A Global Financial Institution Case Study

A Look Into One Global Financial Institution’s Quest To Streamline Efficiency and Scalability With Maximum Security.

A global financial institution approached Packet Power with a complex challenge where data security was paramount.  The customer sought to build a secure, cloud-based enterprise view of data center power usage data from more than a dozen data center sites, integrating existing and new infrastructure into a single reporting platform.  

They had three primary hurdles to overcome:

1. Upfront Cost: Prior to Packet Power, the customer had only been able to find solutions requiring the total overhaul of existing systems and full implementation of new infrastructure.  As a result, the customer found itself stuck in a hopeless situation, unable to justify a multi-million dollar single capital expenditure required to move forward with a solution.  In contrast, Packet Power’s solution offered the customer its first viable, cost-effective path—an incrementally scalable solution with the ability to seamlessly integrate with existing monitoring infrastructure. 

2. Capacity Utilization: In its current state, the customer was effectively blind to current power usage for each data center.  They were reduced to making decisions using data collected manually and over a protracted period of time, never really sure what their peak usage was over that time period.  This restricted their ability to accurately determine available power capacity, requiring them to cushion actual usage well below capacity limits to eliminate risk of overloading circuits and triggering cascading failure within the data center.  In some locations, only 15-30% of available capacity was being utilized on average, drastically reducing the customer’s return on assets.  
3. Security: The customer faced a serious challenge in how to securely move data from siloed sites to a secure remote site so that key users could access the data.  They were seeking to implement an enterprise-wide solution while ensuring that data centers remained fully secure from outside access and maintaining some of the strictest requirements for data security in the world.

In addition, the customer needed a solution that was both able to provide data from existing systems as well as selectively add new systems to augment total monitoring breadth and depth.  This would enable existing BacNet and Modbus enabled devices to be leveraged where possible, and combine them seamlessly with new monitoring solutions added where metering was not present.  Data from all device types needed to be consolidated into a singular format and create a single source of custom reporting for management.

Packet Power proposed and implemented several solutions:

• Installed wireless monitoring where metering did not already exist, integrating it with other existing hardware and platforms
• Implemented Packet Power’s proprietary Data Diode hardware creating a secure, one-way physical data transfer and upholding the high security requirements of the customer; in delivering this solution, Packet Power became the first contractor with a security-compliant means of getting data out of individual sites and into a place where management could access it
• Built a custom application deployed in a secure virtual private cloud instance dedicated solely to this customer

Packet Power’s solution enabled the customer to:

• Improve visibility into available capacity, leading to increased return/utilization of capital assets and reduced operating risk
• Increase efficiency in terms of electrical usage and a reduction in stranded power
• Gain greater confidence and efficiency in decision making for key stakeholders, with pertinent real-time data available anytime and anywhere