APC by Schneider Electric, a major supplier of data center cooling and UPS equipment aimed at improving efficiency, is lowering costs and developing integrated tools to address power fluctuations in Africa.

"Over half of the power and cooling losses in a data center are fixed and do not vary with the IT load," said Arlene Nazareth, APC East Africa's channel account manager. "In Africa, businesses project [follow] future requirements and invest at once instead of gradually."

For instance, she explained, a business may have equipment that currently uses 10kVA, but future projections show that it will require 50kVA in two years; most businesses invest in 50kVA, even though they may use only 20 percent of the UPS (uninterruptible power supply). Over-sizing is, therefore, a primary contributor to inefficiency, Nazareth said.

APC has developed new power and cooling devices that can scale in capacity and can be managed to a zero-power state, reducing the fixed losses.

Precision cooling will also help businesses that previously had to cool the whole server room: The ISX is an intelligent product that offers a cabinet to hold all servers and routing equipment. APC pre-engineers and pre-configures it based on the cooling requirements. ISX cools only the equipment and is configured to switch on when temperatures rise, Nazareth said.

To expand the market base, Nazareth said APC will work to create awareness among business people on how to invest in smaller equipment that allows expansion as the business grows.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.