ebm-papst Fans, Blowers and Technology

Takeaways from AFCOM's Data Center World Conference

Data center professionals continuously seek more efficient ways to cool and ventilate their expanding data centers. Every year, ebm-papst showcases its cooling solutions at the industry’s premier trade event — AFCOM’s Data Center World Spring Global Conference.  One of our key R&D ‘listening posts,’ AFCOM keeps us ahead of the curve in developing the most efficient GreenTech products for future data centers. More than 200 exhibitors, 1,000 attendees and dozens of presenters attended this year’s show.

Insight #1: Up your game to meet changing requirements.
Industry trends tell us that over the next 10 years, Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) will become an integral discipline for data center owners and managers who want to expand and reduce costs. Product suppliers must provide DCIM ready products with features not only to help their data center clients control their energy use but also help them implement and manage predictive failure and recovery protocols for their facilities.  Our EC Greentech products include DCIM ready features above industry standards – leaving system designers and architects with variety of options.

Insight #2: New power configurations = greener operation.
More than half the power brought into many data centers is ‘lost’ to tasks like cooling before it arrives at these systems’ processors or hard drives. As a result, data center ventilation and cooling systems will move to electronically-commutated (EC) solutions, which better manage changes in the data center’s heat, boost cooling efficiency and compactness.

Insight #3: Location, Location, Location.

To provide free cooling benefits, data centers’ locations will be increasingly important. The owners of very large data centers will design brand new data centers tasked to provide the most efficient cooling available. Medium to small owners will begin to co-locate their data centers.

Insight #4: When, not if, Mother Nature strikes.

Even good UPS systems can’t provide backup power forever. Over the past few years, storms in the Northeast, tornadoes in the Midwest and earthquakes in California have forced data center owners to re-review their disaster recovery plans.

Increasingly, data centers are sharing loads across geographically dispersed locations, preventing a single natural disaster from bringing a system down. While this is a more robust solution, it also increases complexity and costs. Others are examining how cloud services can offer a certain level of continuous backup to preserve highly critical data.

As we control our impact on the environment and maintain the keystones of our nation’s IT infrastructure, we continue to make data center operations more efficient. Data Center World is where we source pertinent feedback that fuels ebm-papst’s newest GreenTech EC products working seamlessly with today and tomorrow’s DCIM systems.

To learn more about this topic, please contact Joe Landrette at ebm-papst Inc.

Coinciding with projected growth of 2-9% in Southern California’s electronics market over the next five years, the Del-Mar Electronics and Design Show has become one of the region’s premier trade shows, which was held from April 28 - 30.  ebm-papst was among the annual exhibitors, which included 250 participants covering 440 booths. Mechanical design and fabrication companies, molders using various plastics and laser marketing and cutting manufacturers were among the vendors in attendance. With about 4,000 visitors (up by 33 percent over two years), the show continues to gain momentum.

ebm-papst featured fan designs and system configurations for air movement in high-performance electronic devices and the infrastructure that supports them and highlighted its IP68 products and LED Active Cooling Solutions. The exhibit also included RadiCal impellers, with a new blade design, that offer a higher level of efficiency compared to former backward curved impellers.




High taxes and extensive environmental regulation continue to be issues for California-based electronics manufacturers and suppliers. However, optimists predict the costs of offshore production, transportation and unreliable production schedules may soon bring a portion of the world’s electronics manufacturing back to the U.S. If you’re a customer who wants closer connections to your supply chain, that’s very good news!