Emerson Network Power White Papers Explore thought leadership surrounding mission-critical network protection, and gain in-depth knowledge about mission-critical power and cooling technology. Click on the title and download the white papers in .pdf format.                                                     Energy Efficiency Evaluating the Economic Impact of UPS Technology The sensitivity of electronic systems to power disturbances and the likelihood of interruptions in utility power make it easy to justify the purchase of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to protect business-critical systems. As a result, UPS systems have become standard in just about every data center and server room. Enhancing Business Resiliency  Through Adaptive Power and Cooling Support for IT System This paper focuses on the critical power and cooling systems that create the foundation for IT resiliency, and ultimately dictate the level of operational resiliency and flexibility that can be achieved in a given organization A Flexible Approach to Protecting IT System Availability This flexible approach is scalable, reliable and efficient in terms of energy, cost and space while sacrificing neither floor space or reliability. With proper planning and use of next-generation equipment, data center operating costs can be held steady or even drop, even as network availability becomes more critical. Protecting the Retail Information Chain The retail supply chain must support two interdependent processes:      • Product flow      • Information flow An effective and efficient product supply chain depends heavily on an integrated, visible, “always-on” information chain. Keeping that information chain “always on” is one of the key challenges facing many retailers. Choosing the Right UPS for Small and Midsize Data Centers: A Cost and Reliability Comparison A dependable uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system is essential to protecting data centers and server rooms from unplanned downtime and equipment damage. Energy Logic: Reducing Data Center Energy Consumption by Creating Savings that Cascade Across Systems A number of associations, consultants and vendors have promoted best practices for enhancing data center energy efficiency. These practices cover everything from facility lighting to cooling system design, and have proven useful in helping some companies slow or reverse the trend of rising data center energy consumption. However, most organizations still lack a cohesive, holistic approach for reducing data center energy use. Emerson Network Power analyzed the available energy-saving opportunities and identified the top ten. Each of these ten opportunities were then applied to a 5,000-square-foot data center model based on real-world technologies and operating parameters. Through the model, Emerson Network Power was able to quantify the savings of each action at the system level, as well as identify how energy reduction in some systems affects consumption in supporting systems. Energy Logic: Calculating and Prioritizing Your Data Center IT Efficiency Actions The lack of a true data center efficiency metric is challenging to IT and data center managers as they try to justify much needed IT investments to management. It also adds to the difficulty data center managers have in comparing efficiencies across their data centers to prioritize where efficiency-improving actions will have the greatest impact. In addition, they need to be able to track data center efficiencies over time. This paper not only shows how IT and data center managers can use an efficiency metric to address these challenges, but also provides a prioritized set of actions to gain the greatest improvement in efficiency. The Always-On Network: Strategies for Achieving High Availability of IT Systems Any significant change in an organization’s physical structure, technology deployment or business objectives should trigger a reevaluation of the four elements of its physical support plan – power, heat removal, monitoring and service management. Technologies Simplifying Infrastructure Management Achieving high availability is still a priority, but a new generation of infrastructure systems are emerging that enable greater flexibility in how IT systems and facilities are managed. This paper describes five infrastructure technologies that are making it easier for growing businesses to introduce new IT systems as needed while maintaining high levels of availability. IT Adaptability Data Center Space Optimization: Power and Cooling Strategies to Optimize Space in the Controlled Environment With data center rack densities increasing exponentially and blade servers promising to pushthem much higher faster than many expected, IT managers are facing difficult decisions regarding critical system infrastructure.  Managing Extreme Heat: Cooling Strategies for High-Density Systems As computer manufacturers pack more and more processing power into smaller packages, the challenge of data center cooling becomes more complex – and more critical. New servers and communication switches generate as much as ten times the heat per square foot as systems manufactured just ten years ago. Seven Ways Precision Air Conditioning Outperforms Comfort System in Controlled Environments Efficient, reliable operation of business critical computer systems is essential to the success of companies in virtually every industry. The cost of downtime is high, with even a short interruption causing the potential loss of productivity, profits and customer goodwill. And, business critical computers are no longer clustered only in one centralized location. Many organizations today have multiple data centers, including smaller centers at remote locations. Blade Servers and Beyond: Adaptive Cooling for the Next Generation of IT Systems High-density