Geist (company)

Geist develops products which enable companies to manage their data centers, according to their specific needs. The company has been in operation since 1948 and focuses on the four main elements of data center management, including: power, cooling, monitoring and managing. Geist’s headquarters are situated in Lincoln, Nebraska and the company has a further 13 USA locations, as well as one in China and three in Europe, employing more than 320 people across the globe.

History

Originally trading under the name Winders and Geist, Geist Manufacturing was founded in 1948, initially serving as a major supplier of power and telecommunications hardware management tools. In 1994, Geist produced its first rackmount power strip – going on to offer tailored manufacturing that include creating standard PDUs (Power Distribution Units) as well as custom made orders. In 1997, Geist Manufacturing is acquired by PCE Inc., going on to design intelligent power strips in 2003 while developing sophisticated cooling technology in 2007.

Business structure

Geist is a privately held business that is 20 per cent employee-owned, with affiliations in Australia, China, France, Singapore, South Africa and Taiwan. Their customer base spans over six continents, with their worldwide headquarters set in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.

Geist incorporates four key areas:

Power – Providing services including Geist Upgradeable (GU) power strips to satellite power
Cool – Offering economical and intelligent cooling facilities
Monitor – Geist climate sensors assess crucial elements such as airflow and temperature
Manage – Using data to manage efficiency (as part of Geist DCIM’s Environet).

Media

In 2011, Geist DCIM introduced a new edition of the Thermographic View – allowing users to view floor plans with colour-coded temperature values. Soon after, Geist released the RS-Wi, a wireless function developed for simple integration with facility monitoring and management databases. In September 2011, Geist DCIM debuted its new software solution entitled Racknet-S at AFCOM – a system that offers a single point of access to monitor the various elements of a data center.

In 2012, the organisation also announced a double software upgrade for both Racknet and Environet. Geist also hosted the first yearly Geist DCIM Symposium in Denver, Colorado – from May 2 to May 4. July saw Data Center Dynamics’ magazine, Focus, feature an interview with President of Geist DCIM, Matt Lane – where he discussed the trends in the DCIM market and the necessary components for a successful DCIM System. Geist also opened their first Asia office in Shenzhen, China in July, and launched the 3.6 release for their Environet DCIM systems and the Racknet product line along with the Tenant Billing Manager for their Environet DCIM solution.

Geist was also featured in an article by the 451 Group titled, “Geist grows DCIM revenue rapidly, adds multi-tenant functionality” in August, and the following month, opened a new sales and marketing office in London. In October, Geist collaborated with CoSentry and Morrissey Engineering in designing high capacity data center energy management systems, and November saw Matt Lane write the article ‘5 Reasons a DCIM Install Fails’ for the Data Center Journal.

In January 2013, Geist announced the news that its DCIM division had served its 100th customer – while May saw the launch of Opengate By Geist, as part of the company’s efforts into incorporating Opengate Data Systems into the Geist structure. The company hosted the second annual Geist DCIM Symposium on May 7 in Denver, Colorado. Geist then went on to develop cooling solution the SwitchAir product line in August, and saw the company experience record global growth – an increase of approximately 20 percent compared to 2012 revenues.

The start of 2014 saw Geist launch version 4 of Environet, while in February the Geist Upgradeable power strip was released.

Geist is a supporter of Microsoft Open CloudServer specification version 2.

Awards

Geist earned the Uptime Institute Green Enterprise IT Award in 2011 for the company’s cooling solution. In 2013, Geist was recognised as a runner up for the EEF Future Manufacturing Awards for Operating Practices and Processes in the South West Region of the United Kingdom.