Infrastructure

R&M introduces latest version of its DCIM software

R&M, a globally active developer and provider of high-end infrastructure solutions for data and communications networks, is now offering Release 5 of the DCIM software, inteliPhy net. With Release 5, inteliPhy net is turning into a digital architect for data centres. Computer rooms can be flexibly designed according to the demand, application, size, and category of the data centre. Planners can position the infrastructure modules intuitively on an arbitrary floor plan using drag-and-drop, and inteliPhy net enables detailed 2D and 3D visualisations that are also suitable for project presentations. With inteliPhy net, it is possible to insert, structure and move racks, rack rows and enclosures with just a few clicks, R&M tells us. Patch panels, PDUs, cable ducts and pre-terminated trunk cables can be added, adapted and connected virtually just as quickly. The software finds optimal routes for the trunk cables and calculates the cable lengths. inteliPhy net contains an extensive library of templates for the entire infrastructure, such as racks, patch panels, cables and power supply. Models for active devices with data on weight, size, ports, slots, feed connections, performance and consumption are also included. Users can configure metamodels and save them for future planning. During planning, inteliPhy net generates an inventory list that can be used directly for cost calculations and orders. The planning process results in a database with a digital twin of the computer room. It serves as the basis for the entire Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM), which is the main function of inteliPhy net. R&M also now offers ready-made KPI reports with zero-touch configuration for inteliPhy net. Users can link the reports with environmental, monitoring, infrastructure, and operating data to monitor the efficiency of the data centre. Customisable dashboards and automated KPI analyses help them to regulate power consumption and temperatures more precisely, and to utilise resources. Another new feature is the interaction of inteliPhy net with a focus on the savings in packaging service from R&M. Customers can, for example, configure Netscale 48 patch panels individually with inteliPhy net. R&M assembles the patch panels completely ready for installation and delivers them in single packaging. The concept saves a considerable amount of individual packaging for small parts. This reduces raw material consumption, waste and the time required for installation. For more from R&M, click here.

Eaton announces launch of 5P Gen 2 UPS

Intelligent power management company, Eaton, has announced the launch of the Eaton 5P Gen 2 UPS, a compact and more efficient power solution for edge and IT needs. Delivering more output, security and control than any other device in its class, this new product range also enables fleet management, remote UPS setting and remote firmware upgrades. The 5P Gen 2 has enhanced power capability and provides up to 1350W, which is 22% more than its predecessor and 33% more than comparable models available on the market, making it ideal for protecting a wide range of applications. Its intelligent design ensures both stable performance and energy savings, while advanced load segment control prioritises critical equipment and optimises battery runtime. This UPS model features the Eaton ABM+ Advanced Battery Management technology, which extends battery life by up to 50% and allows for accurate battery life prediction and timely replacement alerts powered by machine learning. It also comes with hot-swappable batteries and an intuitive battery replacement wizard via a built-in graphical LCD. Eaton’s Intelligent Power Manager (IPM2) and Distributed IT Performance Management (DITPM) software enable remote monitoring and management of IT infrastructure, even in hard-to-reach locations, including secure device configuration and firmware updates. The Eaton 5P Gen 2 UPS, together with the cybersecure Gigabit Network Card (included in the Netpack versions), meets stringent cybersecurity standards. Moreover, Eaton’s Brightlayer Software Suite is available for seamless integration with virtualisation environments, ensuring continuous service and data integrity. Whether customers opt for the compact 1U rack or the tower option, the Eaton 5P Gen 2 UPS fits all space requirements, making it compatible with a variety of setups. For more from Eaton, click here.

