MANILA, Philippines – 17 September 2010 — Building a data center is challenging, especially with the rigorous industrial and technological standards it is required to comply with. The evolution of “green” technologies also raised the bar for data centers, and has created a new generation of facilities that aim to maximize IT resources while being energy-efficient.
Thus Eastern Communications’ Product Development Group, together with Rene Castillo, vice president for Service Delivery, kept all these in mind when plans were made to upgrade and expand the company’s data center facilities and managed services. Clients’ needs had prompted Eastern Communications to build DataHub, the company’s first “green” data center.
DataHub is equipped with best-in-class Tier II technologies, and is Eastern Communications’ most energy efficient, secure, and reliable facility. The DataHub is also the Philippines’ first Tier II data center that has a redundant site infrastructure and guarantees 99.741 percent uptime.
“Our business model is to provide our clients an outsourced and integrated data storage, recovery and management service,” says Castillo. “Given that our clients are corporations, this means our availability goal must be able to comply and support their stringent corporate requirements, specifically on having redundant, continuous power, and Internet connectivity.”
DataHub also features an extensive number of security and safety capabilities, such as precision-controlled air cooling and fire suppression, network monitoring, surveillance cameras, and biometrics systems.
In addition, the new IDC operates with industry-compliant energy efficient policies and guidelines augmented by new and optimized equipment to help maintain, track, and audit the massive power required of a 24/7/365 IT facility.
Key infrastructure provider
Finding a solutions provider to build DataHub was easy for Eastern Communications Castillo says they chose APC by Schneider Electric together with IBM Philippines for their track record and successful partnership in the deployment of data-center solutions. Eastern decided on a turnkey project engagement, which meant that APC would supply solutions for the data center and also be engaged to manage and oversee the project. This included supervising the implementation that covered other aspects such as mechanical, electrical, civil, fire suppression and IT security for data centers.
More specifically, Eastern Communications installed the APC InfrastruXure™ (ISX) solution that fully integrates power, cooling, rack, management, security and services. This on-demand architecture allows the selection of standardized components to create a solution through modular and mobile configurations. The APC InfrastruXure solution includes the InfrastruXure™ Central, a management software for centralized environmental and power monitoring of installed components.
To ensure optimal uptime, Eastern Communications picked the APC by Schneider Electric’s Galaxy™ PW Power Protection System that has an on-line double conversion technology to isolate between power input and output. This ensures zero transfer time of power for critical loads. Several Galaxy™ PW can easily be linked for higher power capacity requirements or redundancy if and when the need arises.
The APC solution for Eastern Communications’ DataHub is capable of supporting petabytes of digital information for co-location, business continuity, and disaster recovery service offerings. It is capable of running on full capacity at maximum operational efficiency, as required by current market demands.
At the core of DataHub are energy efficiency-enabled technologies and offerings, a benefit enjoyed by APC by Schneider Electric customers because of the cost-saving and environment-friendly features.
Philippe Reveilhac, country president of Schneider Electric Philippines, sees Eastern Communications’ DataHub as a showcase of the best features of a green data center that can provide the much-needed data services for local corporations, which are the key contributors to the country’s economic recovery.
“APC by Schneider Electric is always ready to provide the best and ideal power and cooling solutions for all types of data centers,” says Reveilhac. “The Eastern Communications’ DataHub is a prime example of how our team of data center experts can build best-of-breed solutions that deliver results.”
He adds that these solutions feature state-of-the-art data center manageability and “energy efficiency features that can help our clients achieve up to 30 percent energy savings; at the same time, these ensure continued operations and high performance. Reveilhac notes that these are also modular and scalable, and thus easy to adapt to clients’ infrastructure requirements. “APC is here to help our clients create data centers that provide the best services available yet provide the highest returns on investment by implementing energy efficient practices,” says Reveilhac.
The DataHub project is a joint undertaking of two multinational IT companies — IBM Philippines and APC by Schneider Electric — with the former being appointed as a certified partner of Eastern Communications, and the latter as the implementation party. The two companies recently launched a global campaign called Scalable Modular Data Center (SMDC), which combines APC’s award-winning InfraStruxure® architecture and IBM’s global service capabilities. With SMDC, customers are able to deploy a high-density environment rapidly with a preexisting data center, thus reducing up-front capital and ongoing operational costs.
About Eastern Communications
EASTERN Communications was established more than 130 years ago when the Spanish Government commissioned EASTERN EXTENSION to connect the Philippines to the rest of the world via undersea cable. With the cable link, EASTERN provided the country’s first telegraphic services. It vastly improved Spain’s governance and local commerce. It also gave Filipinos access to a fast means of communication to parts of the country and the world. EASTERN’s services did not only uplift the Philippines economically, but it was also instrumental in helping gain independence for the Filipinos. Over the years, EASTERN continued to invest in infrastructure, systems, people and global partnerships to expand and improve its telecommunication service. This led to the introduction of many firsts in Voice, Data and Internet innovations in the Philippines.
www.easterncommunications.com.ph
About APC by Schneider Electric
APC by Schneider Electric, a global leader in critical power and cooling services, provides industry leading hardware, software, and services designed to ensure availability and higher energy efficiency across the residential, business network, data center, and manufacturing environments. Backed by the strength, experience, and wide network of Schneider Electric’s Critical Power & Cooling Services, APC delivers well planned, flawlessly installed and maintained solutions throughout their lifecycle. Through its unparalleled commitment to innovation, APC delivers energy efficient solutions for critical technology and industrial applications.
About Schneider Electric
As a global specialist in energy management with operations in more than 100 countries, Schneider Electric offers integrated solutions across multiple market segments, including leadership positions in energy and infrastructure, industrial processes, building automation, and data centers/networks, as well as a broad presence in residential applications. Focused on making energy safe, reliable, and efficient, the company’s 100,000+ employees achieved sales of more than $22 billion in 2009, through an active commitment to help individuals and organizations “Make the most of their energy”.
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