Emerson seeks to bridge IT and facilities power management

So, one common refrain you hear from people charged with managing electricity consumption in their data center is that there is a sometimes a disconnect between the facilities and IT teams. Actually, make that often, not sometimes. Not that both aren't interested in conserving power, but these teams don't often work together or have access to the same management tools.

That's a concern that Emerson Network Power hopes to address with something that it is calling Trellis, essentially an infrastructure management platform that purports to bridge information about the IT equipment and facilities infrastructure that go into making a data center work. The platform includes software, hardware and services that help data center managers make better decisions regarding capacity. The company is specifically addresses the common practice of reserving excess power, essentially a strategy of hedging your bets in case capacity demands in the data center jump suddenly. Emerson says that Trellis provides a more real-time, dynamic view into those capacity needs. Here's an explanation from Steve Hassell, president of the Avocent division of Emerson Network Power:

"Virtualization has brought greater flexibility and efficiency to data center management but has introduced new complexities and pressures to the static physical infrastructure. Organizations today lack visibility into the impact of virtualization and the deployment of high-density servers on the physical infrastructure, and that keeps them from utilizing the full capacity of their equipment. We intend to provide that visibility along with the tools to manage and optimize change to the physical infrastructure."

But you'll have to wait. The first core components of Trellis aren't due to ship until the fourth quarter of 2011 and the subsequent 12 to 18 months.