SELECT warns about demand for electricity from power-hungry AI

SELECT's new President has warned that the demands on the electrical network to power AI may become unsustainable as it becomes a growing part of society. Mike Stark, who took over the association reins last week, said the UK’s National Grid could struggle to satisfy the voracious energy needs of AI and the systems it supports. The 62-year-old, who is Director of Data Cabling and Networks at Member firm OCS M&E Services, joins a growing number of experts who have warned about the new technology’s huge appetite for electricity, which is often greater than many small countries use in a year. And he questioned whether the UK’s current electrical infrastructure was fit for purpose in the face of the massive increase in predicted demand, not only from the power-hungry data centres supporting AI, but also from the continued rise in electric vehicle (EV) charging units. Mike says, “AI is becoming more embedded in our everyday lives, from digital assistants and chatbots helping us on websites to navigation apps and autocorrect on our mobile phones. And it is going to become even more prevalent in the near future. “Data centres, which have many servers as their main components, need electrical power to survive. It is therefore only natural that any talk about building a data centre should begin with figuring out the electrical needs and how to satisfy those power requirements. “At present, the UK’s National Grid appears to be holding its own, with current increases being met with renewable energy systems. But as technology advances and systems such as AI are introduced, there will be a time when the grid will struggle to support the demand.” Mike said that it is estimated that there could be 1.5 million AI servers by 2027. Running at full capacity, these would consume between 85 and 134 terawatt hours per year – roughly equivalent to the current energy demands of countries like the Netherlands and Sweden. He adds, “I remember attending an EV training session about 25 years ago and the standing joke was, ‘Where’s all this electricity going to come from?’ We all felt the network needed upgrading then, and now there is extra pressure from the new AI data centres springing up.” Mike has spent 44 years in the electrical industry, with 40 of those providing continued service at the same company; starting at Arthur McKay as a qualified electrician in June 1984, through to his current role at what is now OCS. He was confirmed as new SELECT President at the association’s AGM at the Doubletree Edinburgh North Queensferry on Thursday 6 June, taking over from Alistair Grant.

Lightpath to acquire United Fiber & Data Assets

Lightpath, an all-fibre, infrastructure-based connectivity provider seeking to revolutionise how organisations connect to their digital destinations, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of United Fiber and Data (UFD). The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2024. UFD owns and operates a unique and diverse 323-route mile, high-fibre count network between New York City and Ashburn, VA, connecting the largest population centre in the country with the largest data centre and cloud ecosystem in the world. UFD also owns a 79-route mile metro network in New York City and New Jersey, including connectivity to over 350 enterprise and data centre locations and a high-fibre count crossing of the Hudson River, which will add capacity to Lightpath’s three existing Hudson River crossings. UFD’s New York City-Ashburn network offers high-fibre counts, the latest optical technologies from Ciena, and will support dark fibre, Ethernet, and wavelengths up to 800 Gbps. This unique network is geographically diverse from typical long-haul routes along the I-95 corridor and will enhance Lightpath’s network of over 20,000 route miles, connecting over 15,000 service locations, including over 140 data centres and seven cable landing stations. The combination of networks will allow Lightpath to offer geographically diverse, high-capacity services from commercial enterprise buildings, cable landing stations, and data centres along the east coast, directly to the Ashburn ecosystem. Chris Morley, CEO of Lightpath, comments, “The addition United Fiber & Data is a natural extension of Lightpath’s expansive Greater New York City Metropolitan fibre assets, increasing our ability to serve high-capacity customer needs into the Ashburn data centre ecosystem and further enhancing our Manhattan metro coverage where we will serve nearly 1,500 enterprise and data centre destinations, a five times increase over the past three years. “This represents a continuation of Lightpath’s strategic investment thesis of creating critical fibre infrastructure in attractive and high growth markets for the benefit of our enterprise, hyperscale, and wholesale customers.” UFD customers will gain access to the entire Lightpath network as well as the entire service portfolio, including wavelengths, ethernet, internet, private networks, dark fibre, LP FlexNet, voice, security solutions, and other managed services. Additionally, customers will be able to utilise Lightpath services to connect to over 140 data centres, seven cable landing stations, and all major cloud providers.

