Rack PDU Blog

Electricity is the single most important resource in a data center, as it’s needed for powering every system — from the servers on the floor to the lights overhead. Often the differences between a single phase PDU and a three phase PDU are not as complicated as they may seem, and even more often a 3 phase PDU is the right fit. At the same time, electricity is incredibly expensive, dangerous, and easy to mismanage — especially when considering the sheer volume of power that is typically used. Some facilities, after all, use enough electricity to power hundreds of thousands of homes. Even though energy efficiency is now top of mind for data center administrators, there’s no getting around the fact that data centers consume a great deal of power. As such, it’s vital to have the correct underlying power distribution system in place before moving in and setting up any equipment.

Now, the data center power monitoring process can be fully-automated with the help of intelligent, IP connected power distribution units (PDUs). By providing real-time power monitoring at the rack level, data center administrators can gain instant access to power usage metrics and then use the information to make improvements that can boost uptime and reduce operating costs.

According to the latest Farmer’s Almanac, much of the U.S. is in store for a cold, wet winter that will stretch well into March. At least five major storms expected to hit the eastern seaboard. In just a few short weeks — when the snow starts falling — we will learn which businesses are prepared for winter, and which are not. Businesses that take the time to plan ahead and invest in disaster recovery and business continuity will have a major competitive advantage. One thing you will want to pay attention to as you winterize your data center is the operability of your uninterruptable power supply (UPS) system. According to a recent study, UPS system failure is now the leading cause of data center downtime. In fact, UPS system failure now accounts for one-quarter of all data center outages.

It’s important to realize that data centers — which are notorious energy hogs — need to be front and center in a CSR strategy. It’s impossible to build an effective and honest CSR strategy without reigning in and controlling your data center’s power output. So, how do you control your data center’s power output? The easiest, and most effective way, is to invest in tools that provide real-time power monitoring and environmental reporting at the rack level.

As I was sitting around the other day and casting about a topic for this blog post, my colleagues jokingly suggested that we talk about this trend of putting an ‘i’ in front of everything. You know, how an intelligent PDU can be called iPDU or even IP-PDU, the now-normal branding standard of our modern age, the world of iEverything. The ‘i’ in the first iMac stood for the Internet, not necessarily intelligent. At the time, the idea of an internet-based personal computer was quite revolutionary. The ‘i’ moniker also brings to mind another intelligent ’i’ product, introduced by German sports car company BMW and infamously known as the Drive. While it originally stood for intelligent, the ‘i’ quickly became known to stand for ‘infuriating.’

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In a recent blog post from these pages, we discussed several situations in which you might consider using horizontal power distribution units in lieu of the more common vertical power distribution devices. Based on responses to our post, we decided to provide more feedback on going horizontal. We discussed several situations in our previous post that favor the use of the more compact horizontal PDU. Some of the reasons include distributing power from a rack-mounted UPS, or when you have space at the back of the rack left by shallow IT equipment such as those half-sized switches and routers. We also discussed situations in which additional air flow through the sides of the cabinet could be advantageous.

The voltage in a DC supply unit (such as a fuel cell), by comparison, cannot be changed unless the power supply is altered or turned off, such as with a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) system. DC is, therefore, less efficient and affordable to transmit than AC power, but it can be accomplished.

Data center environmental monitoring is nothing new. Systems such as the first Sensaphones have been around for decades, dialing out on POTS lines to report on space, power, and cooling. But don’t get me wrong – we’ve come a long way, baby. Haven’t we? As our friends at the Green Grid have correctly noted, you cannot improve what you are not measuring. It is safe to say that, up until now, we have never had access to the volume of information we can capture now, nor could we process it into useful and actionable data. But one thing has not changed, and that is the fact that we still rely on probes and sensors to capture all those little kernels of information.

As they say in Game of Thrones, winter is coming. And while you may not have to worry about ice zombies invading your data center, if you are located in the north may have some tough power-related challenges to face when the temperature plummets.