WEST KINGSTON – APC this week announced a new line of Web-based applications, called TradeOff Tools, intended to simplify data-center concept development and early-stage design.

By enabling data-center professionals to experiment with various virtualization, efficiency, power sizing and other scenarios, APC TradeOff Tools break down major decisions into a series of smaller, more manageable steps.

“Customers need to make many key decisions during any data center project, and they do not always have the necessary information,” Carl Cottuli, vice president of APC’s Data Center Science Center, said in a Monday statement. Many concerns arise early in the concept-selection process, and thus are not addressed by previous configuration tools, he added.

The seven TradeOff Tools currently available – at tools.apc.com – feature easy-to-use interfaces. They help planners calculate a project’s carbon footprint; energy efficiency; capital costs, based on desired square footage and rack space, local labor costs, and decisions on such options as redundancy levels, raised flooring, fire suppression and standby generators; energy savings achievable through server virtualization and infrastructure changes; power needs; AC versus DC power-distribution architectures and efficiencies; and optimal rack-and-row cooling configurations based on user preferences and space constraints.

With the new software, Cottuli said, “when a roadblock arises, the data-center decision maker can easily find a tool to deal with their specific issue, get a quick answer and continue [with] the concept-selection process.”

APC is a member – together with MGE UPS Systems – of the $3.5 billion Critical Power & Cooling Services (CPCS) business unit of Rueil-Malmaison, France-based Schneider Electric (Paris: SU.PA). For more information, visit www.apc.com.