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ICT Today October/November/December 2021

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October/November/December 2021 I 67 • Data center providers view PoE-connected lighting favorably and with familiarity. Due to an extensive background in managing data and power, they "get it" when it comes to PoE technology and adopt PoE more quickly than traditional commercial buildings. • Increased social, market, and legislative pressure to reduce energy required by data centers is fast-tracking global implementation of technology that monitors and reports data on energy-reduction efforts. • PoE lighting is uniquely applicable to a data center environment because there is already a massive infra- structure of cable tray installed in those environments. Because PoE lighting structured cables can utilize that existing tray and no conduit is required, there are tremendous opportunities to save on installation costs. • Data centers are increasingly chasing down mod- ularity in their approach to physical assets. Consider the emergence of hyperscale data centers, for example. They are configured in such a way that operators can replace individual components rather than an entire server. PoE infrastructure is similar in nature, providing the ability to scale up and down as building stakeholder needs warrant. • With no expected decrease in the global demand for data, the data center market is becoming larger, opening up great opportunities for data center vendor partners. Analysts anticipate that data center IP traffic will reach 20.6 zettabytes (ZB) by the end of 2021. That is a nearly 7 ZB increase in five years. 9 Accelerated adoption of PoE within the data center market underscores the fact that success of any emerging technology depends on finding the right market. By pounding the pavement (sometimes virtually) and networking with globally recognized partners and custom-building products for entirely new use cases, an experienced smart building innovator and its partners will continue to pinpoint the most receptive geographies, client personas, and industries for PoE. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES: Dwight Stewart is founder and CTO of smart buildings innovator Igor in Des Moines, Iowa. A presenter at a recent BICSI Winter conference, he joined the PoE Lighting and IoT panel as they discussed a recent 87,000 square foot building's use of the technology. This is just one of the installations Stewart and the Igor team have completed in more than 30 coun- tries. Dwight is most influential in launching a PoE-based IoT smart building platform that incorporates hardware, software, and cloud analytics to enable smart and secure buildings. Dwight can be reached at dwight@igor-tech.com. Andrew Pospisal is director of hardware engineering for Igor. He has more than 20 years of experience in the building controls and energy efficiency industries and is a former president of the Iowa chapter of ASHRAE. Andrew joined Igor in 2014 and is currently responsible for new PoE hardware and UL certification coordination, as well as compatibility testing of third-party equip- ment, including PoE network switches, LED fixtures, and sensors. Andrew uses his subject matter expertise to contribute to prod- ucts and process documentation, as well as to run Igor University, a customer and partner training program. He can be reached at andrew@igor-tech.com. REFERENCES: 1. Watkins, David. "How Data Centres Can Help Businesses be More Sustainable," Information Age, 01 June 2021. 2. Shinde, Sayaji. "Building the Data Center of the Future," Data Centre Dynamics Ltd (DCD), 28 May 2021. 3. Schechner, Sam. "Amazon and Other Tech Giants Race to Buy Up Renewable Energy," The Wallstreet Journal, 23 June 2021. 4. "Igor's Lighting Install to Save 80% in Energy Costs, Igor, 28 July 2017. 5. Ross, Chuck. "2020 Profile of the Electrical Contractor," Electrical Contractor, 15 July 2020. 6. Campbell, Brian R. "Creating Tech Hubs in Greater Caribbean Basin Would Serve US Domestic Policy," Nearshore Americas, May 2021. 7. Crider, Johnna. "IRENA Study Finds Renewables Are Becoming Popular in Large Cities," CleanTechnica, 7 June 2021. 8. Rote, Miles. "Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days," Under30Experiences, 17 March 2021. 9. "Global Data Center Colocation Market (2020 to 2025) Growth, Trends, and Forecast," ResearchAndMarkets.com, Business Wire, 25 May 2020.

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