NER’s Managed Print Technology Now Compatible with Multiple Data Collection Agents

Customers benefit from enhanced predictive capabilities layered on top of existing 3rd party monitoring applications

GLASSBORO N.J. - NER Data Corporation (NER), developer of the SaaS-based Print4™ Managed Print Services (MPS) solution, announced today new advancements in their MPS technology making their remote monitoring and automated management system compatible with multiple Data Collection Agents (DCA).   This innovation is just one of several steps the company is taking to further enhance their industry leading MPS suite.

“We consider these new advancements in our Print4™ platform, where we now have the unique ability to layer our solution on top of already existing monitoring software, a significant benefit for clients,” said Eric Austin, NER’s VP of Managed Print Services.  “Standard device monitoring software, while efficient and reliable in collecting then displaying data, often fails to provide real value through automated decision-making.  Our system builds histories on each device, cataloging usage rates and other pertinent print data so that it can learn and anticipate the future needs of each device.

We believe MPS solutions should make device management easier and for that reason we designed an innovative managed print system that automates management through intelligent factoring of device data in order to release customers from having to attend to non-business critical issues,” Austin continued.  “In today’s competitive environment organizations can neither afford to ignore, nor over-resource their print environments.  We provide the required resources in our SaaS model so that organizations can focus on core IT functions and business activities critical to their future successes.” 

In other news, NER is celebrating 10 years of MPS excellence.  First launched in 2005, the Print4™ platform now powers MPS services for a number of partners including Fortune 200 organizations and many in the SMB market.  Recognized as one of the “10 Most Promising Enterprise Print Management Solutions Providers” in 2014, NER continues to push their strategy in developing new technologies that engage, control and simplify the management of any organization’s print environment.  Stephen Oatway, President of NER added “We are extremely proud of our continuing success.  NER has had a long history of innovations dating back to our beginning days in 1971.  Today’s announcement is just the start of what we believe to be a break-out year for Print4™.  We are preparing to introduce several major enhancements to our client management console in mid-May and have several other significant projects planned for launch before end of year.”  

Contact:

Eric Austin-Vice President of Managed Print Services, NER Data Corporation – eaustin@nerdata.com

Creative Storytelling

So what does the NER logo and Lenny, a straight-laced old-school working stiff accountant with a dream to become a famous stand-up comedian have in common?  Creative storytelling; more specifically the creative storytelling of Ned Crowley, a long time NER investor.  Ned is a writer, a director of film and stage, a children's book author/illustrator, and currently the Chief Creative Officer for mcgarrybowen Chicago.

When NER reorganized a few years back, NER tapped into this creative mind to help create a logo that tells a story.

The NER logo… powered by NER. The arrows represent our partner ecosystem; whether it is the end user, our resellers, or our strategic partners.  The logo incorporates a version of the globally recognized image for recycling; almost everything we do in our business has a green or sustainability element to it.  The reflection illustrates how we listen to our customers and to the market.

Now Lenny is a whole other brand of storytelling.  Lenny is the central character in the feature film Middle Man, directed by Ned Crowley. Lenny Freeman (played by Jim O’Heir of TV’s Parks and Recreation) is a straight-laced old-school working stiff accountant with a dream; to become a famous stand-up comedian.  The problem is, he’s not very funny.  Not even close.  Oh and this hapless comic gets tangled in a killing spree on a road trip to Vegas.

You can learn more about Ned, Lenny, Middle Man and the entire project at Kickstarter.

(WARNING: Middle Man will have its humorous side, but also its dark side.   And the teasers on the site are definitely in the latter camp.)

Happy Holidays!

All of us at NER would like to wish you and yours a very happy and safe holiday season

We would like to thank our customers and business partners for their support in 2014 and look forward to a healthy and prosperous new year for all!

NER Offices will be closed 12/25, 12/26 and 1/1

In addition, our help desk will close at 5:00pm est on 12/24 and 12/31 so our employees can spend time with their families.

DCIM Solutions, LLC Partners with Future Facilities to Provide Predictive Modeling Services

ACE Jumpstart will optimize data center performance while reducing operational costs

DCIM Solutions, LLC (DCIM Solutions), a leading provider of Data Center Assessments and Infrastructure Optimization Solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with Future Facilities to adapt ACE predictive modeling as part of DCIM’s Data Center Assessment Services.

