Global provider of end-to-end infrastructure availability solutions, American Power Conversion (APC), has announced its BLADE READY programme (www.BladeReady.com), a multi-vendor approach to help enterprises plan and implement high density applications such as blade servers.
The BLADE READY programme unites APC with vendors of complementary network-critical physical infrastructure (NCPI) technologies to deliver comprehensive interoperable products, solutions and services for blade NCPI environments. Together, BLADE READY members help enterprises assess, design, procure, stage, implement and interconnect blade servers and related equipment. Members of this programme will include a group of strategic, best-in-class hardware and software vendors that help enable operational excellence and compatibility with blade network environments.
"CIOs are quickly recognising this form-factor saves space and improves serviceability," says Neill Schreiber, Team Leader for Southern Africa at APC. "However, these high density environments entail power consumption and heat output unlike anything data centre managers have dealt with in the past. This is literally hot, new technology."
Industry research firm, IDC, forecasts that worldwide blade server shipments will account for 25 percent of worldwide server shipments by 2009 and notes that blade server shipments are growing at a compound annual rate of 54 percent per year from 2005 to 2009.* However, planning blade server deployments is a technical challenge. With power consumption within a rack often exceeding 3 000 watts, which creates thermal hot spots in the data centre, new approaches to cooling are required. The BLADE READY programme is a single source for a wide variety of resources including APC`s Blade Readiness Assessment Service - the first step in understanding the right approach to these challenges. Also available are white papers, build out guides, total cost of ownership (TCO) planning guides and more.
APC sets the standard for power backup and distribution, cooling solutions, and related NCPI solutions such as its InfraStruXure architecture. Through its NetBotz division, APC also offers IT professionals a suite of security management products such as video surveillance and an array of environmental sensors that identify and resolve events before they result in downtime. "With the recent launch of InfraStruXure systems for high density, APC continues to set the standard for new approaches to high density data centre infrastructure," says Schreiber. "The BLADE READY programme allows enterprises to leverage our expertise and tap into APC`s alliances, thereby deploying blade computing solutions in an informed way."
For more information about BLADE READY, please visit www.BladeReady.com or call (011) 465 5414. For more information about APC`s products, please visit www.apc/za
*Worldwide and U.S. Blade Server 2005-2009 Forecast and 2004 Vendor Shares (IDC - Doc #33631, July 2005)
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Founded in 1981, American Power Conversion (Nasdaq: APCC) (APC) is a leading provider of global, end-to-end solutions for real-time infrastructure. APC`s comprehensive products and services for home and corporate environments improve the availability, manageability and performance of sensitive electronic, network, communication and industrial equipment of all sizes. APC offers a wide variety of products for network-critical physical infrastructure including InfraStruXure, its revolutionary architecture for on-demand data centres, as well as physical threat management products through the company`s NetBotz division. These products and services help companies increase the availability and reliability of their IT systems. Headquartered in West Kingston, Rhode Island, APC reported sales of $2 billion for the year ended December 31, 2005, and is a Fortune 1000, Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 Company. All trademarks are the property of their owners.
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