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Save Mart Builds Cooler Datacenter

MODESTO, Calif. Save Mart Supermarkets recently finished rebuilding its datacenter here, without shutting it down. It's like changing tires on a bus while it's going down the freeway, said James Sims, vice president and chief information officer. The process involved installing a new multi-unit air-conditioner and a new uninterrupted power supply (UPS). We reracked everything and changed the way air

MODESTO, Calif. — Save Mart Supermarkets recently finished rebuilding its datacenter here, without shutting it down. “It's like changing tires on a bus while it's going down the freeway,” said James Sims, vice president and chief information officer.

The process involved installing a new multi-unit air-conditioner and a new uninterrupted power supply (UPS). “We reracked everything and changed the way air flows from bottom to top and front to back,” Sims said.

The change was made because as Save Mart has expanded, its datacenter had a tendency to overheat, causing failures and outages. But with the new air-conditioning and UPS, “as we grow, we can snap on another piece of power conditioning and air-conditioning,” he said. “We don't have to overbuy now for the next 10 years.”

Save Mart is also completing the installation of VMware virtual servers in its datacenter.