Rack PDU Blog

Decisions, decisions. We often stress over relatively easy decisions more than we reasonably should. One decision that shouldn’t be all that difficult – once you’re armed with the proper knowledge – revolves around which type of rack mount PDU you’ll need to help power your data center for the foreseeable future. When picking a rack mount PDU for your data center, pinpointing your exact needs before shopping will save you a lot of time and energy in the long run. Perhaps density is your primary concern. Or maybe uptime is on the top of your checklist, along with capacity planning. That’s where Server Technology comes in. We offer smart, switched and other intelligent rack PDU options ranging from ready-made units with super-fast shipping to PDUs precisely customized to meet your every need.

Awhile back, you and your team implemented a data center infrastructure management (DCIM) strategy to help control your rapidly-growing department. At the time, your thinking was that DCIM would streamline operations, aid in knowledge-based decision making, and help your business respond to changing workloads. The whole point was to make life easier for you and your team members, while also making the data center more efficient and cost-effective for your business (which is now riding almost entirely its network infrastructure). Let’s face it, though: Things aren’t going exactly as they planned. Your data center is still wasting vast amounts of power on a daily basis, and it’s still suffering from sporadic bouts of downtime. And on top of it, you’re continuously operating in the red zone and upper management is not happy about it.

Utility power should just be there. Always on. Never failing. Today’s hyperscale data center designs frequently count on the electric utility to supply them with a stable source of clean renewable energy. Alternatively, some use locally generated power with the utility as a backup. Combining robust software stacks that incorporate ...

Since 2014, federal data centers have been optimizing their facilities under the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), a money-saving initiative imposed by the federal government that will force certain data centers to close by 2018.

If you were in the position to start from scratch with power distribution, what would you do? For many of our education customers looking at planning a new facility, the answer is to completely rethink the norms. Many data center managers are making do with the power distribution that came with the building, and for most, the system is not current. No pun intended.

With people, there’s such a thing as book smart and practical smart. In the case of Server Technology’s Intelligent PDU line, you get the best of both worlds – a product that not only boasts powerful specs on paper, but also makes a real difference in your data center’s efficiency efforts. We recently sat down with Server Technology’s Director of OEM and Global Accounts, Marc Cram, to discuss the benefits of choosing Switched or Smart Rack PDUs in your data center and how they can lead to greater efficiency and cost savings in the long run.

We see this problem time and again with cloud computing: First, a business will partner with a hosted cloud provider offering affordable access to premium infrastructure; then, the business will migrate its workloads and wait for the cost savings to roll in. Oftentimes, though, the cost savings never materialize. In fact, it's very common for a business to spend more money on cloud services in the long run than it would on legacy network expenses.

Switched PDU, Switched, Switched POPS

Across the globe, data center managers are making the move to 60A service at the rack level. Why? One big reason is because it better supports higher-density applications. As a result, three-phase power distribution is seeing a boost in popularity. Put simply, it just makes sense for data centers from economic and efficiency standpoints. A popular choice for those looking to make the move to alternating phase power is the HDOT Switched power distribution unit from Server Technology. These rack-mount PDUs simplify time consuming processes such as cable management and load balancing. Offering up to a 30 percent footprint reduction, HDOT PDUs let you install more servers per rack and create a much more efficient flow over standard one- or two-phase power by using three-phase power distribution.

A new bill is being considered in Washington, D.C. that would directly impact federal data centers. According to The Stack, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the Energy Efficient Government Technology Act (HR 306), which would require every federal agency to provide a detailed report outlining the exact steps that are being taken to improve energy efficiency in their data center and computing environments.