APC and MGE Energy Efficient Green Data Center Solutions Highlighted at New Schneider Electric Technology Center in St. Louis

Business Wire, Oct 24, 2007

The State-of-the-Art Testing, Training and Data Center Solutions Demonstration Facility Showcases the Latest Innovation from APC-MGE, the Critical Power and Cooling Services Business Unit of Schneider Electric

ST. LOUIS -- APC-MGE, a global leader in integrated critical power and cooling services, and a business unit of Schneider Electric, yesterday held a grand opening celebration for the new Schneider Electric Technology Center in O'Fallon, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. The world leader in electrical distribution, automation and control, Schneider Electric markets products and services for the residential, buildings, industry, energy and infrastructure markets. Today's grand opening celebration included representatives from the APC-MGE business unit, Schneider Electric, several world renowned industry leaders and members of the press.

"We are pleased that our new facility will give customers planning for or in the middle of a data center design a one of a kind hands-on experience with the latest technologies, as well as the ability to perform "what-if" design scenarios to maximize their overall confidence in their final selection," said Laurent Vernerey, president and chief executive officer of APC-MGE. "We believe our portfolio represents the best options to achieve the mandate of the Efficient Enterprise. With world-class components, close-coupled cooling designs, high density containment options, and new power and cooling capacity management software, we are uniquely positioned to solve the data center issues of today and tomorrow."

The new 100,000 square-foot Schneider Electric Technology Center incorporates a state-of-the-art executive briefing and conference center, live data center demonstration rooms, environmental test chambers, training areas and research and development testing. Visitors to the center will have the chance to see APC's complete product family including its InfraStruXure[R] patented architecture for data centers, its innovative InRow[TM] cooling solutions and InfraStruXure Central 4.0 management software product. Also on display at the new facility is APC's Symmetra[R] PX 250kW UPS, which offers the highest efficiency and redundancy for data centers in its class.

APC also will display its popular consumer electronics products such as its line of power conditioners with battery backup for audio/visual applications, notebook batteries and biometric password manager devices at the new center. MGE's modular Galaxy PW 100 kVA UPS unit for medium to large scale data center installations, as well as other products from Schneider Electric brands such as Square D, TAC and Integral Technologies also will be displayed at the new center. Best-in-class perimeter cooling solutions from Stulz, a recently announced APC-MGE strategic partner will also be included in the facility.

"With industry experts predicting that the cost of powering and cooling data centers will soon surpass the cost of the equipment housed in them, properly selecting, configuring and testing physical infrastructure is more important than ever," added Vernerey. "Improperly planning the powering and cooling of a data center can dramatically increase costs and decrease performance of the facility, not to mention injecting new areas of risk and potential downtime. It is our objective to keep that from happening through both applied research and practical testing. With live testing of customer-specific physical infrastructure designs, the Schneider Electric Technology Center will dramatically enhance our customers' ability to design and build data centers and ultimately enhance the effectiveness and performance of the entire installation."

APC expects that the Technology Center will host several thousand visitors in its first year of operation. By incorporating best practices throughout the facility, the center will provide a state-of-the-art learning environment including:

* Executive Briefing and Conference Center: Facilities to develop unencumbered, creative discussions aimed at understanding and solving customer problems.

* Product Solutions Demonstration Area: Showcase for APC's comprehensive line of power, cooling and management solutions from the data center to the living room.

* Data Center Solution Demonstration Lab: A lab providing hands-on, live demonstration of APC's physical infrastructure solutions including InfraStruXure[R], 3-phase uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), cooling and management systems.

* Customer Test Data Centers: A first of its kind, customers can design and test multiple data center layouts to determine what configuration will best meet their needs before making costly investments.

* Cooling Test Labs: Environmentally controlled chambers and a research and development lab for the development and testing of cooling solutions for high-density applications.

* APC's Data Center University: Live classroom instruction on the latest data center theories, standards and practices based on APC's popular www.datacenteruniversity.com online courses.