Schneider Electric has won two categories at the Storage, Digitalisation and Cloud (SDC) Awards 2023. They include ‘Vendor Channel Programme of the Year’ for its mySchneider IT Partner Program, which represents its longstanding commitment to channel partners and provides the tools, rewards, and diverse training specialisations to help them capitalise on new trends such as data centres, IT solutions, software, and services. Schneider Electric and its Elite Data Centre Partners, on365 also secured a second award for the ‘Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery Project of the Year’ category. Together the companies modernised Loughborough University’s IT and data centre physical infrastructure using sustainable, resilient and energy efficient technologies. The project included deployment of Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Row Data Center and InRow Cooling solutions, GalaxyTM VS UPS and EcoStruxure IT software solutions, enabling the university to harness the power of resilient and sustainable IT infrastructure, data analytics and digital services to support new breakthroughs in sporting research.
On365, a specialist in physical IT infrastructure services for public sector, SME and corporate clients, was also recognised as runners up in the ‘Excellence in Service’ category, coming second for their service-first approach, and their key understanding of IT and infrastructure technologies.
Vendor Channel Programme of the Year
With a diverse partner program that spans + 40 years, and an ethos for helping partners upskill and drive growth, Schneider Electric’s longstanding commitment to partners has helped create significant opportunities to capture market share. Its mySchneider Partner Program, for example, includes the tools, rewards, support, and diverse training to capitalise on new trends, while providing access to Schneider Electric’s Green Premium™ solutions.
Today Schneider Electric’s IT channel spans more than 100,000 IT Solution Providers across 160 countries and its partners have been integral to its success, playing a vital role in building a greener, more sustainable future. A best-in-class example is its partnership with on365, one of the company’s key UK service partners, and the country’s only ‘dual partner’, where on365 has achieved both ‘Elite Data Centre Partner’ and ‘EcoXpert Power Services Partner’ status.
“As a channel-first organisation our partners are integral to our business, and through their continued partnership, diverse skillsets and expertise we’re able to work collaboratively to achieve our mission of accelerating accelerate digitisation and decarbonisation,” said Mark Yeeles, VP, Secure Power Division, Schneider Electric, UK and Ireland. “I’m delighted to accept this award for Vendor Channel Program of the Year on behalf of Schneider Electric, which is testament to the work of our organisation to transform and change our support for partners, our ethos for nurturing relationships, and demonstrates how we’re working across our ecosystem to establish and achieve sustainable growth, together.”
An award-winning modernisation and Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery Project
With an attending student body of 19,500 across its 523-acre campus, Loughborough is one of the UK’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines. Today it is ranked world number one for sports-related subjects, and was named Sports University of the Year in 2022 by The Times and Sunday Times.
To overcome a series of challenges including modernisation of legacy data centre and cooling systems, improved efficiencies, and greater visibility of its distributed IT assets, Loughborough University worked with on365 and Schneider Electric to undertake a major modernisation project. The project saw on365 modernise the Universities Haslegrave facility by deploying an EcoStruxure Row Data Center solution, which provided it with a more resilient and energy efficient data centre design and helped increase uptime and continuity for its critical IT assets.
During the upgrade, on365 also brought other parts of the infrastructure under the IT department’s control, using InRow DX (direct expansion) units to deliver improved cooling reliability and provide it with greater ability to cope with unplanned weather events, including heat waves, which had adversely affected its IT and cooling operations in the past. Use of the EcoStruxure Row Data Center solution also created new space for future IT expansions and extended a ‘no single points of failure’ design, making it more suitable for a new generation of compact and powerful servers. Further improvements in resilience and efficiency were achieved by replacing legacy UPSs with Schneider Electric’s Galaxy UPS with lithium-ion batteries.
Alongside the new EcoStruxure Row Data Center, the university also deployed Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure IT DCIM software solutions to monitor and manage its data centre and edge environments. The software provides real-time visibility, helping IT personnel to manage the campus’ network more efficiently, and mitigate security and failure risks within their local edge infrastructure, and data centres.
This, in conjunction with a three-year Schneider Electric services agreement delivered via on365, has given the university 24×7 access to expert maintenance support, reflecting its ongoing commitment to protecting the investments in its new infrastructure, and ensures the equipment is fully operational, reliable, and quality maintained.
“Our work with Loughborough University is a perfect example of why best-in-class, sustainable technologies are essential to deliver uptime and continuity for today’s businesses and public sector organisations,” said Carl Richardson, Technology Support Manager, on365 Ltd. “We’re thrilled to have been recognised by the SDC Awards for our work to support this world-leading university, and to have worked alongside Schneider Electric to successfully deliver this major modernisation project.”
