APC by Schneider Electric Endorses IDC CIO Summit 2011

Industry Leader to Highlight Need for Complete Spectrum of Data Centre Services in Middle East

Dubai-UAE: 08 February, 2011 – APC by Schneider Electric, a global leader in integrated critical power and cooling services, today announced its endorsement of the IDC CIO Summit 2011 as a platinum sponsor.

To be held in Dubai on 20 and 21 February, the summit is a congregation of CIOs and decision-makers from over 120 leading companies in the Middle East region.

The summit comes close on the heels of APC’s announcement about the recently launched Data Centre Audit Mechanism service, aimed at enabling enterprises to measure and optimise the performance of their data centre facilities. APC will utilise the platform to engage CIOs and showcase its superior data centre architecture and design.

In a data centre usage survey conducted by IDC in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in 2010, over 76 per cent respondents revealed they would opt for building internal capacity by upgrading existing data centres should they reach full capacity.

Commenting on the findings of the report, Christian Bertrand, Vice-President - Middle-East and Africa, APC by Schneider Electric, said: “In line with the results of the IDC survey, there is a preference in the region for companies to build internal data centre capacity. APC is well-positioned to design independent data centres for organisations and help them manage these facilities at an optimum efficiency.

“Enterprises can achieve greater energy efficiencies from virtualisation strategies, enabling power overhead to be reduced for enhanced standing in the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme. Server virtualisation strategies will gain additional momentum as the Carbon Reduction Scheme provides incentive to larger private and public enterprises to address organisational energy use and efficiency.”

Given that the respondents of the survey were based in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the report reveals the reluctance of companies within the GCC to outsource or build greenfield data centres, preferring rather to build their existing infrastructure. Technologies such as virtualisation can also help maximise these investments with an accelerated adoption of server virtualisation witnessed over 2010.

Creating efficiency in the data centre does not just lie in the optimal utilisation of server assets, but also in clever and power-efficient data centre design. Optimal cooling is a core component and is something that companies are starting to take a lot more seriously.

Commenting on APC’s participation at the event, Christian Bertrand said: “We have been generating excellent ROI through our participation at IDC events. The summits bring together leading CIOs from the region under one roof to discuss the latest technologies and promote thought leadership. These events also feature decision makers who can impact the direction companies can take vis-à-vis technology deployment and data management.”

Jyoti Lalchandani, Vice-President and Regional MD, IDC Middle East, Africa and Turkey, said: “APC by Schneider Electric has been working closely with industry leaders across multiple sectors, providing data centre management solutions. This makes them an ideal partner for the IDC CIO Summit that we are hosting in Dubai for the fourth time.”

Further information on APC’s services such as data center audit and site survey is available on www.apc.com