When CIO Joseph Daniels joined the Illinois State Treasurer in 2018, he recognized that the office was dramatically overprovisioned, with IT systems scattered throughout a variety of buildings across the city. The CIO wanted to transition from operating half on-premises and half off-site, to a model with 80% of the workload on premises. To improve the efficiency of its infrastructure, the treasury consolidated equipment where practical and decommissioned where needed.
Part of this shift included replacing dozens of smaller uninterruptible power systems (UPSs) with a single, centralized solution. When considering UPS options, the treasurer’s office required a robust unit capable of handling the workload while delivering unparalleled reliability.
“The goal was to transform how our office works and maximize efficiency in every way possible. We also wanted our decisions to be verified and backed up by real data demonstrating the monetary savings and efficiency gains.”
"The 93PM runs so well that sometimes it makes you worry, is everything really ok? For me, more than anything else, is the peace of mind I now have that our operations will continue running. That is worth its weight in gold, because I like to sleep at night!”
The Illinois State Treasurer was working with Dell on a complex overhaul of its IT infrastructure when the computer giant identified the need to also modernize the state’s power infrastructure. Dell immediately turned to longtime partner Eaton to collaborate. The Eaton team then applied their power infrastructure expertise to scope, define, present and implement the optimal power solution to support Dell’s IT architecture and meet the customer’s operational objectives.
As promising as the Eaton solution initially appeared, Daniels still needed to be able to demonstrate in a measurable and verifiable way that, once deployed, the UPS could help reduce the agency’s carbon footprint. Eaton was able to validate the reductions through an inventive Excel-based tool. By entering several data points ── including the unit’s kilowatt usage and regional utility details ── the treasury discovered the 93PM would allow it to slash CO2 emissions by 14,072 pounds per year! In addition, the UPS would reduce annual SO2 by 26 kg and NOx by 29 kg.
“We’re trying to leave the office better than how we found it, and any time we can reduce our carbon footprint, we give back to the state, to our kids and to our grandchildren.”
In addition to helping the environment, the 93PM enabled the agency to reap financial savings, as well, which were proven through a second innovative TCO calculator tool. Not only did it demonstrate dramatic savings in costs for energy, service and battery replacements compared to the agency’s previous UPS solution, but the tool accurately calculated how the 93PM would pay for itself in less than five years.
Another valuable asset has been Eaton Intelligent Power Manager (IPM) software, which provides the tools needed to monitor and manage power devices in both physical and virtual environments. The innovative software solution ensures system uptime and data integrity by allowing the treasurer’s office to easily remotely monitor, manage and control the 93PM.
“With a single pane of glass, we can monitor power outputs, which we couldn’t do before. That battery backup is the key to our data center decisions related to equipment purchases. It’s helped us to determine how many power supplies to need and which servers are better for power consumption.”