[TowardEX NOTIFY-ALL] Important Announcement for EasyColo Customers: 208-240 Volts Power Standardization Planning

[support at towardex.com]

(This message applies to EasyColo collocation customers only.  
 IP Transit/Dedicated Internet Access and all other customers are not affected)

Dear EasyColo Customer,

Over the course of past year and a half, our EasyColo client base at 1 Summer Street
has steadily grown past our expectations, in which we thank you very much for your 
business and trust in our services.   Part of our job to continuously make sure that
our services are reliable is to continue investing and upgrading our infrastructure,
one of them being power distribution infrastructure.  When we started offering EasyColo
products few years ago, we only had a couple cabinets of EasyColo customers drawing 
total of 64 Amps at 120 Volts in 1 Summer Street, which is little.  Today, TowardEX
EasyColo is drawing in excess of 557 amps at 120 V rating, totaling 66,840 Watts of 
continuously utilized power.

In order to continue scaling to our growing power requirements, improve reliability
and efficiently utilize every Watts to help conserve the environment, we will be 
implementing an overhaul to our power distribution methodology.  We will be starting
a transition to 208 to 240 Volts as our primary form of power distribution to customer
equipments, as opposed to existing 120 Volts.  In addition, all of our power distribution
to each EasyColo cabinet will be built out using heavy duty 3-phase AC power in 208 to
240 Volts instead of single-phase 120 Volts.

First of all, before we continue any further, we want to assure you that 120 Volts will
continue to be available and that we are still committed to delivering 120 Volts to 
customers that need them.  Existing customers do not need to worry about having to 
transition to 208-240 Volts.  Your presently supplied 120 Volts power will continue to 
work and be supported without any problems for as long as you want to use them. 

However, starting August 15th, 2009, unless customer specifically requests 120 Volts, all
new server installations and collocation account setups will be provided with 208 Volts 
using IEC international power cords supplied by  TowardEX.   240V power will also become
available for higher consumption devices in December 2009.

The benefits of introducing and migrating to 208 Volts are as follows:

-	With a higher mains voltage equipments draw less current, allowing moving mechanical
parts such as fans and motors to run much more smoothly.  This means every server will 
also run cooler and output a little less heat compared to 120 Volts, extending the lifetime
of your server equipment.  This also provides a cooler datacenter, reducing our overall 
heat production footprint.

-	Every server, network switch and routers made since mid-90's (especially with the
introduction of ATX and rackmount computer form factors) have been equipped with power 
supplies that auto-sense from 100 Volts to 240  Volts.  This means that you can plug in 
virtually any server you purchase from Dell and any other major server and network device
manufacturer into a 208 V power outlet, and they will work without any problems and without
any special settings required.

-	Currently, we are only able to deliver redundant power to about 60% of customers 
in each cabinet.  Customers that are not able to obtain redundant power are provided with 
an option to migrate into a new cabinet where redundant power is available to them.  In 
addition to that, we currently charge an extra fee to cover for the additional load and 
wiring for customers to utilize the redundant power service.  The main issue here is that we
simply do not have enough rack power density with 120 Volts to provide sufficient redundant 
power to every single equipment without creating lots of messy wiring and installing more 
heat-dissipating equipments into an already crammed spaces of the cabinet.

With our new 208 Volts service, we deliver electricity in 3-phase to each and every one of 
our upgraded and new EasyColo cabinets.  With industrial grade 3-phase power available, our
rack power density is significantly increased to the point that we will be able to offer and
provide redundant power to 100% of customers in every cabinet.  

Our customer requirements are increasingly becoming more mission-critical as days come and go,
so the question of redundant power for every server has now become a requirement, not an option.
In order to promote and improve reliability, we will be providing one (1) redundant power port
for every one (1) primary power port customer purchases under our new power distribution 
infrastructure, without any extra charges or fees--that's right, redundant power will now be 
provided free of charge under the new 208 Volts power distribution infrastructure.

-	With 3-phase 208 Volts system, we are now utilizing state-of-the-art smart, 
network-centric power distribution equipments.  With our new power distribution infrastructure,
we will be able to monitor every customer outlet down to per kilowatt-hour (KWh) level.  This
will allow us to set a framework in which we can convert our power billing from per-Amps to 
per-KWh, just like how real power companies do for billing.  This means that customers that 
utilize energy saving profiles on their servers for low-demand hours will be able to make 
noticeable to significant cost savings on their monthly power bill, as opposed to our current
per-Amps based billing model, which is blanket billing based on your server's sustained maximum
current draw.  



IMPLEMENTATION NOTES:

So what are the drawbacks and 'gotchas' for upgrading to 208 Volts mains voltage system, and how
is all of this going to be implemented?

Well, to begin, first, customers with existing 120 Volts service in most cabinets will continue to
remain on 120V.  However, customers in Cabinet 30 iside Suite D (server SID numbers starting with
EC.BOS-D30***) will be upgraded to 208 V in August, 2009.  You will receive a scheduled maintenance
notification prior to the work and our technicians will complete the upgrade without any special
work required from your side other than a quick downtime window during maintenance when the power
service is being changed.

For new customers or existing customers adding nwe/additional equipments, all new installations
will be standardized to 208 Volts by no later than September 2009.

120 Volts will continue to remain available for customers adding new equipments for the forseeable
future, we expect at least until 2010, but it may depend on changes in demand.

Please note that almost every single server equipment you can buy on the market today do not need
any special purchases or settings to accept 208 V service, but you should check with your equipment
vendor to double check/confirm.  Dell, Supermicro, Cisco, etc all make gears that have auto-sensing
power supplies that will work regardless of whether they are plugged into 120 V, 208 V or 240 V 
without any special settings or changes needed.

We will also be providing you with a specialized IEC C13 power cord, which is international standard
for computer equipments. 


Please let us know if you have any questions.  We are excited about the new upgrades we are implementing
as part of our routine effort to improve the reliability of services provided to our customers.

Best regards,

Customer Support
TowardEX Technologies, Inc.
Phone: 617-849-7278
Email: support at towardex.com