servers and communications switches, increased emphasis on business continuity, the convergence of voice and data, and new support system technologies are all driving change in the traditional data center. Application Considerations for Cooling Small Computer and Server Rooms Too often, precision air conditioning is only considered when humidity control is required. If the application does not demand humidity control, comfort cooling is installed. In fact, the combination of recent economic conditions and an increasingly competitive market have led to a rise in the number of server rooms and data closets being served by traditional comfort cooling  The Always-On Network: Strategies for Achieving High Availability of IT Systems Any significant change in an organization’s physical structure, technology deployment or business objectives should trigger a reevaluation of the four elements of its physical support plan – power, heat removal, monitoring and service management. Technologies Simplifying Infrastructure Management Achieving high availability is still a priority, but a new generation of infrastructure systems are emerging that enable greater flexibility in how IT systems and facilities are managed. This paper describes five infrastructure technologies that are making it easier for growing businesses to introduce new IT systems as needed while maintaining high levels of availability. Critical Systems Are "Mission Critical Applications" in Your Datacenter Outrunning Your System Protection? Corporate datacenters – even small ones – are supporting more critical business applications such as integrated data/voice/video networks, real-time interaction and e-commerce support for Web sites, and sophisticated knowledge management systems. The backbone of these applications is the new-generation server switch capable of managing gigabit-scale information loads. These rack-mountable switches can become part of a scalable support for a wide range of company and customer-facing functions Five Questions to Ask Before Selecting Power Protection for Critical Systems In an ideal world, electrical utilities would deliver clean, reliable power to business critical systems. Unfortunately, this is not the reality. Appropriate systems are required to ensure necessary power availability and quality is achieved as simply and cost effectively as possible. Secure Remote Monitoring of the Critical System Infrastructure  Enterprises seeking to improve the availability of business-critical systems can now utilize the Internet to dynamically control service access into their protected networks, while still shielding their assets from ongoing security threats. Regulatory Compliance and Critical System Protection Regulatory compliance has become a legal and necessary extension of business continuity and disaster recovery planning for IT departments as they take steps to ensure their companies do not run afoul of an increasingly complex set of laws and regulations relating to data integrity and availability. Business continuity and systems security are also being driven by the Department of Homeland Security for both government and commercial operations. New laws and regulations not only mandate effective integrity, availability, and accountability of systems and processes relating to data, they set severe civil – and in some cases, criminal – penalties for failure. Balancing Scalability and Reliability in the Critical Power System: When Does N + 1 Become N + Too Many? Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) protection can be delivered through a single-module approach or through redundant systems. Redundancy enables higher availability of critical systems and is typically achieved through either an N + 1 or 1 + 1 design. While 1 + 1 systems deliver a significant improvement in availability over N + 1 systems and are regularly specified for the most critical applications, N + 1 remains a viable and popular option for applications seeking to balance cost, reliability and scalability. The Always-On Network: Strategies for Achieving High Availability of IT Systems Any significant change in an organization’s physical structure, technology deployment or business objectives should trigger a reevaluation of the four elements of its physical support plan – power, heat removal, monitoring and service management. Technologies Simplifying Infrastructure Management Achieving high availability is still a priority, but a new generation of infrastructure systems are emerging that enable greater flexibility in how IT systems and facilities are managed. This paper describes five infrastructure technologies that are making it easier for growing businesses to introduce new IT systems as needed while maintaining high levels of availability. IP Telephony IP Telephony and Reliability: Are Your Mission-Critical Phone Systems Safe From Power Threats?  IT managers who are used to implementing power protection for IT network or data center applications face new challenges in protecting their enterprise IP telephony systems. Users demand the same high level of reliability for IP telephony and its converged voice/data/video applications as they demand from the analog telephone systems that IP telephony replaces. Accordingly, IT managers must provide a much higher level of power protection available only through the use of double-conversion online UPSs. When IP telephony equipment is installed in a data center, additional environmental protection may also be necessary  The Always-On Network: Strategies for Achieving High Availability of IT Systems Managing the availability of mission critical systems requires an understanding of the risks and costs of losing access to business critical information or services balanced against the cost of achieving a certain level of availability Power and Cooling Best Practices for