How Customized Racks Help Deliver Advanced Redundancy

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When you have nearly a thousand colocation customers who require hyperscale deployments, standard data center racks won’t do. As a provider, we also require speed to market, so customized racks would take too much time or cost too much to keep in stock. Therefore, we worked with Schneider Electric to help overcome this dilemma and deliver advanced redundancy.

Switch’s large enterprise customers call for high-density spaces, so we need racks tailored for such capacity — racks that can be implemented quickly. Special design and manufacturing, however, would normally cause delays.

Our data centers operate using a Schneider Electric power infrastructure. Each of our facilities has three separate N+2 power systems, with its own generators, transformers, transfer switches, UPS battery back-up systems and PDUs.

Switch’s patented hot and cold aisle containment system along with the custom rack solution allows the racks to be filled with as much gear as possible. The final product allows us to fit 50 to 60 times more clients into our facilities — faster. You can see some of our designs here.

Schneider Electric’s Global Supply Chain Delivers, Fast

For that speed, having a supply of racks on hand is necessary. This ready inventory is enabled through Schneider Electric’s global supply chain and distribution model, allowing us to forecast production based on Switch’s construction schedule and pay for the racks accordingly.

Thanks to Schneider Electric, we have more advanced redundancy than our customers can get anywhere else, so our clients typically choose Switch for their most mission critical deployments.

Read more about how we partnered with Schneider Electric to design a custom rack solution specific to its high-density requirements, while keeping a supply on hand without upfront capital outlay.

About the Author: Missy Young is the CIO (Chief Information Officer) at Switch. She drives the company’s solutions architecture to create a fundamental and sustainable change in the way clients ultimately design and implement intelligent data strategies. As a technologist, Missy has played an imperative role in the company’s evolution from the most innovative data center company in the world to the world’s only hyperscale retail colocation ecosystem that it is today.

Since joining the company in 2005, Missy has also held roles with leadership responsibilities for all sales operations and solutions engineering with respect to potential clients and win-win contract negotiations. Her expertise in technology trends, forecasting client needs and connecting those trends with results has been a great asset to Switch and its success. Prior to becoming a partner at Switch, Missy was the Director of Sales Engineering and VoIP services for Mpower Communications. Her portfolio of experience also includes senior sales engineering positions at ICG Communications, InteleNet Data Centers, and FirstWorld Communications. She entered the industry back in the dot-com days of the mid-90s, as a network engineer through her Cisco, Microsoft, and Novell certifications.

Missy serves on the FIRST® Nevada Robotics Board, the Foundation Board of the College of Southern Nevada, the Foundation Board of Opportunity Village, the Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Research Board, the Desert Research Institute Foundation Board, and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Board of Directors. Additionally, Missy is a strong advocate for the certification path of education for young students who desire to enter the technology field.