9/23/2011 3:06:42 PM
Lately, we've been telling you a lot about the ways in which
Chatsworth Products, Inc. (CPI) interacts with our customers out in
the field. That includes the on-going U.S.
Data Center Efficiency Technical Seminar Series (next stop:
Washington D.C. Sept. 28), our Mexico City CDAT Seminar
Series, and the upcoming KyotoCooling® Conference in
Helena, Montana.
But did you know that
staying in touch with CPI is never further than a click away, no
matter the time, place or day? While in-person events are a great
way to get hands-on with many of CPI's latest and greatest products
and solutions, our vast library of online training sessions and instructional seminars
means we bring the learning straight to the distributors, resellers, contractors and system
integrators who serve you.
Keeping these groups up-to-date and in-the-know about our CPI
products and solutions ensures that each and every customer is
fully educated to make the right selections based on exact spec and
need. This includes in-depth audio and video training on popular products such as CPI's
GF-Series GlobalFrame®
Cabinet, Cable Management Products, TeraFrame®
Family of Cabinets and more. Each training module is narrated
by CPI Sales Representatives, Product Managers and Technical
Support, and then made available to all registered users of the CPI on-demand
training portal.
While access to this on-demand training portal does require
login, those interested can contact Michele Hammer via email and an account will
be created.
Ultimately, we're dedicated to constantly advancing the
skill-set and expertise of our staff, who in turn can bring that
knowledge directly (or in-directly if you'd so prefer) to you. As
the industry evolves, the products and solutions that we develop
must adapt to new space constraints, standards and challenges. CPI
training is here to bridge the gap. Michele
Hammer, Sales and Marketing Training Manager and Jeff Cihocki,
eContent Specialist
9/23/2011 3:03:11 PM
If you're not
familiar with it already, Data Center Knowledge (DCK) is
one of the industry's leading online sources for daily news and
analysis for everything data center. Just named one of the
50 Must-Read IT Blogs by Biz
Tech Magazine, DCK also provides a great platform to measure
the pulse of what really excites (and worries) data center managers
and staff at large as the industry continues to evolve.
Just recently, DCK published the results of their 2011 Data Center
Market Insight Report, a detailed analysis and survey of data
center operators on all manner of topics, including growth strategy
and pain points.
Throughout the coming days and weeks, Chatsworth Products, Inc.
(CPI) is going to count down the top six issues important to our
fellow data center enthusiasts and explore in detail how CPI excels
in each. Let's start with the sixth-most important rated issue
according to the DCK survey, Running Out of
Space.
These days, it's hard to drive a mile in either direction without
seeing a "big-box" storefront. You know the ones, bright colors,
larger-than-life logos, and names we all know by heart. And just as
you might suspect, the "bigger is better" mantra applies to each -
create a space large enough to house nearly everything under the
sun, and offer consumers the convenience of a one-stop shopping
experience.
Now, apply that logic to the data center and you begin to see some
parallels, and some vast differences. For starters, space is a huge
commodity. And while the large scale enterprise players can and
will afford to create new (large) space as needed, there are just
as many hard-working small and mid-level data centers, equipment
rooms and premise network environments out there that need to make
do with their lot in life… not matter how small that lot may
be.
Is your
data center or network room bursting at the seams due to lack of
space?
For these folks, running out of space is more about
when than if. And as new data piles up, archives
become digitized and the cloud rolls in, it's not just servers that
need more volume, its every last square foot of the room where
those servers sit - down to the cabinet footprint, cable management
and wall-mount rack space.
To that end,
CPI offers a wide variety of cabinet solutions that not only meet
industry sizing standards such as EIA-310-E, they adapt easily to
specific architectural concerns like access floor height, ceiling
height and overall layout challenges. Furthermore, many cabinet
solutions pair with thermal management
accessories that reduce the need for obtrusive and
space-hogging cooling equipment.
Another
excellent opportunity for maximizing space resides in intelligent
cable management and cable
pathway. Better organized cables within and surrounding
cabinets and racks means less clutter and more room for supporting
equipment, while CPI's cable pathway products offer solutions to
route cable below raised floor or overhead using tray or
ladder-rack style configurations, each making practical use of
space far too often underutilized.
And for those
extra small spaces (you know the ones, sharing space with the
janitor's closet!), CPI offers a wide range of both open and
enclosed wall-mount systems that feature
small exterior dimensions to fit nicely in the tightest of spaces
while offering easily accessible swing gates for even easier access
in close quarters (such as CPI's EasySwing™ Wall-Mount Rack, seen
here).
When it comes to running out of space in the data center, CPI
products and solutions have room to spare.
Be sure to stay tuned for our recap of the fifth-most important
issue according to DCK, Running Out of Power.
Jeff Cihocki, eContent
Specialist
9/23/2011 3:02:20 PM
Forged by a
true pioneer spirit, the State of Montana inhabits a place (and
time zone) all its own - a place known simply as "Big Sky Country."
