Rack PDU Blog

In Part 1, we explained how the federal government is improving data center efficiency, lowering overall energy costs and optimizing their data center environments. In our next segment, we will dive deeper into solutions that can help meet those critical needs. Federal Sales Manager Jason Mollicone discusses how Server Technology’s expertise with intelligent PDUs positions the company to best provide solutions to the power challenges faced by the federal government. He says the need for remote monitoring and management has become a priority over the past couple of years. “We’re really starting to see those conversations come up in the federal space,” he says, explaining that Server Technology’s intelligent rack power solutions – from our Smart rack PDUs to our Switched PDUs - can help clients drill down to the outlet level, if needed, to see individual IT device power consumption and trends while allowing all necessary data points to be collected.

Back in the early days of information technology, data centers were almost embarrassingly wasteful entities. But this was a different time, before the necessary technology was available to accurately track and manage power consumption over time.

This is your data center speaking. You think you know me pretty well, right? After all, you spend almost all of your time around me. Take a harder look, however, and you’ll see that there are some important things about me that you aren’t aware of!

Conversely, a smart PDU will provide the same level of critical power and environmental data, but will not allow you to make changes to the outlet from a central location. Smart PDUs are more for monitoring and reporting purposes.

Thanks to its modular design, each HDOT product type gives customers the flexibility to configure the location and quantity of C13 and C19 outlets on the PDU. As a result, there are literally thousands on thousands of configurations possible. To get a sense of how customizable our PDUs really are, check out our Build Your Own PDU tool which walks you through four easy steps to building the perfect power solution for your data center. It’s so remarkably easy that you can even build a PDU right from your tablet or phone.

Look at you, skulking around your data center like Lord Vader at home in his Death Star. Sure, you don’t have any plans to destroy any competitors’ offices or nearby planets with your super laser any time soon, but you’re pretty confident that, if given the opportunity, you could. In the meantime, you can rest easy in your ergonomic office chair knowing that your department—and job—are safe and secure. Right? Well, this is exactly what Darth Vader did. And it didn’t work out too well for him.

If there’s one need you can’t skirt around as a colocation provider, it’s rack-level power management. Power is expensive, and there is too much at stake in your mission critical environment to go without a reliable network of intelligent power distribution units (PDUs) that can track daily usage, prevent outages and respond to environmental alerts.

A while back, your business made a strategic decision to expand its data center beyond its physical borders. Now, a large number of your servers live in hosted, third-party cloud and colocation facilities around the U.S. and possibly the world. Why did you outsource a large portion of your infrastructure? You did so to save money, increase efficiencies and establish a local presence around your key markets to reduce latency and costs when transmitting data. It made much more sense at the time to partner with companies offering premium infrastructure in managed facilities than to expand your legacy network (and take on additional CAPEX and OPEX).

Helping the federal government operate more efficiently may sound like a Herculean task, but it’s one the Power Strategy Experts at Server Technology are well prepared to take on. With years of experience working with the federal government, we proudly help the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Coast Guard, NASA, the Army, Navy, and others with their data center power needs. There are some unique needs and initiatives driving change in the Federal data center space. We’ll explore some of those in this, the first of a two-part series.

Not that long ago, we told you about our customer-focused approach to design and production. We showed how our products often result from working closely with customers to determine their power distribution needs. Now, we’re excited to roll out the newest evolution in customer-driven design: the HDOT Switched POPS PDU. With this HDOT® Switched POPS® (Per Outlet Power Sensing) unit, we’ve unleashed one of the most powerful additions you can make to your data center floor, giving you complete control and the peace of mind that comes with it.