Emerson Unveils State-of-the-Art Global Data Center in St. Louis
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Company invests $50 million in energy-efficient IT facility Emerson now home to Missouri's largest solar array Missouri governor, other dignitaries dedicate facility with 'Signing Ceremony'
ST. LOUIS, July 27 -- Emerson (NYSE:EMR) officially opened the doors of its new state-of-the-art and energy-efficient global data center in St. Louis today and celebrated the milestone with a special ceremony featuring Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt.
Once IT applications go live in August, the 35,000-square-foot global data center will be 31 percent more energy efficient than traditional data centers, thanks to the latest energy-efficiency technologies, precision cooling products, and recommended efficiency strategies from the company's Emerson Network Power business.
"One of Emerson's core business strategies is to deliver energy-efficiency solutions for businesses, data centers, and telecommunications networks," said David N. Farr, Emerson chairman, chief executive officer, and president. "When we embarked on the design and construction of our own data center, we knew we would have the opportunity to use the same Emerson technologies that we deliver to our customers. Our new data center is truly a showcase of what Emerson makes possible."
The data center features a 7,800-square-foot rooftop solar array - the largest in Missouri. The more than 550 solar panels can generate 100 kilowatts of energy, or enough to power the average American home for more than three days.
Emerson anticipates the center will have 99.982 percent uptime, which is critical for a company that has operations across more than 200 manufacturing locations around the world. In addition to energy efficiency, construction of the data center was completed with environmental responsibility in mind. Approximately 80 percent of the construction waste generated was diverted from landfills through recycling, and innovative design features enabled Emerson to save more than 2.5 miles of copper piping, minimizing the use of excess materials.
As a result, Emerson anticipates achieving LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council - a rare certification level for data centers.
Farr and Stephen C. Hassell, Emerson vice president and chief information officer, led an opening ceremony at the new data center today along with Nixon, Blunt, and approximately 150 other attendees and Emerson employees. The event concluded with a "Solar Panel Signing Ceremony" in which Farr and Hassell and the public officials signed their names to a solar panel that will be displayed as a dedication plaque inside the data center.
Emerson invested $50 million in the facility and IT equipment - a significant local investment by the St. Louis region's largest public company. Emerson chose its Ferguson, Mo., campus as the location of its new data center not only for the proximity to its global headquarters but also because of the many benefits the Midwest - and St. Louis specifically - has to offer.
"The St. Louis region has become a center for science, technology, and innovation," Hassell said. "Combined with the Midwest's plentiful and cost-efficient real estate, electrical power, and telecommunications networks, there's no place like home for building a global data center."
Hassell and his Emerson team are currently overseeing the consolidation of more than 100 Emerson data centers around the world to just four. Two are completed - in St. Louis and Marshalltown, Iowa. The other two will be located in Europe and Asia.
"Emerson's high-tech data center is an example of the type of cutting-edge, next-generation investments that will make Missouri a leader in the 21st-century economy," Nixon said. "Missouri and Emerson have had a long and successful relationship, and we look forward to continuing our work with Emerson in the years to come."
About Emerson
Emerson (NYSE:EMR), based in St. Louis, Missouri (USA), is a global leader in bringing technology and engineering together to provide innovative solutions to customers through its network power, process management, industrial automation, climate technologies, and appliance and tools businesses. Sales in fiscal 2008 were $24.8 billion, and Emerson is ranked 94th on the Fortune 500 list of America's largest companies. For more information, visit www.Emerson.com.
Source: Emerson
CONTACT:
Mike Slatin,
+1-314-982-8661,
slatinm@fleishman.com, for Emerson
Web Site: http://www.emerson.com/