Yet for all its wide open spaces and natural wonder, Montana's true
grit resides in a rich tradition of capitalizing on "golden"
opportunities. Case in point? In a city where more millionaires
lived (per capita) than any other in the world at the turn of the
20th century, Helena, Montana is now home to a whole new kind of
goldmine - that of the first-ever United States data center to use
the remarkably efficient, energy recovery wheel, air-to-air heat
exchange cooling system known as KyotoCooling® - supported by CPI Passive Cooling®
Solutions.
But just how did the State of Montana go from a data center
operating at a frigid 45 degrees Fahrenheit just to cool blade
servers to a brand new facility reporting PUEs of an
astounding 1.08? Let's find out.
In 2007, the Montana State legislature appropriated funds for
two new data centers. With top-level goals in mind (reliability,
security, and efficiency) and a challenge from the governor - the
'20 by 10' initiative calling for energy
consumption in state-owned buildings to decrease by 20 percent
before the end of 2010 - two groups within the state's department
of administration set out on the job - Information Technology
Services Division (ITSD) and the Architecture and Engineering
Division (A&E).
Because of Montana's unique geographical location, weather
patterns and scarce population, the need for a reliable data center
was paramount - especially considering the state's citizens,
taxpayers and employees depend on the facility to manage everything
from payroll to medical info. Likewise, it was imperative to seek
solutions that would not only ensure reliability full stop, but do
so in a highly cost-conscious and environmentally-friendly
manner.
With all
planning pieces in place, the state then set its sterling
reputation for self-reliance to task, took a lead-by-example
approach, and set an innovative new precedent by selecting the
KyotoCooling thermal management technique, supported by Chatsworth
Products, Inc. (CPI) infrastructure storage and CPI Passive
Cooling®.
Thanks to plenty of prior analysis and research, the State of
Montana paired its thermal solution with CPI's F-Series TeraFrame®
Cabinets, equipped with Vertical Exhaust Ducts to allow
hot air to be directed out of the cabinets and into an isolated
return path above the drop ceiling. In isolating the hot return
air, it's then circulated and absorbed by the innovative Kyoto
wheel, and mixed with the seasonally cool, outside air to negate
the need for more traditional (and more expensive) methods of
cooling.
To truly appreciate what the State of Montana has accomplished
with this data center, CPI is teaming up with KyotoCooling and
industry experts to bring you the first-ever U.S.
KyotoCooling Conference - October 25-26, 2011. This is
your chance to tour the data center, meet the team, engage in
presentations by CPI's Ian Seaton, the Uptime Institute's Robert
"Dr. Bob" Sullivan, and the architect of KyotoCooling himself, Mees
Lodder. The best part of all? The conference is complimentary! Register
here for this one-of-a-kind event. Jeff
Cihocki, eContent Specialist
9/23/2011 3:01:17 PM
This past August, members of the Chatsworth Products, Inc. (CPI)
Technical Support Team had the opportunity to visit Glenview,
Illinois, corporate home to distributor partner Anixter,
and tour their Infrastructure Solutions Lab - known simply as the
LAB. Check out this quick video tour to get a better idea.
As a cutting edge training, testing and demo site for a variety
of vendor products sold through Anixter, the LAB isn't all that
different from CPI's own
Research, Development and Training (RD&T) Center located in
Georgetown, Texas, and as such, the CPI Technical Team felt right
at home learning more about our partners' capabilities.
Also during our visit to the LAB, where over 600 customers on
average visit per year, we were intrigued to learn that Anixter's
original "Levels" program was developed there, which then evolved
into the well-known Category rating system that Structured Cabling
uses to this day.
In the LAB's demo room, we were proud to see three CPI cabinet
enclosures (two F-Series
TeraFrame® Cabinets and one
GF-Series GlobalFrame®) installed on-site, giving all visiting
customers the chance to compare the quality, features and
aesthetics of CPI solutions to the competition. Likewise, the demo
area allows customers to see a variety of product and application
solutions, and using a handy 70" touchscreen monitor, they can even
access various data center management software interfaces,
including CPI's own
Scalable Enterprise Management Application (SEMA) Software.
All in all, our trip to the Anixter LAB was a rewarding
experience and just one of the many ways in which CPI Technical
Support is constantly striving to better our knowledge and
expertise within the industry. That reminds me - do you have a
question for CPI Technical Support? Give us a call at 800-834-4969
or ask here. Lonnie Long, Technical Support
9/23/2011 3:00:19 PM
Back at the
beginning of the year, Chatsworth Products, Inc. (CPI) told you
about an exciting new addition to our
comprehensive set of Design Tools and Downloads, 3D Drawings for Building
Information Modeling - better known industry-wide as BIM.
We're now thrilled to announce that the popular 3D drawings used
by Autodesk® Revit® users to explore a project's key physical
characteristics before construction can now be quickly and easily
accessed directly from the web at our BIM Drawings page.