IP Communications  IP telephony and Power over Ethernet (PoE) are driving the requirement for increasing uptime levels, power capacity and the need for dedicated precision air conditioning across the network. High-availability environments, such as data centers and computer rooms, may have the power and cooling infrastructure in place to handle these changes, but in many cases, equipment rooms and wiring closets do not. Power and cooling considerations must be factored into IP telephony to ensure required availability levels can be achieved The Always-On Network: Strategies for Achieving High Availability of IT Systems Any significant change in an organization’s physical structure, technology deployment or business objectives should trigger a reevaluation of the four elements of its physical support plan – power, heat removal, monitoring and service management. Technologies Simplifying Infrastructure Management Achieving high availability is still a priority, but a new generation of infrastructure systems are emerging that enable greater flexibility in how IT systems and facilities are managed. This paper describes five infrastructure technologies that are making it easier for growing businesses to introduce new IT systems as needed while maintaining high levels of availability. Power Power Management Strategies for High-Density IT Facilities and Systems / Powering Change in the Data Center  The growth in the number of devices that must be supported is driving change in the power distribution system. Power distribution is evolving from single-stage to two-stage designs to enable increased scalability, reduced cabling and more effective use of data center space   Longevity of Key Components in Uninterruptible Power Systems In this white paper, we briefly discuss the functional life of key components and the frequency at which Emerson Network Power suggests their replacement. Even though these key components have a limited design life, a well planned preventive maintenance service on the UPS, that includes the periodic replacement of these components, may ensure a continuous and reliable operation of the UPS for many years to come. Capacitors Age and Capacitors Have an End of Life  This white paper discusses large DC aluminum electrolytic and AC polymeric film capacitors for use in a UPS application: specifically field aging, failure modes, expected service life and preventative maintenance. Regulatory Compliance and Critical System Protection: The Role of Mission-Critical Power and Cooling in Data Integrity and Availability Connects the dots between new regulations requiring or implying higher requirements for power and cooling.  These regulations are in part driving the development of business continuity planning. IP Telephony and Reliability: Protecting Mission-Critical Phone Systems from Power Threats  Provides description of problems that were occurring with high-speed switches at an entertainment conglomerate, how they were discovered and what was causing them. Presents the case for importance of double-conversion topology in mission critical applications. Enhancing Business Resiliency Through Adaptive Power and Cooling Support for IT Systems  The White Paper focuses on the critical power and cooling systems that create the foundation for IT resiliency, and ultimately dictate the level of operational resiliency and flexibility that can be achieved in a given organization. Power and Cooling Design Guidelines for Network Access Rooms  Network access and telecom rooms are housing more powerful and critical equipment as businesses rely on these spaces to support an increasing number of business-critical applications. The technologies supporting the deployment of IP telephony, wireless networking, converged applications, and other equipment outside traditional IT data storage and management are finding their way into nontraditional spaces that weren’t designed as data centers. These rooms also support important operational functions including time and attendance equipment, building maintenance alarms and security equipment. In the event of a failure within a network access room, organizations may be susceptible to the disruption of revenue-generating activities or the inoperability of security and phone systems, among other serious consequences. The Always-On Network: Strategies for Achieving High Availability of IT Systems Any significant change in an organization’s physical structure, technology deployment or business objectives should trigger a reevaluation of the four elements of its physical support plan – power, heat removal, monitoring and service management. Technologies Simplifying Infrastructure Management Achieving high availability is still a priority, but a new generation of infrastructure systems are emerging that enable greater flexibility in how IT systems and facilities are managed. This paper describes five infrastructure technologies that are making it easier for growing businesses to introduce new IT systems as needed while maintaining high levels of availability. Monitoring  Managing Critical Systems for Higher Availability and Reliability  Highlights the importance of support system monitoring and provide guidance on determining the right monitoring approach for a particular application.   