According to John Smykala, MD of RMD Power & Cooling, the decision to diversify into software will enable the Alloa-based company to stay ahead of its competitors by offering end to end management of the data centre physical infrastructure.

He says: “I am delighted that we have been chosen as a channel partner and will be able to bring this pioneering software to our clients. This is next-generation data centre management and it is an important step for us as we continually strive to offer best of breed solutions.

“As the cost of power rises and data centres become larger and more dense, data centre managers need to tackle inefficiencies. InfraStruxure Management will enable managers to take control of their resources and make significant cost savings by eliminating wastage. Along with energy efficient cooling, this software is part of a significant trend towards greener data centres.”

Smykala bought the business [in 1993] because of its trading reputation. "I could see huge opportunities in the power protection market and I used R M Donaldson, as it was then known, to fund the development of the UPS (uninterruptible power supply) business."

The Herald reported last year that the company turnover was put at around £3.5-4m with 15 staff.

Data centre analysts, 451 Group, estimate that a small-to-average-sized 1MW European data centre using management software to reduce energy consumption by 10% could expect to save around £400,000 over 5 years. Savings will be amplified when Government’s CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme comes into effect in April 2012.

Paul Tyrer, Regional VP, APC by Schneider Electric, UK and Ireland says, “Since the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres in 2008, we have experienced growing demand amongst data centre managers and customers for better management software than the makeshift tools being used.

"When IT inventory was smaller and power and cooling requirements lower, spreadsheets represented a low cost and relatively effective solution. But complexity of today’s facilities allows no margin for error. The need to utilise all resources responsibly requires applications of an altogether higher order.”

Data about energy use helps data centres meet internally or externally targets, track progress against metrics and if necessary, meet reporting requirements.  Metered energy consumption data is likely to be increasingly used to price data centre services, report or allocate carbon emission credits, or facilitate application chargeback.

APC’s InfraStruxure Management Software enables holistic management of the entire data centre ecosystem. Proactive data centre management is achieved through integrated software applications sharing a centralised repository, to enable design, real-time monitoring, inventory management and planning through predictive simulation.

"I dreamt I dwelt in data halls"

The portfolio helps companies improve energy and cost efficiencies, manage physical capacities and support short- and long-term planning, forecasting, and budgeting. 

Toolset includes InfraStruxure Operations instant overview of data centre operations together with vendor-agnostic inventory management, a PUE calculator for daily information about energy use, real-time device alarms, and a customisable view enabling data halls to be organised by region, country, campus, site, building and room.