E.B. Writers of Dallas

By Wayne Epperson, Correspondent, HostingTech Magazine, Jan. 2003

American Power Conversion may have stumbled onto a cure for insomnia for IT managers.
The West Kingston, R.I.-based global producer of end-to-end infrastructure availability solutions is closing in on the first birthday of its latest innovation, PowerStruXure. The company likes to call it a scalable data center architecture for infrastructure on demand.
Russell Senesac, APC’s director of communications for PowerStruXure for North America, has been involved with the initiative since research for it began in late November 2000.
He recalls those discovery days.
“We were coming out with a new UPS (uninterruptible power supply), one of our Symmetra-type UPSs that has modularity, scalability, kind of like an array type of design from an IT standpoint. In talking with customers there were a lot of questions that went unsolved by just coming out with product-based solutions.”
So APC went to its customer base and held more than 500 meetings with end-users and partners and started asking questions like “what else should we provide with this thing. We’ll give you a UPS, but what else do you need with it?”
“We went out and did all this research and we got what we call 22 imperatives, and we define them as imperatives, because that’s really the stuff guys were lying awake at night thinking about when they were looking at data centers,” Senesac says.
Customers talked about how they did power distribution from the UPS, how the power got from the UPS to the racks. “We even went further to say, well, we do racks, so what do you think about racks. And they were saying we need racks to accommodate deeper servers and racks that cool the environment much better because we have hotter environments now,” Senesac says.
The concept of PowerStruXure was born, one in which all parts are designed to work together, from the UPS to the distribution panel to the whips and racks.
The key focus of PowerStruXure is that it enables right sizing of the data center from the beginning and allows power to be added in modules as a company grows, Senesac says.
APC says data centers are routinely oversized to three times their required capacity because typical installations are planned to meet a company’s maximum future expected power requirements. That requires a full capital outlay at the start, rather than spending for power as the enterprise grows.
There are three classifications of PowerStruXure designed for small, medium and large data centers. The small data center has single-phase (single circuit energized by a single alternating voltage) input power and ranges from 2-12kW (kilowatts, or thousands of watts). The medium type has single-phase or 3-phase (three circuits) input power of from 12-200kW. The large type has 3-phase input power of more than 200kW. Different partitions of a data center may require different PowerStruXure types.
PowerStruXure architecture has three component categories for designing a custom power system. The base building block components, which are used in all types, include next generation IT enclosures, rack-mount PDU (power distribution unit), environment monitoring solution and power and data cable routing. The type specific components include advanced power management software, scalable N+1 modular UPS, adaptable PDU, and comprehensive service and support. The optional components include transfer switch and DC rectifier, which allows mixed AC and DC requirements without a separate DC power plant.
Central to the units is APC’s Symmetra UPS. For the large data centers, the PowerStruXure Type C is designed for individual loads of 40kW or greater and for installations of 1mW (megawatt, or one million watts) or greater.
APC doesn’t have a lock on the UPS market, however. Global giant Invensys Powerware of Raleigh, N.C., competes for the same customers with its hefty lineup of units ranging from single-phase products to three-phase devices and its legendary Ferrups.
Both companies offer a host of options and add-ons for their high-end configurations, making a nuts-and-bolts comparison somewhat difficult. But a comparison can easier be made in the entry category that, for instance, would supply backup power for a single local area network.
A customer looking for a unit that would provide 6000 VA (volt-amps) for input voltage of AC 208 and output voltage of AC 120/208 (60 Hz) could choose from the APC PowerStruXure Type A, or the Powerware Series 5 5140.
The APC standard unit ships without a battery, but can be scaled to a maximum of three lead acid batteries. The Powerware 5140 contains one battery (the maximum) with an 18-minute run time at half power.
The APC unit is in a 534.8-pound base enclosure while the Powerware system is rack mountable and weighs 299.8 pounds.
Price comparisons of the two units were made via PCMall.com, a Torrance, Calif., based on-line supplier of technology solutions for business.
PCMall sells the PowerStruXure Type A base unit for $2,579.99 and one battery for the Symmetra product for $399.99, for a total cost of $2,979.98.
The Powerware 5140 is offered by PCMall for $3,209.99.
Senesac says that to date, upwards of 250 APC systems have been deployed in each of the Type A and B models. He estimates that 95 percent of sales are made through the reseller/integrator channel.
One such integrator is DATANET Services (www.netdsi.com) of Greensboro, N.C.
Terry Cavanaugh, director of strategic technologies, says PowerStruXure fits nicely with his customers.
“We sell a lot of converged networks, voice and data systems blended together, and with that companies typically do a migration plan where they roll that out in kind of phased approaches. In a lot of cases, the backup power that is required for that is something that doesn’t need to be purchased completely all up front,” Cavanaugh says.
“It needs to be able to be modular and scale in as the system rolls out and this PowerStruXure architecture is really nice because it is a real modular approach. So as users and servers and additional applications are added into the network, the PowerStruXure architecture allows you to modularly build the back up power based on the customer’s requirements in a real flexible way, a real scalable way. It meets nicely with their budget constraints because they don’t need to buy the big honking UPS right up front. They can kind of build that as they need it,” Cavanaugh says.
The flexibility of PowerStruXure also has been beneficial to the production of technology trade shows.
Steve Wiley, director of network operations for technology show producer Key3Media Group of Los Angeles (www.key3media.com), has first-hand knowledge of APC.
It was at Key3Media’s 2002 NetWorld+Interop show in Las Vegas that APC debuted its new architecture.
APC was selected as the power vendor for the show through an RFP process that stipulated strict product requirements because “we work in an extremely dynamic environment and we expect a lot of change,” says Wiley. “APC has the flexibility required to accommodate our ever-changing requirements.
“We have been using APC for several years at events around the world,” Wiley says. “We select our UPS vendor on a yearly basis through an RFP process. APC is consistently selected to fill the role, and has once again been awarded the opportunity for our 2003 NetWorld+Interop event in Las Vegas.” Key3Media Group also produces COMDEX, Seybold Seminars, JavaOne and numerous other expositions, conferences and events.
Senesac says APC continues to develop the architecture and has plans for additional products.
“We asked the original question ‘what keeps you up at night,’ and now we are going back and saying, ‘now that we have the power in, how do we get the heat out’.” APC plans a soon-to-be-released air portion of PowerStruXure, Senesac says.