As a thought leader in the data center space, APC is affiliated with several leading industry organizations which influence standards from desktop to data center to factory floor.

 AFCOM

Celebrating more than 25 years in the data center industry, AFCOM is the only association dedicated to providing education and resources for data center managers. Our mission is to enable data center management professionals to share industry best practices by providing a forum for dissemination of critical information; to provide education on key data center management issues; to provide the industry’s most comprehensive insight and analysis in key areas affecting all data-intensive organizations; and to be the most comprehensive and effective resource available to the overall data center community.

ASHRAE

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers advances the arts and sciences of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world. Membership is open to any person associated with the field including indoor air quality, building design and operation, and environmental control for food processing and industry.

APC actively participates in many of the ASHRAE local chapters.  To find a local chapter near you go to http://www.ashrae.org/members/page/607

Availability.com

Availability.com is the complete resource for business continuity planning and analysis, produces and aggregates content relevant to optimizing business availability. The site offers the broadest coverage of business continuity topics segmented into key hot topics. We address four layers of availability - Information Technology, People, Process, and Network-critical Physical Infrastructure (NCPI). These four layers are integral to end-to-end business availability.

Blade.org

Blade.org is a collaborative organization and developer community focused on accelerating the expansion of blade solutions and the IBM and Intel blade ecosystem. This organization is intended to create new solutions, maximizing the value of the blade platform.

Blade.org is the premier open community dedicated to creating solutions based on the blade server platform pioneered by IBM and Intel. The organization was established in February 2006 to increase the number of blade platform solutions and accelerate the process of bringing them to market. From eight founding companies, Blade.org has grown to over 80 members including leading blade hardware and software providers, developers, distribution partners and end users from around the globe.

APC chairs the Blade.org Power and Cooling sub-committee which is focused on the essentials aspects of critical power and cooling in the blade environment, from the processor to the power grid and in between.

The Green Grid

The Green Grid is a consortium of information technology companies and professionals seeking to improve energy efficiency in data centers around the globe. The Green Grid takes a broad-reaching approach to data center efficiency focusing on data center "power pillars" that span the gamut of technology, infrastructure and processes present in today's data center environments. The consortium's working focus includes research, standards writing, published studies and continuing education.

Comprised of an interactive body of members who share and improve current best practices around data center efficiency, The Green Grid scope includes collaboration with end users and government organizations worldwide to ensure that each organizational goal is aligned with both developers and users of data center technology. All interested parties are encouraged to join and become active participants in the quest to improve overall data center power efficiencies.

7x24 Exchange is the leading knowledge exchange for those who design, build, use and maintain mission critical enterprise information infrastructures, 7x24 Exchange is a not-for-profit organization seeking to improve end-to-end reliability by promoting dialogue among these groups.  Founded on the assumption that often professionals involved with data center uptime issues work in isolation when dealing with technical, budget, political, and career issues. As a result of expensive, time-consuming, and, sometimes, painful trial and error processes, innovative practitioners evolved unique and creative ways of solving problems and building the organizational support needed for theirimplementation. However, many have been stymied because they did not have access or know how to communicate potential risks to senior management to avoid a downtime disaster occurrence.

7x24 Exchange members work together to advance the state-of-the-artin infrastructure reliability. By collecting and disseminating data on safeguarding information systems and alerting top management to the importance of proactive measures, members can protect their companies’ information lifelines.

APC is a proud sponsor of the spring 2008 conference on Mission Critical Standards, June 1-4 in Boca Raton, FL.

Using benchmarking, abnormal incident data, and industry Best Practices collected from members of its knowledge communities, The Uptime Institute, Inc. (The Institute) has distilled uptime management into scientific disciplines and practices which can be confidently applied. The synergy of a knowledge community encourages more to be shared so that more is known, and then there is even more to be shared. This exponential increase in knowledge is facilitated by the Institute and its faculty of Distinguished Fellows. Knowledge community participation directly translates into reduced failure rates and increased organizational effectiveness because managers know where and how to apply resources. The immediate benefit is higher levels of quality performance and customer satisfaction while simultaneously reducing investment and operating costs.

Recently APC along with other industry leaders from IBM, AMD and Wachovia Financial participated in a webinar titledThe Uptime Institute® eSymposium: The Invisible Crisis in the DataCenter. How IT Performance is Driving the Economic Meltdown of Moore’s Law.  Discussions were on the importance of rising site infrastructure costs associated with IT performance and what they are doing in anticipation of the related crisis.  To view please (http://www.accelacomm.com/jlp/APC/0/2945/)

The Blade Systems Alliance   The Blade Systems Alliance (BladeS) is an independent, not-for-profit organization of server blade manufacturers, software suppliers, system integrators, analysts, consultants, end users, and other interested parties to serve as a clearinghouse for information about blade systems, provide a focus for extending and improving standards, and promote their use in enterprise applications.  The Blade Systems Alliance's (BladeS) mission is to advance the adoption of modular and blade-based computing systems. In cooperation with the worldwide community of data center professionals and other advanced systems users, BladeS: ·  Promotes multi-vendor standards for modular systems management and racking. ·  Works with the user community to address real-world data center and advanced computing issues. ·  Delivers information, programs and forums to educate and inform. ·  The Blade Systems Alliance is a forum for end users, consultants, and vendors who are interested in the deployment and application of blade systems.   APC-MGE is a corporate member of the Blade Systems Alliance and active participant on the board of directors.  To learn more about BladeS, please visit: http://www.bladesystems.org/join/

HIMSS   The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is the healthcare industry's membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with offices in Chicago, Washington D.C., Brussels, and other locations across the United States and Europe, HIMSS represents more than 20,000 individual members and over 300 corporate members that collectively represent organizations employing millions of people. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its advocacy, educational and professional development initiatives designed to promote information and management systems’ contributions to ensuring quality patient care. APC-MGE is proud to be a Platinum Corporate Member of the HIMSS Association in 2007.

Society for Information Management (SIM)

Established in 1968, the Society for Information Management (SIM) is the premier network for IT leaders comprised of over 3,000 members including CIOs, senior IT executives, prominent academicians, consultants, and other IT leaders. SIM is a community of thought leaders who share experiences and apply rich intellectual capital, and who explore future IT direction. Through its 31 chapters, SIM provides resources and programs inspired by IT leaders for IT leaders that enable CIOs to further develop the leadership capabilities of themselves and the key and emerging leaders in their organizations. SIM provides the collective voice to advocate policy and legislation on behalf of the IT profession across industries.

APC is a Corporate Partner of SIM. SIM's Partner Program fosters teamwork and an on-going intellectual exchange between senior IT executives and industry product/service providers. SIM Partners provide benefit to the membership through their vendor-neutral white papers and webinars, sponsorship of local and national events, and demonstration of thought leadership within the chapters. SIM Partners and members share the common goal of continuous advancement within the IT industry, and SIM is the catalyst for this community of thought leaders to share experiences and rich intellectual capital that can help to shape the future of IT.