Emerson Network Power (NYSE: EMR) announced the creation of its new Thermal Management business unit "to expand its ability to develop and deliver more holistic, next-generation approaches to controlling the data center environment."
The company says its expanded focus on thermal management reflects the evolution of data center environmental guidelines from organizations such as the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). John Schneider will lead the new Thermal Management business as vice president and general manager. In addition to Schneider, Emerson Network Power appointed JP Valiulis vice president, marketing, and Lorenz Hofmann, vice president, engineering, for the Thermal Management business.
“The data center is an active, always-changing ecosystem where IT needs, geographic location and external weather conditions are connected, and changes in any one area have broad implications,” comments Schneider. “We are delivering the next generation of data center cooling, with innovative services, software and hardware integrated and optimized to reliably, efficiently and cost-effectively control and manage heat.”
Related: Emerson, IBM integrate DCIM capabilities
The new Thermal Management business, with annual revenues of approximately $800 million, includes Emerson Network Power’s existing Liebert precision cooling assets and expertise. The new unit offers technologies and solutions for data centers and IT facilities of all sizes including air, waterside and pumped-refrigerant economizers in addition to state-of-the-art controls and wireless sensors to maximize efficiency. Included in the solutions are custom air-handling solutions with chilled water, direct and indirect evaporative, and refrigerant technologies.
“What we’re doing with our approach to thermal management is helping our customers analyze, understand and act on that data to realize more efficient, more sophisticated real-time environmental control,” Schneider adds. "That control is realized through innovative hardware, software and services that include everything from more intelligent and versatile cooling technologies to data center infrastructure management systems to remote service delivery programs."
More: Emerson Network Power opens Ohio engineering facility
Introduced in 1965, Emerson notes that the Liebert computer room air conditioning systems were the first self-contained IT cooling units capable of maintaining air temperature, humidity and air quality within precision tolerances. Today’s data center infrastructure systems use networks of wireline and wireless sensors to monitor equipment performance and environmental conditions and are better equipped to act on that data. These capabilities were not available in the past; and, even today, the additional intelligence often is lost in floods of data, contends Emerson.
“For 48 years, the Liebert brand has been synonymous with IT cooling and innovation, and today’s announcement represents another significant evolution within that space,” concludes Scott Barbour, executive vice president, Emerson, and business leader, Emerson Network Power Systems. “The basic need to manage heat is not changing. There are now more ways to do that, and this expansion of what began as our precision cooling business reflects the entire spectrum of possibilities.”
See also: Emerson receives U.S. patent for high-density data center cooling technology