Rack PDU Blog

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.

You need High Density Outlet Technology (HDOT) PDUs from Server Technology, which can support more rack components than any other PDU per form factor. To combat the limited physical space that PDUs compete for in the data center rack, Server Technology developed High Density Outlet Technology (HDOT), the smallest form factor PDU which significantly increases real estate in the back of the rack by fitting as many as 42 C13’s in a 42U high network managed PDU device—that’s over 20 percent smaller than a comparable PDU using standard outlets. In conjunction with the launch of HDOT, Server Technology developed a quick turn manufacturing process that provides short lead times for PDU’s with the exact combination of C19 and C13 outlets in the locations where the customer needs them. The HDOT design also provides high native cord retention of over 12 pounds pull strength, reducing or eliminating the need for custom and costly ancillary locking cord devices. With increasing outlet density comes increased power, and potentially increased heat. HDOT is manufactured with robust high-temperature materials carrying a UL94 V-0 flame rating, making these outlets ideally suited for the harshest data center environments

If a solution doesn’t exist for your problem, we’ll innovate one, simple as that. Case in point: our High Density Outlet Technology (HDOT) PDUs didn’t exist until a client came to us looking for an innovative solution to a unique challenge. Travis Irons, Server Technology Director of Engineering, recalls the moment the idea for HDOT came to him. “About four years ago, one of our larger clients came to us with a quote for 40 to 50 different configurations of products,” Irons says. “Many of them were high density, with many outlets for the volume. With the conventional, off-the-shelf outlets everyone was using then, we couldn’t make it fit at first.”

Recently, a customer wondered about the real difference between high-quality power distribution units (PDUs) for the data center, and standard 120V power outlets (like the kind you would find in Home Depot). Why spend the extra money? They both supply power directly to the cabinet, right? In short, yes—they do. The products, however, are in separate classes in terms of what they are capable of providing. Think of it this way: A power outlet is to a power distribution unit like a flip phone is to a smartphone; the former is very basic, while the latter is much more powerful and complex.

At Server Technology, we understand that power needs vary from customer to customer. Some data centers require all-in-one power solutions complete with all the available bells and whistles, while others have more basic needs. But one thing that doesn’t vary is the desire for a best-in-class high quality power product. Another thing that’s for certain is that Server Technology’s award-winning power solutions provide just that.

The best way to stay under (or even close) to an energy budget in the data center is to invest in a reliable data center power management solution. In our recent whitepaper, “Bottom-Up Data Center Power Management,” we detail one of the main ways to achieve these goals: the use of rack PDUs with outlet switching and outlet-level power measurement capabilities. The paper delves into the following topics: Managing IT Devices: IT devices housed in the data center must be managed not only for what they’re doing during operation, but also for their lifecycle from deployment through retirement and everything in between. Lock-out and Deployment: The three big questions of “where” relate to power, cooling and space required to support new devices in the data center. We’ll show you why the method of installing equipment simply where it fits isn’t an optimal approach, and why the locking out of outlets is a better way to go. Tracking: More easily manage deployments by configuring the basic characteristics of each piece of equipment. Managing Growth: Why it’s no longer valid to only think about growth in terms of the overall data center size or total number of data centers. Density: Learn about the extent to which the particular equipment in each rack plays a major role in the overall density of power usage in the data center. Capacity Planning: See how to set a threshold limit for capacity to allow for an alert, which results in an actual prediction for when a cabinet will run out of power or exceed a temperature threshold. Managing Efficiency: Learn about maintaining the balance between “going green” and “saving some green” in your wallet.

Pardon the cliché, but knowledge really is power, especially when you’re dealing with actual power in a data center. Take, for instance, the knowledge of how much power your cabinets need and how much power is available, or knowing the IT load. With that information in hand, you can solve a number of data center problems.

As a data center operator, you need to be able to predict the future. Your business is growing, and it’s relying on its data center more than ever.