The rise of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, virtualisation and the energy transition has heightened the critical need for data centre operators to effectively manage technology assets and resource consumption. Today, intelligent power management company Eaton announced it is helping these operators accelerate digital transformation with its new portfolio of digital solutions designed to further increase uptime, optimise performance and enhance sustainability. The platform, part of Eaton’s Brightlayer Data Centres suite, is the first in the industry to unite asset management, IT and operational technology (OT) device monitoring, power quality metrics and advanced electrical supervision in a single, native application.
“Point solutions are no longer sufficient to provide data centre operators the visibility they need into their increasingly complex ecosystem of IT and OT assets,” said Ashraf Yehia, Managing Director, Eaton Middle East. “This is especially the case as operations expand beyond the core data centre to hyperscale, multi-tenant and various types of edge locations. The new solutions in our Brightlayer Data Centres suite leverage a single, native application to manage, monitor and control a wide range of infrastructure assets while providing seamless integration with other software and a simplified way to expand software capabilities as an operator’s needs grow.”
Data centre operators are realising new opportunities to use data to become more sustainable amid internal and external pressure to reduce carbon footprints. A full 40% of data centre operators are seeking to leverage digitalisation to lower their overall energy costs while more than a third see opportunities to reduce waste such as heat or materials, according to “The intersection of digital transformation and the energy transition,” a research report commissioned by Eaton and developed by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Additionally, when it comes to reporting sustainability metrics, 46% of operators are using or plan to use digital technology to track performance relative to their sustainability goals.
Eaton’s Brightlayer Data Centres suite provides a single application to manage, monitor and control critical site power management assets. These include uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs), power distribution units (PDUs), switchgear, generators, cooling equipment, battery storage, solar equipment and more. The platform offers three solutions that can be used alone or together based on customer needs:
- Data Centre Performance Management software: Monitors assets; provides trends, alerts and reports; and manages power, space, connectivity and cooling resources to maximise IT application uptime, all while minimising capital and operating expenditures.
- Electrical Power Monitoring System software: Delivers real-time and historical visibility into a data centre’s electrical power system to quickly resolve and identify the root cause of unexpected issues and understand a facility’s use of water, air, gas, electricity and steam to reduce operating costs and meet sustainability goals.
- Distributed IT Performance Management software: Manages and controls network-connected assets such as PDUs and UPSs, regardless of vendor or where they are located, and proactively identifies and automates actions to prevent IT equipment from going down. With cybersecurity protection built in, users can execute remote firmware upgrades and configuration changes to safeguard critical data from potential cyber threats.
As needs evolve after initial implementation, customers can add functionality, eliminating the need to migrate data or integrate multiple software platforms. The application can also be combined with third-party software, such as building management systems, configuration management database and IT service management applications, to gain even more improvements to efficiency, productivity, data accuracy, decision-making and cost.
