APC’s Energy Efficient Power System Supports the World’s Highest Density Data Center

Switch Communications’ SuperNAP 407,000 Square Foot Co-Location Facility in Las VegasDesigned to Handle Densities of Up to 1,500 Watts per Square Foot

MANILA, Philippines – March 20, 2009 – APC by Schneider Electric, a global leader in integrated critical power and cooling services, recently announced that it was a key equipment supplier for SuperNAP, the newest co-location facility from Switch Communications Group LLC, and the world’s highest density data center. Located in Las Vegas with a footprint of more than 407,000 square feet of space, SuperNAP (Network Access Point) provides mission critical data storage for businesses and organizations ranging from government to healthcare, banks and retailers. With the Switch owned 250 MVA substation and building 1, consisting of 146 MVA of diesel generator capacity, Switch relies on the capabilities and redundancy of APC’s Symmetra® MW II uninterruptible power system (UPS) to supply 84 MVA of power and ensure its customers 100 percent uptime. In addition, at full build, SuperNAP will house more than 7,000 APC NetShelter® SX racks and thousands of APC rack mounted power distribution units (PDUs) that enable increased management and efficiency across the data center.

“We are always pleased to tell our customers that we utilize technology from APC, as well as other Schneider Electric companies, as the APC brand is synonymous with reliability and efficiency,” said Rob Roy, CEO, Switch Communications Group LLC. “Clearly, with a project as large in scale as the SuperNAP facility, we cannot risk using power systems or racks that aren’t equipped to handle the most complex, power-hungry applications. In addition, the business model of SuperNAP promises to consistently meet the growing needs of our customers and this requires that our equipment be scalable and modular to permit regular expansion whenever it is necessary. The Symmetra MW II UPS and the APC PDUs address the needs of large data centers and facilities like ours, and we appreciate APC’s help in making SuperNAP a tremendous success in a short amount of time.”

SuperNAP is situated several miles from downtown Las Vegas, an ideal location given both the large power quantities available to the facility and the favorable environment that eliminates the potential for a natural disaster. Unlike most centers of its kind, SuperNAP does not rely on raised floors or liquid cooling systems to cool its equipment; the facility utilizes a patented, industry leading HVAC design that allows it to provide as much as 1,500 watts per square foot – more than three times the industry standard. APC Applications Engineers, along with Dennis Strieter, LDP Associates, the APC Manufacturers’ Representative, assisted in the design and implementation of SuperNAP’s tri-redundant power distribution system, installing three grids each contains color-coded equipment. The color-coding system ensures everyone has visibility into the power dependence throughout the facility. The colors red, blue, and gray represent the three independent sources and everything from the service entrance to the receptacles that feed the individual racks are painted to match the respective feed. Customers know their uptime relies on having multiple sources of power available to their equipment and the color-coding system brings this into focus.

At full build, SuperNAP will utilize 60 APC Symmetra MW II UPSs. The APC Symmetra MW II delivers efficiencies from over 94 percent at 25 percent load to full load efficiency above 97 percent. This high efficiency is ideal for System + System or 2N applications when customers have a lower load factor and will significantly reduce overall operating expenses, contributing to “greening” the data center. With its modular design, the Symmetra MW II enables a power module to be quickly and easily replaced in case of maintenance or repair, rather than go through a costly and time-consuming repair service. In addition, the system maintains the highest availability through internal N+1 redundancy and advanced, self-diagnosing power modules for predictive failure notification.

“SuperNAP is ambitious in size and scope and could truly change the future of data center design and implementation,” said John DiPippo, APC’s senior vice president of Data Center Solutions, Services, and Software. “We consider it a great accomplishment that when Switch Communications embarked on what they knew would need to be the most reliable, efficient and innovative power distribution system and racks, they chose APC. Promising 100 percent uptime for a data center this large and powerful is no small feat, but our team of experts and service managers worked in lockstep with Switch engineers to make this facility a reality. If SuperNAP represents the first step in a data center revolution, we are very proud that APC will play a large part.”