Secure Remote Monitoring of the Critical System Infrastructure   Enterprises seeking to improve the availability of business-critical systems can now utilize the Internet to dynamically control service access into their protected networks, while still shielding their assets from ongoing security threats. Directed Circuits Meet Today’s Security Challenges in Enterprise Remote Monitoring Mandates resulting from legislation such the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Sarbanes Oxley Act have companies more concerned than ever about internal and external compliance. As a result, companies are seeking remote monitoring solutions that enable them to compile the documentation they need to perform internal and external audits while keeping IT equipment functional and data secure. The Always-On Network: Strategies for Achieving High Availability of IT Systems Any significant change in an organization’s physical structure, technology deployment or business objectives should trigger a reevaluation of the four elements of its physical support plan – power, heat removal, monitoring and service management. Technologies Simplifying Infrastructure Management Achieving high availability is still a priority, but a new generation of infrastructure systems are emerging that enable greater flexibility in how IT systems and facilities are managed. This paper describes five infrastructure technologies that are making it easier for growing businesses to introduce new IT systems as needed while maintaining high levels of availability. Cooling  Blade Servers and Beyond: Adaptive Cooling for the Next Generation of IT Systems   Adaptive cooling principles provide new and existing facilities a roadmap for dealing with heat densities that are increasing unpredictably and unevenly. Adaptive cooling provides maximum flexibility and scalability with the lowest cost of ownership while maintaining or improving availability.  Five Strategies for Cutting Data Center Energy Costs Through Enhanced Cooling Efficiency This White Paper identifies key ways that IT and facility managers can cope with rising energy costs to properly cool and power the data center. Choosing System Architecture and Cooling Fluid for High Heat Density Cooling Solutions   The traditional raised floor cooling is not designed to cool high heat densities. Certain baseline measures can be taken to optimize the functioning of the traditional cooling system, primarily by optimizing air flow in the room so hot and cold air does not mix. However, adding supplemental cooling currently is the best solution to cool the hot racks and zones that occur in high density environments and generate sensible heat. Focused Cooling Using Cold Aisle Containment   While either hot aisle or cold aisle containment systems can be installed and are both capable of increasing efficiency and cooling today’s high heat data centers, meaningful differences exist in how they function and are implemented. This paper reviews both approaches and concludes that cold aisle containment is the superior solution. Cold aisle containment can be used with or without conventional raised floor cooling. It is easily retrofitted into existing raised floor data centers and works in tandem with the raised floor as well as with extreme density cooling systems to produce highly efficient cooling solutions. By integrating the cold aisle containment with the cooling system operation, optimal performance and energy efficiency will be achieved. Regulatory Compliance and Critical System Protection: The Role of Mission-Critical Power and Cooling in Data Integrity and Availability Connects the dots between new regulations requiring or implying higher requirements for power and cooling.  These regulations are in part driving the development of business continuity planning. IP Telephony and Reliability: Protecting Mission-Critical Phone Systems from Power Threats  Provides description of problems that were occurring with high-speed switches at an entertainment conglomerate, how they were discovered and what was causing them. Presents the case for importance of double-conversion topology in mission critical applications. Enhancing Business Resiliency Through Adaptive Power and Cooling Support for IT Systems  The White Paper focuses on the critical power and cooling systems that create the foundation for IT resiliency, and ultimately dictate the level of operational resiliency and flexibility that can be achieved in a given organization. Power and Cooling Design Guidelines for Network Access Rooms Network access and telecom rooms are housing more powerful and critical equipment as businesses rely on these spaces to support an increasing number of business-critical applications. The technologies supporting the deployment of IP telephony, wireless networking, converged applications, and other equipment outside traditional IT data storage and management are finding their way into nontraditional spaces that weren’t designed as data centers. These rooms also support important operational functions including time and attendance equipment, building maintenance alarms and security equipment. In the event of a failure within a network access room, organizations may be susceptible to the disruption of revenue-generating activities or the inoperability of security and phone systems, among other serious consequences. The Always-On Network: Strategies for Achieving High Availability of IT Systems Any significant change in an organization’s physical structure, technology deployment or business objectives should trigger a reevaluation of the four elements of its physical support plan – power, heat removal, monitoring and service management. Technologies Simplifying Infrastructure Management Achieving high availability is still a priority, but a new generation of infrastructure systems are emerging that enable greater flexibility in how IT systems and facilities are managed. This paper describes five infrastructure technologies that are making it easier for growing businesses to introduce new IT systems as needed while maintaining high levels of availability. Transfer Switch  Eliminating Transformer Saturation: The Liebert STS2 Optimized Transfer Static transfer switches (STS) are used as either primary or secondary side switches in high availability dual-bus configurations. For primary side switching, the STS is connected to the primary or input of a down