Schneider Electric, announced today the expansion of its IP and NEMA rated EcoStruxure Micro Data Center R-Series for rugged indoor environments. The new micro data centres offer a fast and simple way to deploy and manage edge computing infrastructure in challenging indoor spaces for industrial use. The six new models are available in 16U, 24U, and 42U sizes starting in December in the United States and Canada. They will be available in Europe early next year.
As industrial operators deploy Industry 4.0 technologies to increase productivity, safety, and automation, micro data centres are becoming essential to addressing everything from the convergence of IT and OT to the enabling of IIoT applications — making IT on the factory floor more reliable.
“Advanced automation technologies come with significant cost-saving, safety, and productivity benefits, but to reap the benefits, IT must be located closer to the end point — in spaces that weren’t built with IT in mind,” says Jean-Baptiste Plagne, Vice President Offer Management, Rack & Edge Systems, Energy Management, Schneider Electric. “To ensure reliability of IT networks on the factory floor, we are introducing the new IP and NEMA rated R-Series EcoStruxure Micro Data Centre. These micro data centres provide a solution that’s simple-to-manage for IT and industrial channels and for end users like distributors.”
EcoStruxure Micro Data Center solutions are configurable, pre-packaged, enclosed rack systems that include power, cooling, security, and management. They save up to 40% in field engineering costs, get systems to market 20% faster, and reduce maintenance costs by 7%. Micro data centres take advantage of existing infrastructure and can potentially reduce capital expenses by 42% a traditional build. The new R-Series reinforces these benefits and helps customers alleviate difficulties because it is:
- Built to withstand harsh indoor environments and applications. Industrial edge environments can be challenging with high levels of dust, moisture, and wide temperature variations.
- With Schneider Electric’s portfolio of software and services when there’s limited-to-no on-site IT staff. EcoStruxure IT, an open, vendor-agnostic platform, provides the power and flexibility for users to manage critical infrastructure on their own, with a partner, or to allow Schneider Electric’s service engineers to manage the assets for them.
- It can go in unsecured locations.
- Able to standardise your design across multiple environments with a single, all-in-one-solution, which is easier to deploy and maintain than disparate systems.
The new R-Series is available through APC Channel Partners and Schneider Electric sales representatives.
For industrial operators to capture the benefits of increased automation, they cannot rely on cloud-technology alone to bring the resiliency and speed demanded by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other Industry 4.0 technologies. Local edge data centres are IT infrastructure enclosures/spaces/facilities distributed geographically to enable endpoints on the network. When in industrial environments, such as a manufacturing plant or distribution centre, this application is referred to as “industrial edge computing.” Analysts have identified the edge as becoming increasingly important.
