Schneider Electric Debuts Data Center Services

Lest you think Schneider Electric S.A., is just about plugs, power supplies and air conditioning, the Rueil Malmaison, France-based vendor is out to prove they have everything it takes to help design, build and operate cost effective and energy efficient data centers.

Schneider this week introduced a new division to provide support services for all types of data centers, from specialized facilities for healthcare, retail, and financial companies to the fundamental underpinnings for cloud and managed hosting services providers.

Schneider’s new Mission Critical Services and Software unit provides design and maintenance services for enterprises and service providers looking to build data centers that are both cost- and energy-efficient. MCSS was built from capabilities the vendor acquired in April 2011 when it bought Lee Technologies, a Fairfax, Va. solution provider and Schneider Electric partner that specialized in all manner of data center lifecycle services including consulting, site assessment, data center design, equipment specification, integration, operations, staffing, maintenance and remote monitoring.

The vendor paired the services launch with the announcement of a new Data Center Service Provider Team, a group of solution architects, global project management and execution, supply chain and account managers who specialize in data centers for co-location, hosting and cloud businesses, Schneider Electric officials said. The team is available to partner service providers locally, regionally, or globally to help wring out data center cost savings and performance improvements.

“We provide one-of-a-kind, holistic, and fully-comprehensive solutions that are unique and currently unavailable in today’s market, with energy management capabilities from planning, building and operations to energy procurement, lifecycle management and software, all from one company,” said Rob McKernan, senior vice president for the Americas in Schneider Electric’s IT Business unit.

Taken as a pair, the launches place Schneider “in a strategic position as the leader in end-to-end data center energy management,” McKernan said. “This is further complemented by our team of consultative and technical experts that provide guidance every step of the way.”

MCSS leverages Schneider Electric’s StruxureWare for Data Centers management suite, which provides real-time, detailed performance data and analytics for stand-alone or multi-tenants data centers.

The services announcements also came with a few related personnel changes at the company. Schneider data center solutions architect Joe Reele takes on the title of vice president, while former 451 Research data center practice leader Jason Schafer has been named director for technology and operations management for MCSS. Meanwhile, Lee Technologies EVP of sales and marketing Mike Hagan is now VP for the DCSP unit.

Chris Crosby, CEO of data center solutions provider Compass Datacenters of Dallas said he’s seen first-hand how such advanced design, planning, integration and operations services can help optimize return on capital employed at nearly every stage of a data center’s lifecycle. “We are a wholesale data center provider … we need to provide standalone data centers quickly and cost-effectively for our customers,” said Crosby. “Driving energy efficiency throughout the data center lifecycle helps us to keep costs down across both IT equipment and in our critical facilities, and Schneider Electric has provided a consistently high level of service and quality.”