Eaton's Schwing Discusses Power Management Trends, Issues

At the ITEXPO (News - Alert) 2011 East recently held in Miami, TMC’s Erik Linask had the opportunity on day four to interview Eaton’s (News - Alert) John Schwing.

Some of the issue facing the IT industry right now, as far as Eaton, in the power management products and services sector is concerned, are budget strains when implementing capital-intensive projects. “We are in a business where we provide power quality products, a capital buy,” he said, adding that from their perspective, they’re seeing a real push to high-value implementations.

Which probably isn’t so different from most other times –many of which Eaton has seen, the company was founded in 1911, happy centennial this year, guys – but as he says, getting the most for the money and driving energy efficiency are prime concerns now, as is lowering cost of ownership and complying with energy efficiency programs being pushed through organizations.

There is also a need for companies to have a unified power strategy, he said, instead of just focusing on the hardware. Eaton itself is seeing a lot of interest in their scalable architectures, being able to scale for growth. “Those products were developed in concert with the engineers working with the early adopters, the early manufacturers like the HPs and IBMs. It’s modular, and that’s very much a hot product, both here in the United States and in our international markets.”

About a month ago TMC’s (News - Alert) Carrie Schmelkin wrote that Eaton recently announced that its BladeUPS system is now available in a preassembled system cabinet designed for easier power cabling access.

The BladeUPS Top-Entry Preassembled System simplifies installation for applications without a raised floor environment and serves as a flexible option when facing data center moves, additions or changes, according to the company.

As Schmelkin said, those companies looking to consolidate their UPSs in order to make UPS management easier and ensure optimal power protection may see the value in Eaton’s new system. Eaton recently worked with Allison-Smith Company, a Southern electrical contracting firm, to specify a UPS for a customer with limited space in its information technology (IT) room.