I N D U S T R Y I N T E L L I G E N C E

A big part of what we are accomplishing with our customers is defining what success looks like to them . Once you can define it , you can start on a sustainability journey to accomplish it . The CIO is responsible for the overall IT infrastructure whether it ’ s in the cloud , on-prem or in colocation facilities . While success on the sustainability front may look different to different CIOs , we have seen a general lack of Green IT strategy

Kevin Brown , Senior Vice President , EcoStruxure Solutions , Secure Power Division , Schneider Electric

for the entire infrastructure . What we know is that regulations are coming , and Europe is leading the charge with the European Union ’ s Energy Efficiency Directive and Fit for 55 with its goal of reducing EU emissions by 55 % by 2030 . Organisations will have to comply and , for many , complying will be considered a benchmark of success . But beyond compliance , we believe regulations may be coming for smaller environments as well , which is yet another reason that a Green IT strategy is necessary .

As a data centre specialist , how does sustainable DCIM align with industry trends and sustainability goals ?

As a software category , DCIM is in a very interesting position when it comes to Green IT and sustainability . DCIM is the essential connection point between your IT infrastructure and the OT infrastructure supporting it . It represents a critical juncture because not only can it track and tell you the actual energy consumption of your IT infrastructure , it can identify all of your assets . Essentially , DCIM is in a unique position to help answer the sustainability questions that CIOs are going to be asked , like : ‘ What is your IT carbon footprint ?’. And the inevitable next question : ‘ What are you doing to manage it ?’.

For example , at Schneider Electric , our DCIM software suite EcoStruxure IT can report on nearly 80 % of sustainability metrics and we will be introducing new dashboards soon to enhance that reporting . We are investing in our products and solutions and our team is creating modern DCIM that will help CIOs to meet the challenges of resiliency , security and sustainability .

What operational challenges arise in a sustainable DCIM implementation and how can they be effectively addressed ?

Historically , DCIM has focused on resiliency , not energy consumption and sustainability . The data was there but it was difficult to extract and really hard to organise . Times have changed . Modern DCIM is oriented around sustainability and making sure you have everything in place , such as sensors , compute and cooling , and figuring out how to optimise it . We are constantly addressing operational challenges and working on better APIs and improved data organisation .

I understand that operational challenges are hard , but they can be overcome . CIOs will have to understand what assets they have in their IT infrastructure and DCIM is the key to understanding it . Green IT takes a data-driven approach to baselining and measuring an enterprise ’ s IT footprint and taking effective actions to reduce it .

How should unexpected obstacles in the implementation process be managed with regulatory compliance in mind ?

On any sustainability journey , there will be obstacles , so expect them . In addition to setting realistic goals and creating specific plans for sustainability , success is driven by the ability to adapt as we learn .

With DCIM , CIOs managing distributed , sprawling IT environments are creating baselines , using the same methodology , and tracking metrics for the entire IT infrastructure in a uniform way . We are reducing the complexity so CIOs can get started and demonstrate progress on the road to compliance .

One CIO we worked with created a sustainability team that set a realistic reduction goal of 5 %. The team encountered obstacles but learned from them and changed course when needed . The team ended up experiencing a 30 % reduction in energy consumption and a 30 % reduction in CO₂ emissions .

How does Schneider Electric ' s portfolio address the unique demands of sustainable DCIM for data integrity , real-time monitoring and energy efficiency ?

At Schneider Electric , we ’ ve been supporting customers to monitor and manage their IT physical infrastructure for years . We started with providing software that worked in conjunction with UPS network management cards to protect the server environment from threats to IT availability . We then evolved our solutions to support the refined data centre . More recently , environments have become more distributed and denser . At Schneider Electric , we evolved our DCIM solution , EcoStruxure IT , to make the hybrid distributed environments more resilient , secure and sustainable .

Today , EcoStruxure IT is a full DCIM solution suite with monitoring and management of power and cooling devices as well as physical security and environmental monitoring , planning and modelling , and – as we know a one-size fits all solution is not always what our customers need – we provide tailored solutions with our EcoStruxure IT – Custom Solutions team . Our DCIM solutions are used to maximise the efficient use of power , cooling and space resources . DCIM improves the availability and resiliency of physical infrastructure systems and the IT workloads they support .

EcoStruxure IT enables customers to create a digital twin of their IT whitespace . It allows capacity management to minimise

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