Pro AV Catalog

New Collaborative Capabilities to Deliver the Efficient Enterprise™ over the Cisco Intelligent Network

London, UK – Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, today announced at Cisco Live, Cisco’s premier IT and communications conference in Europe, that they are planning to expand their existing relationship with Cisco to significantly broaden their energy management solution portfolio. The company will demonstrate these ‘proof of concept’ solutions at the Cisco Live show. This announcement builds on the recently launched Schneider Electric Torana^™ Application Server which integrates Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure^™ architecture and the Cisco^® EnergyWise™ offering. Using the Cisco^® Intelligent Network, these new solutions will maximize operational energy savings in the IT domain to better support enterprise energy management goals.

“The bringing together of Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure architecture and Cisco EnergyWise has already proven its value in managing networked and IT assets in distributed offices,” said Soeren Brogaard Jensen, Vice President of Enterprise Software at Schneider Electric. “We are thrilled to continue delivering solutions which help customers to better bridge the gap between their IT functions and their facilities, and do so while improving their operations, sustainability and the comfort of their buildings.”

Schneider Electric will be demonstrating the following proof of concept solutions at Cisco Live:

Schneider Electric StruxureWare^™ for Data Centers Suite Cisco UCS Manager Plug-In

As companies manage a more energy efficient data center, StruxureWare Data Centers Operations Suite helps bridge the communication gap between IT and facilities and will integrate with the Cisco UCS™ Manager to provide complete data center infrastructure management (DCIM). Building on the StruxureWare Data Center Operations Suite’s ability to guide the placement of new servers with respect to capacities such as power, cooling, and network and physical space constraints, customers will be able to use this critical knowledge of real-time physical capacity constraints to enable the Cisco UCS™ Manager to automatically cap power for either an entire location or for individual zones. This will help ensure the compatibility of both the power and cooling load to rack and data center capacity for gaining optimal utilization of the data center’s physical infrastructure while eliminating the risk of tripped breakers and reducing over-provisioning. This combined solution will also provide real-time automated inventory tracking of all data center equipment from commission to decommission. The solution will offer monitoring capabilities so customers can discover which virtual machines are running on specific servers - providing critical information in the event of a physical failure, and automatically moving impacted applications to a safe environment.

Schneider Electric PowerChute^® Network Shutdown and Cisco Unified Communications Manager

Equipping IT managers and data center operators with tools to be prepared in the event of any emergency, Schneider Electric PowerChute Network Shutdown software will integrate with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (UCM). In the event of an extended power outage, the PowerChute solution allows for the graceful shutdown of Cisco UCM, helping to prevent data corruption and enabling the quick reboot of unified communications systems upon restoration of power.

Schneider Electric Convergent Building Infrastructure Solution (CBIS)

For distributed office networks, Schneider Electric’s CBIS will offer a more effective way to install cabling, therefore improving the deployment of IT networks while reducing the physical space traditionally required. This allows capital expenditures on IT infrastructure to be reduced by up to 22 percent, minimizes the required telecom space by up to a third, and enables operational savings of up to 30 percent on subsequent moves, additions and changes. Because the simplified design enables a true distributed IT environment by allowing the physical placement of switches closer to the IT devices, buildings enjoy less cabling, making it possible for installation costs to be slashed up to 60 percent.

Using fewer raw materials, less energy and a future-proofed infrastructure, this solution brings together the Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Efficient Enterprise™ architecture with Cisco EnergyWise^TM. For the IT manager, via single point of control, this enables the energy management of thousands of networked devices within the enterprise and exemplifies the future of smart energy usage by proactively notifying users of opportunities to reduce energy consumption. Alone, a cabling infrastructure is passive, but when integrated with Cisco EnergyWise, energy usage of the IT assets is managed by the building management system and Torana Application Server resulting in a more Efficient Enterprise™.

The complete Schneider Electric offer will provide enhanced energy management and sustainability results contributing to improved capex and opex.

The above products and solutions will all be available beginning June 2012 as part of Schneider Electric’s Efficient Enterprise portfolio for the Cisco Intelligent Network. Visit booth #P3 at Cisco Live to learn more about all of Schneider Electric and Cisco’s collaborative solutions.