Vertiv has announced the opening of a new testing laboratory for IT infrastructure colocated in a data centre – the first such facility in Poland and the only one in the Central and Eastern Europe region (CEE). The laboratory will serve in research and development projects and performance tests of power systems with variable load as well as tests of the information and communication technologies equipment functioning in changing data centre environmental parameters, such as air humidity and temperature. The laboratory, fully equipped by Vertiv, will be available to clients in the CEE region on the Atman data centre campus in Warsaw.
The cost of electricity required to power a typical 100-metre company server room over the period of 20 years is at least €2.7 million, according to a study conducted by Atman in cooperation with Audytel, a Polish consulting and analysis company. In this situation, even a small increase in energy efficiency means significant savings for companies. This is one of the reasons why Atman, the operator of the largest data centre in Poland, and Vertiv, a global leader in critical infrastructure for data centres, communication networks and commercial and industrial facilities, decided to undertake this venture.
Testing various scenarios of IT infrastructure operation conducted in the laboratory aims to support clients in finding cost-optimal solutions in the era of changes on the electricity market. This is extremely important because over the last decade, energy prices in the European Union have risen by nearly 30% according to Eurostat. Experts predict that wholesale electricity prices will continue to grow in the upcoming years.
As part of the initiative, both Atman and Vertiv have prepared a comprehensive plan of tests, including verification of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and precision cooling systems operating under various testing conditions. Data centre infrastructure management software will enable monitoring of power and cooling equipment, developing optimal infrastructure configuration in various environmental conditions and examination of the space use efficiency in the racks.
Vertiv brings together hardware, software, analytics and ongoing services to ensure its customers’ critical applications run continuously, perform optimally and grow with their business needs. The company has already implemented test environments by creating Customer Experience Centers that allow customers from around the world to learn about cooling and power technologies used in data centres, take part in witness tests and receive consultations with Vertiv engineers. The project carried out in cooperation with Atman will be the first such venture in this part of Europe.
“A lot of variables affect the energy consumption in data centres and can’t be tested without risking the interruption of access to data. By creating a test environment on the data centre campus, we will be able to safely examine different settings of individual parameters and their impact on energy efficiency and provide feedback to our clients. The laboratory is open for our customers to conduct independent infrastructure tests,” said Bartłomiej Raab, Vertiv Country Manager for the region of Poland and Baltics.
While the laboratories that allow comprehensive testing of various aspects of IT infrastructure operations successfully work in Western Europe or the United States, in Poland it is a pioneering initiative. “During the tests, it is possible to examine the results of various scenarios and thus effectively optimise IT costs, minimising the need to introduce changes in the infrastructure even in the long-term perspective. The launch of the laboratory gives clients detailed information on the conditions under which their digital resources will be stored and processed,” said Adam Dzielnicki, Product Manager and Project Leader for the construction of the test laboratory at Atman.
The creators of the laboratory also invite universities to utilise Atman’s and Vertiv’s state-of-the-art testing site, which will allow them to test their own projects in the shared environment.
Both Vertiv and Atman actively participate in the European Code of Conduct for Energy Efficiency in the Data Center programme aimed to educate and stimulate enterprises to reduce energy consumption.
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