APC pitches 'green' to Philippine firms
PHILIPPINES--American Power Conversion (APC) has announced plans to push for "green" products that the company will roll out from the second half of this year.
In a briefing Thursday, APC said the new products will carry "greener" characteristics such as higher power efficiency, intelligent voltage systems and low heat emissions.
Green IT has been grabbing the limelight in recent months, and various technology providers have begun building and offering environment-friendly products and services in a bid to participate in the green movement.
APC is no exception. According to the company, all of its future products--starting with the MGE Galaxy 7000 series--will follow strict standards designed for more eco-friendly products, according to Pascal Bodin, APC's Asean manager for enterprise and systems business development.
Bodin said one major modification in the company's products is the ability to draw only the needed amount of voltage from a power supply. He explained that this means the product will not draw excess power, thus conserving and lowering power consumption.
Bodin said starting with the MGE Galaxy 7000, which is slated for release in July, all future products will carry these eco-friendly features.
He added that the new product features a "transformerless" uninterruptible power supply (UPS) topology, built-in static switch and maintenance bypass and power "correction" features.
The new products will also be smaller than standard power systems for corporate users, Bodin said, adding that the form factor allows for "back-to-back" and "back-to-wall" configurations.
The Galaxy 7000 will be exclusively marketed for large enterprise users and data centers, he said. "But, we are not limiting the product for large data centers only. Any company which needs a 'greener' power solutions alternative can utilize the product," Bodin said, but did not disclose pricing details for the Galaxy 7000.
Earlier this month, APC opened a new testbed facility in Singapore to showcase energy efficiency technology and processes that can be deployed in data centers.
Apart from APC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun Microsystems have also announced energy-saving initiatives over the past few months.
Joel D. Pinaroc is a freelance IT writer based in the Philippines.