Schneider Electric has published three independent research studies to understand better the maturity of sustainability initiatives within IT and data center organizations, specifically where the IT and data center industry stands to achieve this vision of net-zero IT operations.
To complete the studies, 451 Research, Forrester, and Canalys independently collected data from more than 3,000 participants worldwide, including the largest colocation and cloud providers, IT solution providers, and IT professionals across many segments and organization sizes.
Overall, the findings consistently show that there is a mismatch between where companies think they are and implementing full lifecycle sustainability programs in their IT infrastructure in the data center and IT industry.
According to the findings of 451 Research, in a survey of 1,100 IT professionals responsible for the core and distributed IT, only 14% of respondents self-identified as having a complete lifecycle sustainability program spanning the entire infrastructure, taking the actions to the agenda.
The analysis further shows that 22% do not see sustainability as a major focus, although there may be efficiency initiatives to improve specific work areas.
Schneider Electric executive vice president of secure power division Pankaj Sharma said: “Data centers play a critical role in driving Electricity 4.0, which we believe is key to changing the trajectory of climate change. As an industry, we are responsible for fulfilling our environmental commitments with extreme urgency.
“We’ve made some progress, but to avoid a major energy challenge, all data centers — including distributed edge data centers — need to be more sustainable, efficient, adaptive, and resilient.”
Sharma continued: “The research is detailed – the industry knows that sustainability must be a priority, but there are still challenges to take action, and they will make a concerted effort to overcome them. The good news is that the technology to take action doing business in the field of sustainability today is time to act.”
In addition to releasing these research studies, Schneider Electric has made several new announcements designed to help data center and IT professionals progress toward their sustainability goals.
Building on the company’s channel history, Schneider Electric’s updated IT partner program helps partners grow and differentiate their businesses over the long term.
The new partner program evolution is designed to support IT channel partners with a simplified program structure and diverse specializations for key industries, including data centers, IT solutions, software, and services, with a new set of sales tools, training, and resources.
Furthermore, it includes new benefits tailored to each specialization path. It provides a clear sustainability strategy for partners through Schneider Electric Green Premium solutions, delivering sustainable performance and circularity through design.
Partners can become strategic advisors and experts in their marketplace across multiple IT competencies by enabling the development of diverse business models, simplifying and increasing transparency of requirements and benefits, and strengthening channel-centric practice.
Schneider Electric released its APC Smart-UPS Modular Ultra, the industry’s first modular UPS with lithium-ion technology.
The highly modular, scalable, and redundant design combined with power density up to 2.5x enables enhanced power protection, new levels of resiliency, a lower total cost of ownership, and a longer lifespan, allowing customers to scale or adapt as the business grows or needs change.
The company says that the UPS design’s circularity combined with the lithium-ion technology’s position makes it small, light, and powerful. The sustainable and scalable UPS will be Green Premium Certified.
In addition, the company announced the expansion of its EcoStruxure IT DCIM software. This update evolves the individual data center infrastructure management software to cover the entire hybrid IT environment and address industry requirements for a more resilient, secure, and sustainable IT infrastructure.
EcoStruxure IT has a custom solutions team made up of skilled engineers who speak 24 languages and perform customer integrations worldwide, the company said.