The ACE Jumpstart Service assesses three critical indicators for optimal data center performance: Availability, Capacity and Efficiency.  ACE scores data centers on how compromised its availability, physical capacity and cooling efficiency have become by analyzing and mapping the interrelationship between the three variables. The resulting ACE score determines how well a data center is performing, and in turn, how costly the facility is to build and operate.

“This partnership provides immediate benefits for data center owners and operators that are looking to treat their data centers as a business unit.” said Dan McDougal, Managing Partner, DCIM Solutions, LLC.  “Using the ACE Methodology, DCIM Solutions will be well equipped to help data centers of all sizes plan for capacity changes and prevent negative trends before they begin.”

Data inputs from ACE can also be synchronized with any DCIM suite or other system monitoring toolkit and are mapped to a powerful 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to create a Virtual Facility (VF). The VF allows for precise simulations for a variety of critical operational decisions, including: airflow distribution, temperature, physical resource collision and electrical systems.

DCIM Solutions has more than a decade of experience perfecting the calibration process, which is integral to establishing ACE goals and maximizing predictability. Through VF simulations, corrective measures are identified to bridge the gap between the data center’s current state and the aspired ACE Goals.

The calibrated VF produced by ACE Jumpstart will be imported into Future Facilities’ 6SigmaDC software and be available for immediate use, with a 90 Day Software License and formal training included. By engaging in an ACE Jumpstart assessment data center owner-operators will be able to utilize simulation and predictive modeling throughout the life of their data center to stay on track to reach their ACE Goals.

“Future Facilities is excited to partner with a data center infrastructure leader like DCIM Solutions,” said Sherman Ikemoto, Director, Future Facilities NA. “Through this partnership, ACE Jumpstart will be further optimized for the data center owner/operator. It’s gratifying to see the ACE Assessment becoming adopted as an important metric for data center efficiency.”

DCIM Solutions’ goal is to educate users on the opportunities to use predictive simulation to recover stranded capacity within the data center and maximize the real estate without sacrificing availability or efficiency. 

Visit DCIM Solutions and Future Facilities at Booth 616 during the upcoming AFCOM Data Center World Expo in Orlando, FL -- Oct 19th through Oct. 22nd.  Data Center experts will be available to provide information on ACE Jumpstart, the importance of modeling and predictive simulation, and the benefits of increasing data center efficiency through analysis within the Virtual Facility.

NER Announces Partnership with Performance Tuning Corporation

Terms of agreement include formation of DCIM Solutions, LLC and sale of NER’s Data Center Solutions Division

NER is pleased to announce a partnership with Performance Tuning Corporation (PTC) to form DCIM Solutions, LLC. Terms of the partnership include the acquisition of NER’s Data Center Solutions Division by DCIM Solutions, LLC. The newly formed LLC will operate independently of NER and PTC, but customers and partners will benefit from the synergies created through leveraging core competencies of each company.

The partnership provides the necessary working capital for DCIM Solutions, LLC to continue solution development as an increasing number of businesses seek new and better ways to maximum efficiencies and lower overall data center operating costs. Additionally, customers and partners will have access to expanded service support, sales assistance, and market leading technology offerings.

 “For some time I have felt that NER’s Data Center Solutions business would benefit from additional working capital to support growth requirements while fulfilling commitments to our partners. To help facilitate the process, NER Data Corporation was advised by martinwolf M&A Advisors, a boutique investment bank based in the San Francisco Bay Area,” said Stephen Oatway, NER’s President and General Manager of DCIM Solutions, LLC.  “I am excited about this new phase and the possibility for cross-pollination of sales in channels made available through this partnership.”

Dan McDougal, Managing Partner PTC and DCIM Solutions, LLC states, “In addition to NER’s impressive channel and vendor partners, we believe that NER’s innovative approach to data center power, space, and cooling issues through its Assessment Services, Aurora Intelligent Monitoring Strips, and New Containment Solutions represent a winning formula for customer success. Paired with the core infrastructure expertise of PTC the value to customers will be exponential.”  

