American Greetings sees huge data centre transformation

Driven by Robert Hunt, Manager of Enterprise Systems Management, the multinational company has overhauled the monitoring of its main 2,200 ft2 data centre in Cleveland, Ohio, as well as 10 remote facilities running manufacturing systems, and four locations outside of the U.S.

American Greetings’ decision to improve the environmental efficiency of its data centres stemmed from ENERGY STAR compliance and ASHRAE guidelines. Its original strategy for reducing energy usage and lowering operating costs was to turn off a number of air conditioning units (CRACs); an approach which lacked the accuracy of the RF Code solution it eventually installed.

Following an unsatisfactory pilot of wired solutions, Hunt wanted a monitoring solution that integrated with existing IBM solutions and one which he could eventually standardise across all locations. He subsequently chose the RF Code solution for various reasons, including its cost effective deployment, wire-free ease and the extensive visibility the solution provides data centre managers.

The solution was implemented at exactly the right moment, as a leaky air conditioning unit malfunctioned and RF Code’s solution immediately alerted personnel of the issue for instant rectification; a response which was not possible in the past.

There were also issues with intermittent power outages which RF Code’s solution has helped solve:

“[If we had installed RF Code] we would have known if we were hitting a temperature threshold, getting close to it or were still safe. RF Code would have bought us more time, during which we could have, for example, turned on fans to cool the equipment and perhaps stave off having to shut it down and bring it back up,” said Hunt.

Following the success of the environmental monitoring solution and the significant energy / cost savings the organisation expects to see, American Greetings is looking to implement RF Code’s asset tracking solution to improve management of its mission-critical inventory.

Hunt concluded, “It’s been more cost effective than other solutions. In fact, it was a lot less expensive than I thought it would be. And it works better than I ever expected.”