Published on: July 7, 2014 by Blair Haas
Bud Industries Server Rack
I recently returned from my annual quick trip through Northeastern Asia. It is hard to assimilate all of the variety of issues, both political and economic, that we saw. One trend that we heard repeatedly is the shift in direction of the Chinese government towards military buildup and away from manufacturing. We heard of increased taxes, reduced sales, and an overall sense of concern. The Chinese manufacturers are not receiving some of the incentives as they traditionally did. Yet, still many are growing and while there is much less building going on, there is still a strong effort to latch onto any business that they can.
I was pleasantly surprised at the level of innovation that I was seeing in server racks At our factories there we saw a variety of solutions ranging from a basic 4 post open cabinet (a great solution for maximum air flow) to complete server rack rooms. We saw units with narrow panel space for maximum space utilization to those that had extra width for cable waterfalls. We saw welded units, knock down units (for easy transportation), Seismic units, and all manners of ventilation from perforated doors to curved doors (more ventilation space). We also saw some clever solutions to cable management, with plastic “teeth” that could be readily snapped to fit the size needs of the customer and covers to protect it all. It opened our thinking to recognize that the industry continues to evolve and that even though servers continue to shrink, the applications and the opportunities to work with multiple servers is consistent.
Even with products as large as server racks, the market is truly global. It is up to us, as manufacturers, to continue to glean the best innovations from around the globe. Watch for some new products in these areas from Bud in the coming months.