For those of you who already have a CPI website account, simply
visit the page
to begin browsing. If you don't already have an online account, click here
to create one and gain free and instant access to
download our entire BIM Drawings database, featuring more than 80
percent of CPI's most popular products (with more added all the
time). We even offer more BIM Drawings than any other IT
infrastructure provider in these major product families:
- Cabinet & Enclosure Systems
- Rack Systems
- Cable Management
- Cable Runway
- Wall-Mount Systems
Gaining access to the page will also allow you to view
specific product information and availability of all BIM Drawings.
And as always, if you'd prefer a hard copy of any CPI BIM Drawings,
don't hesitate to
contact your CPI
Regional Sales Manager, who'll be glad to send you a
specially-prepared CD (with unique tracking code for updates as
necessary).
- CPI Product Configurator
- MasterFormat™ Specifications
- OSHPD Pre-Approved Products List
- Cable Fill Tables
- CPI PUE Calculator
- Visio Shapes
- CAD Blocks and more
Any additional assistance with these tools, including CPI BIM
Drawings, will gladly be fielded by CPI Technical Support at
800-834-4969 or
online.
Jeff Cihocki,
eContent Specialist
9/23/2011 2:59:27 PM
As always, we've been busy here at Chatsworth Products, Inc.
(CPI) refining our product line to bring customers the solutions
they need, when they need them. Here's a look at three recent
updates to some of those products:
- As CPI's most recently released and
easy-to-use, cost-effective network cabinet, the GF-Series GlobalFrame® not only
lives up to its versatility in terms of worldwide availability, but
standard and custom configuration when it comes to accessories.
That includes important additions and updates to the GlobalFrame's
Cable Management offering, which now includes a reduced overall
depth for the GF-Series GlobalFrame Vertical Cable Managers and new
cable ring managers.
-
Think of CPI's Scalable
Management Application (SEMA) Software like the ultimate master
control room of your data center - except it's all digital,
accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, and always
working to help monitor and control everything from KVM switching,
asset management, power, environmental conditions, and equipment
performance - all the way down to the rack level. Now imagine this
comprehensive management software system pre-installed on a
high-performance server, ready for plug and play on day one. SEMA
is now fully populated, integrated and ready to deploy - providing
you the important statistical and diagnostic data center info you
need from the moment it arrives.
- When it comes to
CPI's most popular Cable Runway products, even the
smallest accessories can make the biggest difference. That's the
case with an important update to our offering of the CPI Cable
Retaining Post - now conveniently available in abundant packs of 50
posts per carton. Providing extra cable depth to 1½ (38 mm)
Cable Runway installation and mountable onto Cable Runway side
stringers, the Cable Retaining Post is available in a variety of
finishes, including gold over zinc plating painted gray, white or
black.
If you're interested in learning more about the products above,
or need assistance with an application where these products might
provide useful, be sure to contact CPI Technical Support via customer support or call 800-834-4969.
Jeff Cihocki, eContent
Specialist
9/23/2011 2:58:03 PM
Pardon us for saying this (all you back-to-school'ers), but we
are more than ready to say "sayonara" to summer. Between
record-breaking heat waves (70+ days of 100 degree temperatures at
our Georgetown, TX facility), water-logged and wind-swept
hurricanes (don't mention the name "Irene" around New Bern, NC),
and earthquakes (Chatsworth and Westlake Village, CA... wait...
a... second... that was an east-coast earthquake!), we've
officially seen it all this summer.
So you'll
understand why we're thrilled to welcome autumn (and its hopeful
lack of eventful weather) with open arms. But better still, fall
also marks another welcome return to normal - the Chatsworth
Products, Inc. (CPI) Data Center Efficiency Technical
Seminar Series for 2011.
After awesome turnout during the first half
of this year's events, CPI is once again ready to partner with
industry experts from EDI, Ltd,, Starline, Stulz, Corning Cabling Systems, and
recently-added Innovative Research and CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) to
bring you an engaging mix of data center best practices and both BICSI Continuing Education Credits (CECs)
and American Institute of Architects (AIA) Learning Units (LUs).
Everything from airflow management in the data center to insider
info on power and cabling will be discussed at length, with up to 7
BICSI CECs and 2 AIA LUs available per session. Upcoming
dates/locations include:
- Sept. 14 - Chicago, IL
- Sept. 28 - Washington D.C.
- Oct. 12 - Southern CA
- Oct. 18 - Salt Lake City, UT
- Oct. 20 - Phoenix, AZ
- Oct. 26 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
- Nov. 9 - New York, NY
- Nov. 16 - Atlanta, GA
If you are interested in attending any one of these
complimentary seminar events (with lunch included), be sure to
visit the
registration page for more info. We look forward to seeing you
there!
Jeff Cihocki, eContent
Specialist