vision message will become that much stronger, Pula said, underscoring that today's business climate is an ideal time for companies to ready themselves for the opportunities that exist on the horizon in the new economy.

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Recently in data center Category

UPI Vision Rounds Out Eco-Sustainability Efforts

Panduit's PIM Software Calls the Plays in the Data Center

Business Operations Depend on Physical Infrastructure Manager

PIM Offers Web-Based System to Optimize Network Resources

PIM: Ensuring Data Center Resource Availability

UPI Approach the Answer for Infrastructure Management

Eco-Sustainability through Unified Physical Infrastructures

Panduit's Living Lab for UPI-based Data Centers

Virtualization, Web 2.0 Calls for Greater Network Security

The Message for Smart Data Centers Being Heard Loud and Clear

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