Schneider introduces IT Infrastructure Solutions for SMBs

New ‘InfraStruxure for SMB IT' aims to tap Indian server room market worth over INR. 1000 crores in 2013 by offering benefits of reduced TCO by 20%, reduced energy consumption by 20% and space optimization by 30%

Schneider Electric IT Business today announced ‘InfraStruxure'^TM for IT in Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) in India, the first-ever industry offer enabling SMBs to design and build their physical IT infrastructures around the power of a comprehensive offering. This new offer will speed the deployment, configuration and installation of IT infrastructures in small environments, such as a server room, network closet or non-dedicated IT spaces.

This customized solution is a simple, adaptable and affordable approach to meet the SMB IT user's challenges such as lack of resources (human and financial), affordability, deployment of new technologies, increased device pressure on networks, lack of space, multivendor management, and manual configuration.

With SMBs moving to cloud computing, virtualization and unified communication and the influx of increasingly challenging amounts of data, intelligent IT operations have become critical to any size business, not just large corporations. But since the industry primarily uses a component approach, current offerings do not address the growing complexity of critical, smaller IT spaces. Hence the need for a truly comprehensive solution to this problem by developing an integrated, simplified solution that consolidates vendors, reduces man-hours and enables remote device and environmental management.

One of the most prominent trends amongst SMBs is also the propensity to focus on their own business and let vendors and services providers take care of the IT infrastructure. This has resulted in significant opportunity as far as IT infrastructure management services is concerned. SMBs are increasingly looking at ‘ready to install' one vendor solutions and services backed by a trusted brand for ease of maintenance.

"With the ever evolving IT infrastructure in the SMB space, end users are looking at solution mixes that can be easily installed, configured and integrated into either the existing IT infrastructure or new build outs. ISX for SMB IT meets the critical IT needs of small businesses allowing customers more time to focus on their core business," said Shrinivas Chebbi, Vice President, Schneider Electric, India & SAARC. "Schneider Electric has taken a truly ‘glocal' approach with ISX for SMB IT solution and is delivering industry-leading solutions through our extensive and innovative research and development. This is a customized India-for-India solution backed by extensive study of the Indian SMB IT user's requirements. We believe it will be a compelling solution as it understands real-world customer challenges and offers a comprehensive, problem-solving and affordable approach. We are rolling out this product in 24 cities in India currently and see significant market potential."

Key features of ISX for SMB IT:

Schneider Electric's ISX for SMB IT solution is Simple, Affordable and Adaptable. It reduces Total Cost of Ownership by up to 20% by elevating efficiency, leveraging virtualization and consolidation opportunities. It reduces downtime and extends the life of equipment while slashing extraneous energy consumption by up to 20% and reducing waste and emergency shut downs. It is also designed to optimize space up to 30% as compared to a traditional set up especially with unique offerings like the Unisplit A/C that is ceiling-mounted.

The ISX for SMB IT solution provides an integrated offering that includes UPS, racks and cooling units from Schneider Electric's product brands APC, President and Uniflair, benefiting end users with single vendor accountability for installation and management. The solution comes in a "ready to install" package and provides a one-stop service warranty for the entire range of solutions. It also allows end users to choose the best possible configuration that will optimize their purchase efficiency and improve uptime thus allowing them to focus on much more pressing needs.

Choosing the best option for an SMB's requirement is easy, as channel partners can simply select from a wide range of preconfigured solutions for various scenarios common to Indian SMBs, or design a tailored combination of UPS systems, server racks, Power Distribution Units (PDUs), cooling technologies, and software through the "ISX for India Configurator Tool".

Besides physical IT infrastructure components, the ISX for SMB IT solution also includes a unique management layer called NetBotz® Security and Environmental Monitoring solution. The product consists of CCTV camera, cabling support, Power over Ethernet support and improved industrial design. NetBotz helps detect and alarm on human activity which may threaten the availability of the network-critical physical infrastructure.