Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Networking

    Schneider Talks Energy Efficiency with EcoStruXure

    By
    Jeff Burt
    -
    June 7, 2009
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      NEWPORT, R.I.-For the past several years, French energy management company Schneider Electric has aggressively built out its expertise through internal growth and external acquisitions.

      Its biggest step into data centers came in 2007 with its $6.1 billion purchase of APC (American Power Conversion), which makes power management supplies for IT environments. Schneider also offers devices for buildings, homes, factories and other facilities.

      Now the company-with more than 114,000 employees, a presence in more than 100 countries, 120 brands and 600 legal entities-is looking to pull all these businesses, products and services together to offer businesses of all sizes energy management capabilities that Schneider officials say can help reduce carbon emissions from their buildings by 30 percent.

      At a daylong event here June 5 attended by more than 400 journalists from around the world, Schneider officials laid out their EcoStruXure initiative that is designed to create more intelligent and simpler energy management components that save money and reduce waste.

      It also guarantees greater integration between Schneider’s myriad products thanks to more compatible designs and a Web services architecture that helps create this integration.

      “For the first time, energy is becoming a C-level issue,” Schneider Chief Marketing Officer Aaron Davis said. “Also, technology for the first time is [tying] these things together. … Power and IT needs to work together.”

      Schneider, Davis said, has significant footprints in both energy and IT.

      The company first began talking about its EcoStruXure push last year, as part of its “one company” program. Schneider officials began outlining some of its deliverables during the event here.

      “This [new software] architecture is about collaboration and how this works together,” said Jim Simonelli, CTO of Schneider’s IT business unit, adding that the company already has many hardware pieces that can help with energy efficiency. “With EcoStruXure, we’re trying to bring them together.”

      Davis spoke about Energy University, an online educational community designed to teach people how to begin designing, building and implementing energy-saving programs in their buildings. The courses touch upon such issues as energy efficiency fundamentals, alternative power, data center efficiency and the economics of energy efficiency. The project, which can be found here, is similar in design to the company’s Datacenter University.

      Other Aspects of the EcoStruXure Initiative

      Other aspects of the EcoStruXure initiative, which will be rolled out throughout the year, include a Facebook-like collaborative portal that will give people the chance to work with each other and with Schneider to address energy issues, a program to teach college-age students the fundamentals of energy audits for buildings, and a set of reference architectures for various types of buildings, from data centers to factories to homes. Those reference architectures will start to be released in the fourth quarter.

      There also will be a certification program for energy architects.

      In addition, Schneider is looking to bring power to what Davis said are the 1.6 billion people in the world without it. He spoke of a recent project in which the company installed a power system for a remote Vietnamese fishing village.

      Another program will bring prepaid electricity programs to people without the means to pay for power. With the program, people can prepay for a certain amount of power, and then when they need it, the power can be turned on to their home until the task is completed.

      Davis and Chris Curtis, executive vice president of Schneider’s North American business unit, outlined the increasing problems-both environmental and economic-caused by the inefficient use of energy. There were graphics showing the disappearing coastlines in the United States caused by rising water levels and a photo of a polar bear stranded on a melting ice floe.

      They also noted that the increasing costs of inefficient power consumption, from the amount of carbon being pumped into the atmosphere to the fact that it costs businesses significantly more money now to run a server than to buy one.

      Davis said the opportunities are there now for businesses to begin driving down their power costs, from smart controls to greater automation of energy processes to better use of energy management tools and software. There is also a continuing drive for greater intelligence in buildings, he said.

      A key problem is that there is resistance from key people in businesses-such as building and facilities managers to IT administrators-to take a lot of the steps that can save them money now.

      “There are a lot of things we can do already, with good ROI, but no one’s doing it,” Curtis said. “So it’s a huge problem.”

      Schneider, with its wide reach into all these different areas, will be a key player in helping drive up energy efficiency in buildings, he and Davis said. They pointed to a wide range of partners, including such IT players and Dell, IBM and VMware.

      Jeff Burt
      Jeffrey Burt has been with eWEEK since 2000, covering an array of areas that includes servers, networking, PCs, processors, converged infrastructure, unified communications and the Internet of things.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Careers

      SThree’s Sunny Ackerman on Tech Hiring Trends

      James Maguire - June 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Sunny Ackerman, President/Americas for tech recruiter SThree, about the tight labor market in the tech sector, and much needed efforts to...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×