Frost & Sullivan Honors Minkels for its Free Standing Cold Corridor, a Groundbreaking Racks and Cabinet Solution for the European Market

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the racks and cabinets market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Minkels with the 2015 European Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation. Subsequent to its 2006 introduction of the highly innovative Cold Corridor aisle-containment system to separate data center airflow, Minkels launched the Next Generation Cold Corridor in 2013, which is a highly flexible and modular solution offering greatly enhanced airflow management and energy efficiency. Following this, in 2014, Minkels commercially launched the Free Standing Cold Corridor. It is an ultra-modular and cost-efficient freestanding aisle containment system, designed to create closed corridors independent of IT racks. This means that it will allow a modular buildup of complete Cold Corridor systems without adding racks.

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"Minkels' latest innovation, the Free Standing Cold Corridor, is intended to provide high cost savings in both CAPEX and OPEX," said Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Gautham Gnanajothi. "The product's modular design, consisting of only a support structure, wall panels, roofing and doors, offers data centers a cost-efficient 'pay-as-you-grow' option."

The company also delivers considerable flexibility when installing racks and other equipment, such as storage and network systems. It directly processes its customers' requirements using a smart mass-customization software tool, which configures solutions in three dimensions and then directly links the solutions to the company's operational process. This configuration tool ensures that customers across the world benefit from a uniform solution with standardized modular components that adapt to individual needs.

Minkels has successfully established a unique position for itself in the market; it has a complete product portfolio boasting industry-leading product quality. It follows a diligent optimization process, which, apart from product quality, focuses on process quality and logistical performance. With Legrand as its parent company, Minkels has all the resources needed to create synergies between the two and extend the global reach of its service.

The company's factories are largely automated, allowing for consistent quality, speed, and cost control. Minkels also has the ability to support special product manufacturing at all its locations. Its mass-customized products are produced in roughly the same time frame and at the same quality levels as its regular products across its manufacturing locations.

Minkels has strategically positioned itself as a data center/white space specialist rather than a rack and cabinet manufacturer. Notably, it has been able to leverage Legrand's network in more than 180 countries to expand its footprint. Furthermore, Minkels integrates Legrand's data center-related solutions into its own portfolio in order to get involved in new projects at an earlier stage and respond better to new and existing market requirements.

"Instead of pushing its products in the market, Minkels works extensively with its customers to come up with solutions that best suit their needs," observed Gautham. "This fosters an atmosphere of cooperation and ownership, eventually leading to better results for both the company and its customers."

At Minkels, customer service begins right from the sales process, at the product-definition stages. Its product-configuration tool enhances the customer experience, and its strong customer service chain shortens lead times.

"Minkels has done a remarkably good job of understanding customer needs in the industry and developing an innovative new product to address those needs. Its Free Standing Cold Corridor is uniquely positioned for sustained success because it addresses the core issues that customers care about—quality, flexibility and reliability," said Frost & Sullivan Global President and Managing Partner Krishna Srinivasan.

Overall, Minkels and Legrand have developed a comprehensive and extremely robust product portfolio for datacenter infrastructure solutions, which adds value to the rack and cabinet market. Its strategic position within the Legrand group endows Minkels with numerous advantages and places it leagues ahead of its peers.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed an innovative element in a product by leveraging leading-edge technologies. The award recognizes the value-added features/benefits of the product and the increased ROI it offers customers, which, in turn, increases customer acquisition and overall market penetration potential.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About Minkels

Minkels (www.minkels.com) is a knowledge-driven manufacturer and global supplier of high quality total solutions for data centre infrastructure. The Minkels brand forms a part of the brand portfolio of Legrand, a public company (quoted on NYSE Euronext Paris: LR) with global sales in the markets of low voltage equipment, data networks and data centres. Legrand has a presence in more than 180 countries and had earnings of 4.5 billion Euros in 2013.

Modular design and energy-efficiency are the core principles behind the extensive Minkels portfolio. The modular design of data centre products ensures highly scalable customer solutions that adapt to the dynamic needs of a data centre environment. Due to its expertise in energy-efficiency, Minkels was asked to contribute to the European guidelines for fitting out energy-efficient data centres, the so-called Code of Conduct for Data Centers.

The Minkels product portfolio includes modular solutions for data centre housing (Varicon®); data centre cooling, including DX cooling for small server rooms and Cold Corridor® aisle containment solutions (Varicondition®); data centre power distribution (Varicon Power®); data centre monitoring (Varicontrol®); as well as a broad range of data centre accessories.

About Frost & Sullivan

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Frost & Sullivan Contact:

Mireya Espinoza
P: 210. 247.3870
F: 210.348.1003
E: [email protected]

Minkels Contact:

Minkels B.V. 
Vincent Liebe, Marketing Manager
[email protected] 
T +31 (0)413 31 11 87

KINXX PR 
Koen Stegeman
[email protected] 
+31 (0)630491407

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

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