Romonet is a UK-based, privately held company, headquartered in London, UK, that provides cloud-based solutions and services to data centers and associated technology.Romonet website, retrieved 3 Sept 2015 Romonet solves energy, water, capacity and financial challenges in data centers. They claim Romonet makes the first software that accurately predicts total cost of ownership (TCO) and properly model energy flow. They began by creating a term called 'data center predictive modeling' (DCPM) that "rather than collecting real-time data, they predict data center configuration and architecture."Zen Kishimoto. Zen and the Art of Data Center Greening (and Energy Efficiency). Blog 6 July 2011 Romonet Inc was launched in 2011Datacenterknowledge.com 'Romonet using blueprints to predict performance', 29 June 2011 with the goal of bringing the product to the US market.
In February 2019 it was announced that the CBRE Group would acquire Romonet.
History Romonet was founded in 2006 by Zahl Limbuwala and Liam Newcombe—initially to make software to analyze how much data centers cost to operate. Newcombe said, of IT cost, "The business is effectively prevented from managing operating costs or understanding the contribution to profitability."Romonet website, Romonet University, 'How the corporate data center has become a cost black hole', p. 5, para. 2 In 2009, they collaborated to release an open source engine with the British Computer Society's Data Centre Specialist Group.www.katescomment.com, 'BCS Data Centre Cost and Energy Simulator Beta Released', 28 May 2009 Though the simulator was at an early stage, it was able to predict cost and power usage.Ibid.
On 24 June 2011, Romonet opened two new offices in the United States, their headquarters in San Francisco and an office in the Empire State Building in New York.Romonet website, News, 'Romonet expands operations to the US with East and West Coast offices' 24 June 2011
2009 Partnered with British Computer Society and released a beta of a Cost and Energy simulator.Katescomment.com 'BCS Data Centre Cost & Energy Simulator Beta Released', 28 May 2009
2009 June Romonet & C-Net to partner to provide training on the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres.Joint Research Council, European Codes of Conduct for ICT, EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres
2009 November Romonet board appoints Rick Skett, former Intel executive and 30-year veteran, as chairman of the board.
2010 November Romonet launches Romonet Software Suite – the first ever software to predict energy use and cost over the entire lifecycle of a data center.datacenterdynamics website, 'UK company Romonet launches innovative simulation tool' 8 November 2010
2010 November Computer Weekly featured a review of Romonet Software Suite.Computer Weekly, 'IT cloud decisions use flawed metrics', 8 November 2010
2011 February Arup uses the Romonet Software Suite to provide visibility into their data center.Information Age, 'The model data centre', 28 Feb 2011
2011 February Romonet announced Syska Hennessy Group and Skanska USA as official channel partners.
2011 May Zahl Limbuwala gives keynote speech at Google Data Center Efficiency event in Zurich.datacenterknowledge.com, 'Most Users Resist Warmer Data Centers', 25 May 2011
2011 June Launch of Romonet Inc. in the United States.Romonet website, Announcements, 'Romonet expands operations to the US with East and West Coast offices', retrieved 2 Sep 2015
2011 June Skanska partners with Romonet to design efficient Data Centers.Skanska US website 'Skanska has some 'swede' datacenter tricks up its sleeves, retrieved 2 Sep 2015
2011 October Romonet board appointed Michael J Fister, former Intel senior exec and CEO of Cadence, as director and member of the board.The Whir, 'Data Center Tools Firm Romonet Names Board Member', 7 October 2011
2011 November Launches V2.0 of its DCPM software, Romonet Software Suite, which incorporates significant extra enhancements including ability to model using Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) data.IT World, News, 'Romonet adds more smarts to its data center predictive modeling software', 30 November 2011
2012 July Romonet partners with Red Engineering Design.Datacentres.com, 'Red Engineering partners with Romonet to deliver advanced data centre modelling services', retrieved 2 Sep 2015
2012 September Romonet partners with CS&I who specialize in critical systems typically associated with data center, hospital, and financial trading facilities.datacenterdynamics.com, News, 'Romonet partners with engineering firm CS&I', retrieved 2 Sep 2015
2012 November Romonet launches Romonet Portal - a SaaS type product that is 'designed specifically to address the business and financial management needs of those that own and operate data centers.'Ark Data Centres website, News 'Uniquely bringing together engineering, operations and finance', retrieved 2 Sep 2015
2012 November Romonet partners with JCA Engineering.The Engineer, News 'Romonet forms partnership with JCA Engineering', retrieved 2 September 2015
2012 December Romonet's principal mission-critical engineer, Dr. Ehsaan Farsimadan, wins 'Young Mission Critical Engineer of the Year' at DatacenterDynamics Datacenter Leaders Awards 2012.Datacenterdynamics.com, THE DATACENTERDYNAMICS EMEA AWARDS: OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION WINNER, retrieved 2 Sep 2015
