To deliver broad community perspective in our most recent print publication,
Forecast 2012: Next steps in a slow path forward, vol. 3, no. 2, IT in Canada extended our editorial coverage by adding the views of several industry practitioners on the pulse of change in six technology areas. For our data centre forecast article, we spoke with thought leaders about trends in IT infrastructure, but also discussed tech innovation in mission critical facilities with Peter Panfil, VP and GM, Liebert AC Power, a division of Emerson Network Power.
Peter Panfil has over 30 years of experience in embedded controls and power, and as lead for Liebert’s AC Power global roadmap development, works to apply the latest power and control technology to industry-proven topologies to provide the highest availability systems for business-critical applications. Panfil is a frequent presenter at industry conferences, and regular provider of expert opinion to numerous industry-focused media outlets,
including IT in Canada. His enthusiasm for driving innovation in the data centre is evident from the following interview transcript, which appeared in abbreviated form in our Forecast magazine, and is now presented here in fuller, edited format. Panfil’s thoughts on facilities trends for the coming year run the gamut from discussion of energy efficiency technology to precision cooling and power management to utilization of IT infrastructure – reflecting a growing need and emerging trend in user groups towards convergence of the IT and facilities worlds in efforts as a means to optimize data centre performance.
IT in Canada: Can you help us to understand what you see emerging as the most important trends in data centre facilities over the coming year?
Peter Panfil: We’re always talking to customers in our Delaware facility and our Dearborn facility in Columbus. There are a couple things that have jumped out at us in terms of what customers are telling us. They’re really along two lines: the first is that they really want to optimize the design and operation of their critical space. But I’m getting poked in the eye more and more by critical space managers who say, “Yes, we have the data centre; that’s one of our critical spaces. But we have all kinds of other critical space that we have to deal with.” And they [other IT spaces] have the exactly the same issues.
