As the New Year approaches, we must thank all our customers who have worked along side us and we must look forward to the exciting and challenging times ahead.

2008 has been one of the most successful years for us, in a time when our competitors have admitted that they are struggling - (it doesn’t help them, that every quote they do, we’ve also quoted and we win!)

We must keep focused on what the market and our customers need and keep providing solutions at affordable prices. This we will continue doing throughout 2009.

All the best for 2009.

Graham Gallagher.

We at Computer Security & Solutions wish everyone including our customers and suppliers, a warm Christmas wish. We hope everyone has a good Christmas and an even better New Year.

We have several major high profile projects starting in 2009, 1 project is for desktop PC enclosures, protecting them from theft and data tampering.  This project alone has a requirement for 2,500 enclosures covering the UK and Europe and the project has to be completed by the end of August 2009.

Another project is for a major food processor in the UK, who are investing heavily in a new manufacturing facility. These Thin Client enclosures are for wash down areas, as the production areas are washed down at the end of every shift.

We are working on a joint project with Intermec - the world renown Industrial Printer manufacturer who have a large order for their printers, however the application is in a very hostile environment, so we have developed a new product for Intermec and this should start to be rolled out throughout January through to the end of March 2009.

It looks as though 2009 will be a challenging time, however we will strive to offer cost effective solutions for all production applications. We will step up to the plate and do our best always!

We hear lots of negative news story’s about the Automotive Industry, however at Computer Security & Solutions, we have won a project to supply 27 Industrial PC enclosures to an automotive manufacturing supplier who supplies high profile car manufacturers Spyker.

Spyker are a prestigious performance car with fantastic looks, the also command a high price tag due to the quality and performance.

The UK manufacturer and supplier to Spyker were looking to invest £32,000 in computer hardware in extremely volatile areas of the factory floor, the decided to purchase the 15+ model, as it allowed for future changes without having to purchase additional enclosures in the future when they upgraded the hardware in 5 years.

The 15+ unit protects from dust, dirt and fluid splashes to IP56, the unit will accommodate a standard PC base unit, with a monitor up to 19″ TFT or 17″ CRT, the keyboard and mouse are positioned in the roll out shelf below and the unit was cooled with a specialised filtered fan unit.

The total project had a budget of £105,000 and the company had confidence in that the return on investment would almost be immediate.  We delivered the stands so the cabling guys could cable up to them once sited, with the enclosures being delivered to site for bolting to the stands and being fitted with the computer hardware.

The company has a green policy and Computer Security & Solutions fitted well, with their recycling of old enclosures as a valued added service.

It just goes to show that investment in the automotive sector isn’t dead.

There are 2 ways to computerise a factory floor, the first being to purchase Industrial PC’s. These are extremely robust, however they are very expensive and should there be a hardware issue the entire unit has to be returned to the manufacturer or supplier for rework.

Now Industrial PC enclosures are very cost effective and can be manufactured in various materials, for example 316 stainless steel for food processing areas, Industrial PC’s only come in 304 which is a lower grade of stainless steel. Another advantage is that should there be a hardware problem, the PC can easily and quickly be swapped out from an office and the production line should be back on track.

As we all know, time is money…

As well as the basic 2 advantages above, Industrial dustproof computer enclosures can future proof your investment, due to them being able to accommodate different size equipment for say the next 10 years. SO when a customer decides to change the equipment they still fit.

Industrial computer cabinets are one of the best ways to protect computers on shop floors, as they make the life of the computer last much longer than if it wasn’t protected.

Computer Security & Solutions have had years of experience selling 19″ rack cabinets, also called server racks, now they are used in all data centres throughout the world.

• Even your ISP will use them,
• Your mobile phone provider uses them
• Your land line telephone provider uses them too!

They are used for storing servers in a manageable way - over time as servers moved from the free standing solution (similar size to a tower PC) to the tiny blade servers of now, the demand is increased accordingly, as a standard 19 inch rack can accommodate up to 30 x 1U servers, based on a 42U high server rack.

Now to understand the server cabinet/rack-mount cabinet terminology, I will try to explain it!

19″ Rack - this is taken from the centre mounting holes at the front of the mounting rails that are positioned at each side of the cabinet, both front and back. This actually means that the equipment is around 425 mm wide to fit in between the rails.

1U - All server/rack-mount cabinets are measured in U’s - why? I don’t know…but each U is equal to 1.75 inch or 44.45 mm. This is a good as the server manufacturers realised that if they were to sell to this market they would have to provide servers in U’s. So now you can buy 1U, 2U, 4U and 8U high servers.

Fixed shelf - As the name suggests, this is a fixed shelf that mounts to the 4 internal mounting posts, that form the 19 inch rails. This is used to support UPS’s (normally in the base of the enclosure) or other heavy equipment.

Cage nuts - These are the nuts that have a sort of spring attached to them and they fit into the square holes in the mounting rails. Normally supplied in bags of 50.

KVM - This is a sophisticated switch that can switch or monitor any given number of servers up to 400, from 1 KVM device, these devices have an inbuilt monitor and keyboard much like a laptop computer, only they are designed for server monitoring. These save a huge amount of space and energy, as previously each server needed it’s own monitor and keyboard and with some of the data centres having thousands of servers this would be a waste of space, energy and money.

I hope this helps in the mind field of server racks! To take the guess work out of a supplier, we can recommend a company called Orion UK who are based in Leeds, UK.

If you wish to discuss Industrial, dustproof computer enclosures, please contact us directly on 0844 8841899.

Computer Security & Solutions are a leading industrial PC enclosure manufacturer, all their products are manufactured from steel and it got their proprietor Tony thinking, “what if they offered a buy back program?”

Meaning, that if a customer needs to replace old or damaged enclosures, Computer Security & Solutions will buy back the old enclosure – and it doesn’t have to be manufactured by them! The reason being, that the buy – back unit, will be recycled and re-processed to make new steel.

You see, every year the amount of recycled steel increases, more than any other material. Steel is so robust; it is the only material that can be recycled time and time again without any loss of quality. Due to the fact that steel is magnetic, this makes recycling easier.

Computer Security & Solutions discovered when they looked at the figures for recycling, that:

• In 1996, 68 million tonnes of steel was recycled

• Steel’s recycling rate is 65.2% and is greater than aluminium, glass and plastic

• The smelters re-melted 18 billion steel cans into new products – that is the equivalent of 600 cans recycled per second!

• Twelve million tonnes of steel was recycled from the car industry, with a recovery rate of 97.7%

• Steel recycling programs reduce the landfill mass, as well as saving precious natural resources

• Every tonne of steel recycled saves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone.

Computer Security & Solutions looked at their environmental policy and discovered that they could offer a saving to their customers for recycling, hence the buy back program. This policy is in force from the 1^st December 2008.

Their plan is simple, when a customer purchases an industrial computer enclosure, via the buy back program, Computer Security & Solutions ship the replacement unit to them and collect the buy back unit. When the unit is returned, it is then sent to recycling processor, who recycles the steel to make new steel.

With their range of PC enclosures starting at £250 without the buy back, this makes it a win – win situation for any customer and they are the only enclosure manufacturer offering this green service.