2013 April i3 Solutions Group and Romonet partner 'to bring first lifecycle TCO analysis to enterprise data center operators'.Datacenterdynamics.com, News, 'I3 Solutions and Romonet dig down into data center costs' retrieved 26 April 2013i3solutionsgroup.com, News, retrieved 26 April 2013
2013 July Launches Portal 2.0 - the latest version of its SaaS type product.Infotech Spotlight, 'i3 and Romonet Partner to Offer TCO Analysis to Enterprise Data Center Operators', retrieved 12 July 2013 V3.co.uk, News, 'Romonet Portal 2.0 update helps firms analyse and predict IT infrastructure performance', retrieved 2 Sep 2015
2013 November Announces that in partnership with Canara (formerly Intellibatt) it is now able to provide a fully managed remote monitoring service for data centers.'Romonet And Canara Launch Fully Managed Remote Monitoring Service For Data Centers', Breaking News\Power, retrieved 22 Nov 2013'Managed remote monitoring partnership', Home\Design & Facilities Management\News, retrieved 22 Nov 2013
2014 April Romonet CEO presents at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on the subject 'Data Centers From a Cottage Industry to an Industrial and Information Age Revolution'.lbl.gov website\News\Events retrieved 18 Jun 2014
2014 May Romonet wins an inaugural Uptime Institute Brill Award (Product Services category) in conjunction with Compass Datacenters.Uptime Institute website, Brill Awards, retrieved 25 Feb 2015
2014 October Romonet CEO publishes a controversial blog An open letter to data center investors, which gains considerable comment and feedback.LinkedIn, Pulse, Zahl Limbuwala, retrieved 2 Sep 2015
2015 March Romonet updates capabilities of Operations Portal, its SaaS product.Dtatacenterdynamics.com, Design & Strategy, 'Romonet updates data center modelling software', retrieved 2 Sep 2015
2015 March Romonet partners with Vapor.io, 'the world's first hyper collapsed and truly data defined data center solution'.Vapor.io website, Company, Technology Partners, retrieved 2 Sep 2015
2016 April Romonet launches the "world's only water analytics" for the data center.
2017 January Romonet launches its new certification program, Validated by ROMONET.
2019 February CBRE Group acquires Romonet.
Products
The Romonet platform Romonet claims they have the only cloud-based, big data software platform that models, simulates, and predicts data center investment and operational performance. They say their analytics platform enables energy, financial, investment, and profitability objectives.
In November 2010, Romonet introduced Romonet Software Suite as a predictive modeling tool for data center decisions.datacenterdynamics.com, 'Romonet: Using Blueprints to Predict Performance', 29 June 2011 Romonet claims that it uses mathematical computation and computer aided simulation to perform non-intrusive, risk-free predictive modeling. It does not require that the software directly interact with the data center, and can model data centers in a simulated environment.
A Chief Architect at Intel said 'Romonet Software Suite could be a game-changer as the leading TCO/Predictive modeling solution for the data center industry.‛Romonet website, Case Studies, Intel retrieved 2 Sep 2015 and Roy Illsley, principal analyst at Ovum Ltd "Predictive modeling enables companies to analyze and compare scenarios and say whether the move makes sense or not. Such level of knowledge and information is a great basis to make decisions, based on better assessments."Computer Weekly, Blogs, Inside Outsourcing, 'How do I understand the true cost of putting IT in the cloud?', 31 March 2011 The company hopes that Romonet Software Suite will succeed in the growing field for data center infrastructure management (DCIM) tools.
In November 2012, Romonet introduced Romonet Operations Portal a cloud-based solution that they intend data centre operators to use to forecast, plan, and measure business performance.http://www.romonet.com/docs/operations-portal.pdf Romonet website, Product, Operations Portal, retrieved 2 Sep 2015
Romonet Operations Portal Romonet Operations Portal is an online view of data center performance that tracks several metrics and facilitates comparison of expected performance (as modeled) and actual performance as reflected from meter readings through the facility's BMS system.datacenterknowledge.com, 'Romonet's Portal 2.0 Targets True TCO Measures for IT Services', retrieved 25 Feb 2015
Validated by ROMONET January 2017 saw the launch of Validated by ROMONET, the "first independent certification process to measure the full end-to-end performance of the data center" throughout its lifecycle.
Environment
Liam Newcombe and Zahl Limbuwala regularly contribute to forums such as The Green Grid, a consortium collaborating to improve the resource efficiency of data centers and business computing ecosystems. Liam has actively been involved with and contributed to the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres. Both Romonet Software Suite and Operations Portal identify the amount of a Data Center produces to help organizations plan how to operate with less impact on the environment.
Sources