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APC, a global leader in integrated critical power and cooling services, today announced the debut of APC TradeOff Tools, new Web-based applications with easy-to-use interfaces designed for use in the early stages of data center concept and design development. By enabling data center professionals to experiment with various scenarios regarding virtualization, efficiency, power sizing, capital costs, and other key design issues, APC TradeOff Tools break down major data center planning decisions into a series of smaller, more manageable decisions. Use of these tools helps validate, through modeling, the overall design of a data center.
"Customers need to make many key decisions during any data center project, and they do not always have the necessary information to guide them," said Carl Cottuli, vice president of APC's Data Center Science Center. "Many of their concerns are not addressed by configuration tools because they occur early in the concept selection process. With the introduction of APC's TradeOff Tools, when a roadblock arises, the data center decision maker can easily find a tool to deal with their specific issue, get a quick answer, and continue on in the concept selection process."
The seven tools are currently available on the http://tools.apc.com section of the APC Web site. They include:
Carbon calculator
Illustrates how changes to a data center's location, efficiency, and power load can impact carbon dioxide emissions and the electric bill. This provides management with a general indication of how "green" their data center is today and how "green" it could be.
Energy efficiency calculator
Profiles a data center and calculates the resulting efficiency and electrical cost based on data center characteristics. Users can then understand the impact each key data center decision has on the data center's efficiency.
Capital cost calculator
Identifies key data center physical infrastructure parameters and calculates capital costs based on those parameters. This allows data center users to judge how changes to data center location, IT load, and cooling and power infrastructure can impact overall capital costs.
Virtualization energy cost calculator
Comprehends IT and physical infrastructure characteristics and calculates energy savings resulting from the virtualization of servers. This allows the user to test the impact of virtualization and various physical infrastructure improvements on their data center floor space and on their energy consumption.
Power sizing calculator
Defines basic characteristics of the IT load and calculates how much utility input power would be required to support such a load. This provides users with a general idea of how much power in kilowatts they will need to run their data center.
InRow containment selector
Generates a prototype rack and row cooling configuration based on the user's preferences and the physical constraints of the room. This provides the user with their optimal InRow cooling containment configuration.
AC vs. DC calculator
Compares four different AC and DC power distribution architectures and calculates their respective efficiencies. This allows the user to make an educated decision on the optimal architecture for their data center.
-- Tech Times Online
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