SANFORD, N.C. -- The Pantry Inc. has selected Altruent Systems, a systems integration company that specializes in the consulting, design and installation of mission-critical infrastructure, was selected to design, engineer and construct The Pantry 's new energy-efficient data center with infrastructure that allows for energy savings on power and cooling.
With rising energy costs now becoming a major concern for most large organizations, the interest in reducing data center and IT energy, where the majority of a company 's utility costs are incurred, is now becoming a necessity. “[image-nocss] Green” organizations, such as Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) and Green Grid are stirring interest with executives to turn their companies into eco-friendly, energy-efficient consumers and producers.
When The Pantry decided that it was time to expand their headquarters ' data center, Ed Collupy, vice president of information technology (IT) said, "We saw an opportunity to take advantage of new power and cooling technologies, which were environmentally friendly yet more productive.”
The Pantry had already begun taking advantage of new computing technologies such as blade servers, whereas one server chassis consists of multiple circuit boards, or blades, that each act as an individual server. This allows more computing power in a smaller space, which drastically reduces power consumption, but results in highly concentrated, or high-density heat output. The ability to capture and remove this concentrated heat, in order to maintain an optimal temperature requires a new approach to data center design. With this in mind, The Pantry chose Altruent Systems for their proficiency in high-density data center design using APC 's (American Power Conversion) scalable InfraStruXure architecture.
Raleigh, N.C.-based Altruent 's design and construction of The Pantry 's data center allowed The Pantry to contribute to energy and atmosphere conservation and preservation. This is done by using multiple InRow, close-coupled cooling units, which eliminates the need for an inefficient raised floor, and places the cooling units closer to the servers. This captures the heat directly from an intentional hot aisle and distributes cool air to the cold aisle. This prevents the hot and cold air from mixing, which highly improves cooling efficiency, and thus reduces the total energy required to maintain the proper temperature. With the implementation of such a system, The Pantry was able to greatly increase their computing capacity and reliability, while simultaneously going green, Altruent said.
“Working together with Altruent, we successfully transformed an outdated data center into one that will carry us forward for many years to come,” said Collupy. “These initiatives have positioned The Pantry for continued technology growth along with an outlook towards smart energy-related controls.”
Headquartered in Sanford, N.C., The Pantry is a leading independently operated convenience store chain in the southeastern United States and one of the largest independently operated convenience store chains in the country, with revenues for fiscal 2007 of approximately $6.9 billion. As of Feb. 22, 2008, the company operated 1,644 stores in 11 states under select banners, including Kangaroo Express, its primary operating banner.
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