PTS Exhibiting at 3rd Annual HITECH Symposium for Healthcare Related IT Solutions

PTS Data Center Solutions is exhibiting at the Third Annual Mid-Atlantic Crossing the Infrastructure & HITECH Meaningful Divide Symposium. 

The event is Entitled: “Patients, Care Givers, and Technology: Partners in Care" and will take place on March 21st and 22nd at the Radisson Valley Forge in Pennsylvania.

For those of you unfamiliar with HITECH, the HITECH Act was established with the primary goal of improving the population’s health and the quality and cost of healthcare. One particular focus area is in the ability to provide electronic medial records for patients to service providers anywhere in the world via proper, HIPAA-compliant, sharing of these records anywhere the patient may happen to be.

The symposium includes a series of seminars and presentations related to IT issues and problems experienced by IT professionals in the healthcare sector. In addition, there is an exhibit hall for vendors to present solutions targeting healthcare IT.

PTS has world class design, engineering, construction, and management staff across both facility and IT disciplines. This integrated data center facility and IT expertise affords PTS a unique vantage point for executing data center, computer room, and network operations center projects for both healtcare service providers and hospitals as well as many other market sectors. We can build, redesign, consolidate or relocate your computer room as well as provide many IT-related services and solutions:

• Routing & Switching
• Information / Network Security
• Servers & Systems
• Virtualization Technologies
• Data Protection & Storage
• Unified Communications
• Microsoft Exchange & Active Directory
• Application Development
• Software Development

Learn more about the HITECH Symposium or Register for the Event.

Data Center Energy Use

It can’t be denied that the amount of energy data centers consume is sickening and constantly growing on a daily basis, but the data centers themselves should not be held fully responsible for adhering to the demands of the consumer. Today’s society calls for 24x7x365 availability and the future for most companies lies in the hands of uninterrupted availability. For most data center technicians, their jobs rely on 99.99 percent availability and not saving on the electric bill. This fear of failure mixed with the high expectations of the end-user is what’s causing this massive surge of data center energy use.

James Glanz recently wrote a piece for the New York Times entitled, “Power, Pollution and the Internet.” Although his article lacks proof, it brings to light an important secret of the data center industry: data centers are gargantuan energy consumers. Personally, I think it was harsh for him to say corporations are wasting a good two-thirds of the energy they consume, because data centers for companies such as Facebook and YouTube need to be run around the clock.




Steve Dykes for The New York Times

INSURANCE A row of backup generators, inside white housings, lines the back exterior of the Facebook data center in Prineville, Ore. They are to ensure service even in the event of a power failure.

People don’t realize the vast amount of data it takes to allow them to watch a video on the internet through a website that is quite possibly hosting tens of millions of other users. Or how about that video game you’re playing on Facebook? And while we’re at it, how about your entire Facebook profile? All that data is stored for you in one of Facebook’s many data centers. They need to keep it accessible for you so you can play at anytime, anywhere.

So, who’s at fault? Can the answer be no one? We either need to accept the fact that data centers need the energy to meet the demands of the consumer or we, as consumers, must be patient and lower our expectations, but let’s face it, in the words of the mighty Queen, “I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it NOW!”

In the end, aside from risking potential downtime by reducing data center redundancies or powering down servers when not in use, data center operators can look to energy efficiency improvements aimed at avoiding increased risk of downtime. PTS Data Center Solutions performs Data Center Energy Efficiency Assessments on behalf of utilities and data center operators. However, reducing the number of data centers and their sizable energy consumption is not going to happen in the near future.

PTS Plays Role in Conservation by Building New Data Center for the World Wildlife Fund

PTS Data Center Solutions recently performed an assessment of the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) data center at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. That’s a pretty big deal considering WWF is the world’s leading conservation organization with total operating revenue of over $230 million. WWF networks through 100 countries with over 5 million members, so its data center is a very important part of overall conservation operations.

PTS was able to detect a critical problem with WWF’s data center environment. The data center was experiencing an increase in heat and the Computer Room Air Conditioning units weren’t getting the job done. WWF was in dire need of new power and cooling solutions. IT infrastructure availability and energy efficiency were also vital concerns as they are with all of PTS’ clients.

At first, PTS was considering renovating WWF’s aging infrastructure, but when the tenant on WWF’s first floor moved out, PTS determined an entirely new data center in that space would best suit WWF. PTS was tasked with design, construction management, procuring  equipment, overseeing installation, commissioning, and post construction services. WWF received a dynamic cooling solution which gives the data center the energy efficiency that was desired. PTS also installed a 100 KVA UPS which gave WWF critical power protection.

“The use of modular systems is an excellent strategy to address growth without major disruptions”, said Michael Petrino, PTS Vice President. “WWF is now operating a reliable, energy efficient data center. With the new, energy efficient cooling solution in place, the WWF data center is able to conserve significant amounts of energy and allow the WWF to practice internally its mission of conservation of natural resources.”

To read more about PTS’ success with WWF click here or contact us for a copy of the case study and the Press Release.