DCIM Solutions, LLC will operate out of Glassboro, NJ and will be managed by key members of the existing NER Data Center Solutions team. Sales and Purchase Order commitments after June 27 have been transferred to DCIM Solutions, LLC.  Partners and customers will receive detailed information about working with DCIM Solutions, LLC and new offerings in the coming days.  

Stop Johnny

Did you catch the recent McDonald's McCafé Iced Coffee commercial? "Johnny" prints out a huge stack of pages that repeats the line "All work an no French Vanilla makes Johnny a dull boy."

Watch wasteful Johnny  

One way to avoid this wasteful printing is to buy Johnny an iced coffee...but Johnny probably has other issues that kept him from getting a coffee in the first place. A better option is to have document management capabilities as part of your overall Manged Print Services (MPS) solution. 

NER offers PretonSaver™, a print management software application focused on providing detailed print usage data for optimizing toner and paper consumption and controlling printing activity. PretonSaver gathers a robust set of user focused reporting data from all network and locally connected printers and includes extensive print policy enforcement capabilities for reducing toner and consumption.

Report Your Total Print Activity
An important step to controlling your print costs is to understand who is printing, how much they are printing and what they are printing across all devices. Through a complete view of user printing habits as well as device printing data, you can manage both user behaviors as well as device utilization. 

Proactively Manage Print Costs
Once you understand your print costs and issues, you can proactively drive down costs. 

• Report print overuse/abuse to departmental managers
• Educate employees on proper printing policies
• Advise users of issues and let them know that printing, like other cost items, is being tracked
• Force print rules by user, user group, device, device family or application including:
  - Forced Monochrome printing
  - Forced Duplex Printing
• Limit who can print from certain applications, such as browsers, or who can print color
• Set color or total print quota’s for users or groups and require users to request more pages once limits have been set

With the proper document management solution, you can measure your complete print costs and take action to drive your costs down, freeing up funding for more business critical areas.

Title 24 impacts Data Center and Computer Room/IDF Cooling Requirements

Measures likely to spread across the country

New California Energy Codes will have broad impacts on Computer Room cooling design and retrofitting that requires permitting. The definition of “Computer Room” may surprise you because it is not just the large Data Centers that will be affected. 

Adaptations of the California codes are likely to spread across the country so you should become familiar with the requirements and how they may affect and/or improve your operation efficiency.  At a minimum, these could be viewed as “Best Practices” for efficient Data Center and Computer Room Operation.

At the highest level the new codes include:

•       Prescriptive requirements for data room cooling

•       Requirement of economizers

•       Prevention of reheating

•       Prohibition of non-adiabatic dehumidification

•       Requirements for fan power & control (VFD’s)

•       Requirements containment

According to California Operators – SCE, California’s Title 24 changes are scheduled to go into effect July 1, 2014, however there have been rumors it could be delayed again due to software issues (they were originally slated for enactment on January 1, 2013). The new requirements are not retroactive, but any plans that seek incentives/rebates for VFDs, containment projects, and/or other cooling optimization need to be submitted and pre-approved by the end of June. We encourage you to talk directly with your Power/Utility account representative and/or Wildan Energy (option for SCE clients) to ensure you understand how these changes may affect your organization.

Express Incentives, Calculated Incentives, and Savings By Design  Incentives/Rebates (New Build only) still exist from SCE and most utilities. NER can help you qualify for these funds to improve and upgrade your Data Center cooling infrastructure.

To receive a copy of the SCE presentation, the complete California Building Energy Efficiency Standards document, and/or an overview page of the Title 24 Data Center/Computer Room Impacts contact Greg Stover at gstover@nerdata.com / 949-360-1509.

Since this is a Cooling/Thermal Management focused initiative it is a good time to remember that you can’t manage what you can’t see. NER’s new Aurora Thermal Management Technology provides the visibility, data, and management capabilities you require. Learn more at www.nerdata.com/aurora

NER and our partners (Emerson/Liebert, Polargy, Geist/Opengate) provide the most comprehensive cooling offering for optimizing your Data Center/Computer Room. In addition, our advanced Thermal Management and Assessment Services will identify the root cause of your cooling challenges and map out the best path forward.