New partnership will integrate digital twin software with DCIM platform

Schneider Electric has partnered with IT services provider DC Smarter, the German specialist for augmented reality solutions, to integrate its digital twin software, DC Vision, within Schneider Electric’s Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) platform, EcoStruxureä IT Advisor.  Available immediately for purchase via Schneider Electric, DC Vision utilises data from EcoStruxure IT and combines it with augmented reality (AR) to create a comprehensive software solution that helps optimise infrastructure performance and increase operational resilience.  By integrating these technologies and consolidating data from DCIM, IT Service Management (ITSM) and Building Management System (BMS) technologies within the Digital Twin, data centre operators can gain granular insights into the health and status of their infrastructure, and make an informed decision to increase performance, sustainability and reliability.  Further, by removing conventional IT silos, the digital twin allows owners, operators and IT managers to visualise the data centre environment using real-time information and thereby create a comprehensive digital replica which leverages all relevant performance data from the data centre.  DC Vision, integrated with Schneider Electric EcoStruxureä IT Advisor, also provides key opportunities for seamless collaboration between on-site workers and remote technicians. Its Remote Assist feature, for example, makes it possible for experts and colleagues to interact with the platform in real-time, and share a common AR view of their critical environment to support and encourage collective problem-solving alongside the processing of complex tasks - regardless of location. Schneider Electric's digital twin technology is an important core of DC Vision’s advanced capabilities. With Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure IT Advisor solution, a virtual image of the physical data centre can be created, including the necessary database.  The virtual 3D representation allows precise monitoring and analysis of the entire IT infrastructure. Additionally, the integration of AR software provides IT personnel with easy-to-understand real-time status information and actionable, contextual instructions, which help to quickly identify faults and properly handle complex service tasks. DC Vision is available immediately for purchase via Schneider Electric.  For more from Schneider Electric, click here.

DCIM market to reach $6.3bn by 2030

New Omdia research has revealed that the market value of data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) is expected to reach $6.3bn by 2030. From overseeing infrastructure equipment in remote cabinets to sprawling hyperscale data centres, DCIM solutions offer a comprehensive approach to monitoring and measuring. Managing power and cooling is typically the responsibility of operational teams (OT) rather than IT departments, with the key objective of maintaining the resiliency/availability of the infrastructure. However, as this scope gains prominence, a transformative convergence between IT and OT is taking place across organisations; an area tracked in Omdia’s DCIM Market Landscape: The role of DCIM in IT and OT convergence. Omdia’s IT Enterprise Insights: IT Spending & Sourcing 2024 survey sheds light on how organisations are budgeting for IT needs this year. Highlighting a familiar pattern, the data showed that the majority (65%) of IT budgets will be directed towards maintaining existing systems and services while, 18% will go towards expanding current services, and 17% towards transformative initiatives in 2024. This figure mirrors trends from the last few years, reflecting the persistent challenges of increasing labour and energy costs. Omdia expects that organisations will increasingly turn to automation, AI-enabled optimisation, and as-a-service models to manage costs and drive more investment towards transformative projects over the next five years. The ongoing volatility of energy prices is a critical factor impacting IT budgets globally as energy tariffs vary from country to country and within. Despite expectations for continued fluctuations driven by market dynamics, fuel types, regulations, weather patterns, and geopolitical uncertainty, there is little indication that energy prices will stabilise in the near future. 2023 witnessed a dip in server output following two exceptional years in 2021 and 2022. The downturn can be attributed to various factors including the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain issues, and ongoing global geopolitical uncertainties. However, Omdia forecasts indicate a positive outlook for 2024 and beyond. IT equipment, particularly servers (partially to meet the demands of GenAI) and network equipment (to meet the needs of faster network connectivity) is expected to see year-on-year increases. This increased infrastructure necessitates robust monitoring and will drive DCIM revenue.  According to Omdia’s Chief Analyst Roy Illsley, “DCIM is set to be a $6.3bn market by 2030, driven by the twin forces of sustainability and the need to optimise efficiency in data centres as the GenAI wave impacts enterprise customers.” For more from Omdia, click here.

