Convergence, consolidation, virtualization - today's IT trends have turned the network closet into a mission-critical environment. Network managers now need to deliver traditional telco levels of availability with these "edge of the network" sites.

But unlike other IT environments, network closets are unmanned and infrequently accessed. There aren't staff walking by to check up on things, and issues threatening downtime could well go undetected. Network closets are usually oddly shaped, out-of-the-way places that were never intended to house IT or networking equipment - and certainly not today's high-density networking devices. Such core infrastructure issues as power, cooling, and security were, at best, afterthoughts.

Achieving a highly available network in a space-constrained, out-of-sight location presents several challenges: controlling the power, monitoring the environment, and managing the cooling.

APC solutions give you the level of control, monitoring, and management that today's more critical systems demand. After all, you can't deliver an ultra-reliable network. If you don't know there's a problem until after the fact.