Rack PDU Blog

I must admit I have been thinking a lot about quality lately. Our data center industry, at its core, is about power correction, conditioning, and quality. The ability of a mission-critical electrical system to deliver the proper sine wave to the server is a multi-billion-dollar industry. (My apologies in advance to the mechanical minded for such unilateral statements.)

For those of you who are working through the issues of remotely managing your data center power, or are thinking about heading in that direction, we have a few pearls of wisdom. There is definitely some confusion in the industry about smart versus switched power distribution units. I’d like to take a minute to talk about the latter. Although both types of rack PDU’s have the same features such as circuit protection, monitoring, security, and communications, it is the switched variety that opens the doors to remotely managing your data center.

At the beginning of the sunny season we talked about some things for school system and university data center managers to review during the summertime break. Seems like yesterday.

In this recent article on Data Center Knowledge, the author discusses the growing issue of data center real estate in Singapore and other APAC markets – or more accurately, the lack thereof. While many countries, including portions of the United States and Northern Europe, benefit from large landmasses, high-density city centers in most of the world place an absolute premium on every square meter of space. In these areas, data center facilities are built more on the vertical axis, with support equipment stacked on rooftops and in basements.

e were recently approached by a C-level executive who was facing a challenge. His company had recently acquired another organization, and was now in the process of trying to determine the best way to integrate its data center. The data center, however, was in need of a major overhaul. A big part of the problem was the fact that the former company’s IT team had been using traditional spreadsheets to track its devices and daily power metrics. These spreadsheets were rife with errors (and possible manipulation). For example, the team discovered several network devices in the data center that did not appear in any records.

Earlier this year there were many questions in the data center industry about what would happen to the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), a 2015 law that is set to expire in 2018 and 2019. It’s taken a few months, but now we’re starting to see some answers. Just recently, news broke that there is a new version of FITARA being proposed in the House version of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. So FITARA does not appear to be going away anytime soon.

You asked, we answered. During our highly anticipated webinar last week, "Delivering Resilience and Uptime at the Edge," our speakers were asked a few questions in regards to the challenges presented by edge computing, their views on its future development, as well as how Server Technology's portfolio of products will address its demands.

To illustrate the importance of calculating three phase power in the data center, let’s pretend you are going to cook a meal for a big group of people. As simple as it sounds, first you’ll need to figure out how many guests will be arriving so you don’t run out of food and wind up in a pinch. In the data center, this planning process is called capacity planning. Only in this case, instead of feeding food to people, you are feeding electricity to servers.

According to a study from Unilever, there is now a $1 trillion market opportunity for companies that can successfully explain their sustainability practices to consumers. For many companies — particularly technology providers — the data center is a natural place to start. After all, data centers have a reputation for being notorious energy hogs, often using as much power as a small city. So businesses like to flip the script and differentiate their services by focusing on steps they are taking to become more environmentally responsible.

Just recently, Network World ran an interesting article explaining how Ireland is the best place to set up a data center in Europe. The author pointed out how strong connectivity, affordable taxes and active government support make Ireland a premium destination for businesses seeking colocation and interconnection services.