EXA introduces new route between Ashburn and Atlanta

EXA Infrastructure, a digital infrastructure platform connecting Europe to North America, has announced a further step in enhancing its infrastructure presence in North America with a new route connecting Ashburn and Atlanta. Atlanta is emerging as a key data centre hub, and is the fastest-growing data centre market in the US according to the CBRE North America Data Centre Trends H2 2023 Report. Data centre projects under active construction in Atlanta increased by 211% between H1 2023 and H2 2023, with notable major campus developments on the drawing board, as outlined in this report. The new route will follow the base of the Appalachians and will introduce a new highly resilient and diverse offering from all the existing options on this route. EXA will deploy the new DWDM Flex Ciena system for optimal latency and optionality up to 400G. This network expansion in North America is aligned with EXA Infrastructure’s investment strategy to expand its vast network and provide more on-net route combinations for connectivity to new data centre markets and across the Atlantic. Customers will be able to single source 'on-net' circuits end-to-end from Atlanta to London, thereby achieving better operational efficiency and control. “This is a major step for EXA Infrastructure, as we continue to deliver on our wider strategy to connect high-growth data centre markets across North America,” comments Steve Roberts, SVP Strategic Investments and Product Management at EXA Infrastructure. “Atlanta is a key market for many of our customers, including those in the AI-focused industries, and this new route will serve their connectivity needs to Europe and beyond”. EXA is continuing to expand its presence in North America, including recent announcements of its expanded trans-Atlantic cable routes. For more from EXA Infrastructure, click here.

Partnership to prioritise high-performance content delivery

Epsilon Telecommunications, a global interconnectivity provider, has been chosen by Moratelindo, one of the largest telecommunications infrastructure and network providers in Indonesia, to connect customers to a global ecosystem of Internet Exchanges (IXs) via Remote Peering. This partnership enables Moratelindo’s enterprise customers, carriers and service providers to extend their network reach and improve content and application performance in the US, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan and the rest of the world without the need for additional infrastructure investment and physical presence in-country. Epsilon’s Remote Peering solution is available via Network as a Service (NaaS) platform Infiny, providing Moratelindo and its customers with on-demand access to internet exchange points such as Any2Exchange in the US, AMS-IX in Europe, HK-IX in Hong Kong and JP-IX in Japan. Epsilon has established a 100G network-to-network interface (NNI) with Moratelindo, further enabling its customers to access a broader network via Epsilon’s backbone infrastructure. This also eliminates the need for costly international private leased circuit (IPLC) connections. “The cloud market in Indonesia is booming, and remote peering is really changing the game for businesses looking to expand and improve the performance of their services across the globe,” says Warren Aw, CCO at Epsilon Telecommunications. “It has never been easier to offer services quickly in new markets with minimal upfront investments, and bring content closer to end users with reduced latency. It’s great to work with Moratelindo to make truly global connectivity a reality for more Indonesian businesses, and accelerate digital transformation across the region.” The partnership is enhancing Moratelindo’s Network Interconnect and Content Autonomous (MoNICA) neutral Internet Exchange, which can now provide connectivity to a wider pool of international IXs for domestic and international telecommunications operators, Internet service providers, content and games providers. Leveraging Epsilon's Infiny platform, which offers access to 140+ on-ramp locations and 18+ IX partners, Moratelindo can seamlessly integrate additional IX partners into MoNICA via a single interconnection port. This enables customers to easily extend their reach into new markets and rapidly scale bandwidth according to demands. “This partnership with Epsilon is helping to take our MoNICA IX to the next level and enhance the Indonesian telecommunications industry with efficient traffic exchange,” notes Michael McPhail, CTO at Moratelindo. “Establishing presence at multiple global IXs would have been a challenge for us due to the complexities of managing various IX memberships and onboarding, as well as legal matters, billing and more. Epsilon’s extensive industry experience proved invaluable, as they removed these challenges by enabling us to utilise their existing relationships and connections through a single port and contract. We’re driving the market forward and enabling Indonesia’s digital future, making it simple to interconnect globally and improve the performance of services for end users.” As well as Remote Peering, Infiny provides on-demand provisioning of key services including Data Centre Interconnection (DCI), Cloud Connect and Global Inbound Numbers. Epsilon's MEF-certified network extends across more than 300 data centres globally and is powered by software-defined networking (SDN) technology. For more from Epsilon, click here.

