Africa’s first Microsoft Technology Centre (MTC) is powered by a complete power and cooling solution from APC by Schneider Electric.
The high-tech facility aims to assist local companies of all sizes to become more globally competitive by providing access to innovative technologies and world-class expertise in order to develop ‘next-generation solutions’ to business problems.
According to MTC director Markus Hain, the Schneider Electric modular data centre solution has provided a world-class data centre solution that provides core capabilities to the facility. “What impressed us most was the speedy implementation time as everything just clicks into place. The overall efficiency of the racks, cooling and software monitoring has enabled us to focus more on helping customers and less on administration of the data centre.”
Hain adds that the use of StruxureWare has provided the integration necessary to enable seamless failover in case of power outages.
Bruce Grobler, director of the IT business unit at Schneider Electric South Africa, highlights that challenges can occur at every stage of a data centre design from planning, monitoring and operation, and at server, rack, row, room and building levels.
“The complexity of implementing data centre infrastructure management software across functions is the most significant barrier to adopting an integrated, company-wide approach for sustainability. StruxureWare for Data Centers is a management software suite designed to collect and manage data about assets, resource use and operational status throughout the data centre lifecycle. This information is then distributed, integrated and applied in ways that help managers optimise the data centre’s performance and meet IT, business and service-oriented goals. From IT assets to racks, rows, rooms and buildings, StruxureWare for Data Centers delivers the right information to the right users at the right time,” he explains.
Grobler also believes that APC by Schneider Electric’s partnership with Microsoft will provide the energy management specialist with numerous opportunities to showcase its latest technology innovations to partners, consultants and end users, thereby strengthening the leadership position of the organisation.
“The MTC community has adopted APC by Schneider Electric as its partner of choice worldwide. It continues to demonstrate world class solutions using Schneider Electric solutions, hardware partners and Microsoft software in order for customers to examine the full solution in operation, so as to ensure their own success,” concludes Hain.
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