FEATURE : POWERING DATA CENTERS
Reliable overhead power distribution systems are critical to the efficient operation of data centres . Starline offers effective power distribution and monitoring solutions for such mission critical environments . Intelligent CIO talks to David Skeans , the company ’ s VP of International Sales , about how Starline provides its customers with essential reliability , flexibility , scalability and efficient design . c
Can you tell me how data center requirements are changing and why ?
Our business is uniquely focused in one specific area of data center application which is power distribution – essentially from the condition power provision , which is normally UPSs , to the cabinets where the servers are deployed . It ’ s a very specific subset of the power distribution of data centers . Data center power distribution is unique , relative to other types of power distribution , in that it requires a very high amount of reliability – probably the highest amount of reliability for any power distribution application with possibly the exception of nuclear power .
The other thing that makes it unique is that the loads are very dense . Computer servers take a lot of power and they take a lot of power in a small space . So that means that the power density per square foot in a data center is very high relative to other types of applications . So you have these two unique needs : reliable power and a high amount of power to a small location . So , we have remained focused on how to succeed in that very specific niche over the last 25 / 30 years . We have grown in the industry , from starting with mainframes to migration to servers .
The biggest change for us obviously is the adoption of flexible power methods or busbar methods for power distribution , but also more recently the changes have been coming around rapid deployment . Essentially our customer base now is interested in really pre-designing facilities and pre-packaging as much as they can of those facilities – pre-engineering them so that when the equipment arrives on site it ’ s ready for immediate installation . And they ’ d like to standardize their designs , globally , so that they can standardize their operation procedures and their methods of running the data centers .
So that ’ s what we ’ re engaged in – primarily working with global customers to develop global standards and global products , so that they can use them for all of their applications all around the world .
Why are track busbar systems quickly becoming the solution of choice in data centers ?
I like the fact that you say ‘ quickly ’ because in my perspective it ’ s been a very slow adoption . It probably started in around 1995 and then the . com boom in 2000 helped it quite a bit .
But primarily it ’ s because it ’ s the method that makes the most sense when you want to control your design , you want to control
Starline : Powering the essential availability and reliability of data centers
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