Centiel launches rapid deployment UPS hire service

Centiel's award-winning UPS innovations are now available to hire on a short or longer-term basis for data centres needing instant power protection during refurbishment, or other facilities such as hospitals which require an immediate, temporary uninterruptible power supply. Andrew Skelton, Operations Director at Centiel, explains, “We offer flexible, rapid deployment of our industry leading UPS solutions from our standalone and modular ranges from 10kW to 1.5MW. We also have containerised modular UPS solutions for larger projects between 50kW and 1.5MW. Our containerised solutions hire includes electrical installation, integral lighting, fire detection and suppression, cooling, batteries and 24/7/365 support with guaranteed site attendance, making it suitable as a full ‘plug and play’ emergency option or for facilities needing to back up their existing UPS while refurbishment or other works take place. “Our UPS hire solution can be arranged to suit specific needs at very short notice. Subject to availability, we currently have two 600kW and one 300kW containerised, flexible UPS solutions ready to deploy within 48 hours and we are currently adding to the fleet. We can also parallel them together for sites requiring up to 1.5MW of backup power. The containers can be delivered onto suitably rated hard standing areas to suit disaster recovery situations or planned shutdowns. “The UPS's arrive fully tested with batteries already charged. We simply deliver the bespoke containerised UPS solution into position, install the top row of batteries and connect the AC input and output cabling via Powerlock connections, so the system is typically up and running within six hours of delivery.” Routine maintenance is covered by the hire charge for extended hire periods and Centiel’s UPS can remain on site for as long as the facility needs critical power protection. Hiring a UPS may be a tax efficient way to solve an organisation’s short term power protection problems as a purchase comes out of Capital Expenditure (CAPEX), whilst a rental can be set against Operational Expenditure (OPEX). Centiel’s UPS hire service is available for its standalone UPS PremiumTower and also its three-phase, modular UPS CumulusPower which offers '9 nines' (99.9999999%) availability to effectively eliminate system downtime; class leading 97.1% on-line efficiency to minimise running costs and true 'hot swap' modules to eliminate human error in operation. Andrew continues, “Our fast deployment UPS's, including our containerised solutions, are ready to go. They are an ideal temporary solution for data centres, hospitals or other facilities needing to provide critical power at short notice or for an economical option to support more planned projects.” Centiel now protects critical loads for data centres and comms rooms in over 100 countries across five continents. For more from Centiel, click here.

Kohler launches new KD Series industrial generator

Kohler Power Systems, part of Kohler Energy, has expanded its KD Series line of industrial generators with a new model, KD800, designed for 50hz markets. This generator features a new advanced engine (KD18L06) that can also run on Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as a renewable fuel source. This new model joins a proven series of gensets that continues to provide the highest power density and best fuel consumption at more nodes than competitors between 800-4500 kVa, offering cost savings to users. The new KD unit is designed to power mission-critical applications, including airports, hospitals, and healthcare facilities, water treatment plants and mid-sized data centres. The KD800 joins Kohler’s industrial generators that are engineered to use HVO fuel. HVO provides a more sustainable alternative to conventional diesel and biofuels. No adaptation is needed and both HVO and diesel can be mixed together. HVO is also highly stable, with no sensitivity to oxidation, so it can be stored long-term. It enables to offset carbon emission by up to 90% by using renewable waste products. Kohler’s KD Series is designed to deliver extreme durability and ultimate reliability in a variety of emergency and prime applications. KD Series generators are engineered to last, with better fuel economy and a small footprint. When paired with Kohler’s global sales and support network, the KD Series line-up provides an innovation that secures customers’ critical operations. And when service is needed, Kohler has a global dealer and distribution infrastructure consisting of more than 800 facilities offering 24/7 parts availability. For additional details about the Kohler KD Series range, visit its product catalogue by clicking here. For more from Kohler, click here.