Rittal - energy-conscious IT infrastructure

I think it is important to state upfront that Rittal is not a company that is purely focused on renewable energy. Primarily in the data centre space, its main aim is to keep your company's ICT infrastructure up and running. Millions of servers across the world ensure daily financial trade, keep banking, military and healthcare services safe, and constantly ensure our lives run a bit smoother.

With millions of computers worldwide, I am still often surprised at how little companies focus on the energy that these powerhouses of heat and information processing centres use up.

We are a consumption-based society. This consumption continues, only abated by legislative requirements for downscaling what we think is just “two or three data centres for our company - nothing major”. This sort of thinking is dangerous in a world where apathy slows us from reaching the tipping point of decisive change.

It's not hard to save energy in your data centre. The first step is to think strategically about exactly where your IT will be in about three to five years from now. Start your strategic planning with a secure and sustainable budget.

Next, ask yourself the question, even if our company is not listed, and does not even read into the wisdom of the King 3 report and other corporate governance principles, what am I responsible for as head of IT in terms of energy efficiency, planning and sustainability?

Nobody wants the daunting task of adding hundreds of wasteful “always on” type air-conditioning systems, condensation leaks onto UPS batteries from a ceiling mounted air-con, no reporting on temperature, humidity or smoke detection. Reliability, modularity and a constant decrease in operational expense must be the deciding factors upon which your IT data centre infrastructure planning and new Greenfield design plan resides.

We cannot go on as IT managers, ICT directors and IT consultants, thinking that there is no part for us to play in energy conservation. With new designs like Rittal's Liquid Cooling Package, increasing cooling to over 60KW per unit and innovative CRAC units, the task of managing cooling in row/rack makes your uptime that much more secure. We now use half the number of cooling units when setting up your data centre plan, with the same power and water requirement as before. This reduces your cost of implementation and footprint.

Rittal leads the way in modular data centre design, such as ACSA 2010 OR Tambo Data Centre; Modular Safes for the Ministry of Interior in the UAE and German National Police. Modular cooling systems like the liquid cooling package. Thousands of variations on server racks and network racks. Rittal Rizone - data centre management software, fuel cells, water cooling, containerised data centres. The picture is clear. We are the leaders in IT infrastructure. Upgrade to Rittal and see why!