stream transformer. On secondary side switching, the STS is connected to the secondary or output of two transformers. The Always-On Network: Strategies for Achieving High Availability of IT Systems Any significant change in an organization’s physical structure, technology deployment or business objectives should trigger a reevaluation of the four elements of its physical support plan – power, heat removal, monitoring and service management. Technologies Simplifying Infrastructure Management Achieving high availability is still a priority, but a new generation of infrastructure systems are emerging that enable greater flexibility in how IT systems and facilities are managed. This paper describes five infrastructure technologies that are making it easier for growing businesses to introduce new IT systems as needed while maintaining high levels of availability. DC Power  IP Telephony and Reliability: Are Your Mission-Critical Phone Systems Safe From Power Threats? IT managers who are used to implementing power protection for IT network or data center applications face new challenges in protecting their enterprise IP telephony systems. Users demand the same high level of reliability for IP telephony and its converged voice/data/video applications as they demand from the analog telephone systems that IP telephony replaces. Accordingly, IT managers must provide a much higher level of power protection available only through the use of double-conversion online UPSs. When IP telephony equipment is installed in a data center, additional environmental protection may also be necessary. The Always-On Network: Strategies for Achieving High Availability of IT Systems Any significant change in an organization’s physical structure, technology deployment or business objectives should trigger a reevaluation of the four elements of its physical support plan – power, heat removal, monitoring and service management. Technologies Simplifying Infrastructure Management Achieving high availability is still a priority, but a new generation of infrastructure systems are emerging that enable greater flexibility in how IT systems and facilities are managed. This paper describes five infrastructure technologies that are making it easier for growing businesses to introduce new IT systems as needed while maintaining high levels of availability. Data Center Operation  Power and Cooling Best Practices for IP Communications   IP telephony and Power over Ethernet (PoE) are driving the requirement for increasing uptime levels, power capacity and the need for dedicated precision air conditioning across the network. High-availability environments, such as data centers and computer rooms, may have the power and cooling infrastructure in place to handle these changes, but in many cases, equipment rooms and wiring closets do not. Power and cooling considerations must be factored into IP telephony to ensure required availability levels can be achieved. The Always-On Network: Strategies for Achieving High Availability of IT Systems Any significant change in an organization’s physical structure, technology deployment or business objectives should trigger a reevaluation of the four elements of its physical support plan – power, heat removal, monitoring and service management. Technologies Simplifying Infrastructure Management Achieving high availability is still a priority, but a new generation of infrastructure systems are emerging that enable greater flexibility in how IT systems and facilities are managed. This paper describes five infrastructure technologies that are making it easier for growing businesses to introduce new IT systems as needed while maintaining high levels of availability. Maintenance  The Effect of Regular, Skilled Preventive Maintenance on Critical Power System Reliability   Emerson enlisted a Ph.D. level mathematician to help develop a mathematical model that takes the unit-related outages that occurred on these systems and accurately projects the impact of PM on UPS reliability. These calculations indicate that the UPS Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) for units that received two PM service events a year is 23 times higher than a machine with no PM service events per year. At the expected levels of service error attributed to a Liebert trained and certified service engineer, UPS reliability continued to steadily increase up to 19 PM visits per year. The final conclusion of the real-world analysis and mathematical model reaffirmed the long-held industry belief that an increase in the number of PM visits substantially increases system reliability. Data Center Assessment Helps Keep Critical Equipment Operational The IT infrastructure within many companies has evolved into an interdependent, business-critical network that relies on the data center as its hub. Growing business demands are forcing data center managers to support more equipment, resulting in increased heat loads. Corporate attention on the data center is also driving the need for greater flexibility balanced against high availability and the lowest total cost of ownership. The Always-On Network: Strategies for Achieving High Availability of IT Systems Any significant change in an organization’s physical structure, technology deployment or business objectives should trigger a reevaluation of the four elements of its physical support plan – power, heat removal, monitoring and service management. Technologies Simplifying Infrastructure Management Achieving high availability is still a priority, but a new generation of infrastructure systems are emerging that enable greater flexibility in how IT systems and facilities are managed. This paper describes five infrastructure technologies that are making it easier for growing businesses to introduce new IT systems as needed while maintaining high levels of availability.