Rack PDU Blog

Most everyone in the IT field today is aware of the availability of public cloud infrastructure from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM/Softlayer, and others. Public cloud services are the most rapidly growing segment of IT according to Gartner and other industry analysts. The benefits of adopting public cloud are numerous, such as scalability, flexibility, and the ability to operate without capital expenditures. In many cases, relying on public cloud can be greener than a custom built datacenter.

While both “cloud” and “cloud-first” are the new go to IT solutions for many companies, there remain a large number of situations where a complete outsourcing of your hardware infrastructure is not practical. In that circumstance, colocation of your IT should make the short list for consideration, whether it is driven by the needs for expansion, proximity, or interconnect. Colocation offers the advantages of highly efficient buildings, support for multiple locations, and access to some of the best interconnections available in the industry.

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.

Server Technology offers Per Outlet Power Sensing (POPS) technology for switched and smart power distribution units (PDUs). POPS-enabled PDUs enable per-outlet measurements of voltage, power (kW), current, crest factor, power factor and apparent power. It's available in Server Technology's Smart and Switched PDUs.

Demands on data centers are growing with each passing day. When you add in the soaring cost of real estate, the result is that data centers are getting creative and adapting to create higher rack densities for future planning. To drive this point home, one only needs to look at power consumption over the past three years, particularly in emerging markets. This gives a better sense of power densities and capacity planning as it relates to the global growth of data centers.

An increasingly common conversation within the data center industry revolves around the need for flexibility balanced against the desire to save money. It’s getting harder to make the case that your enterprise needs more land for capacity expansion. At the same time, 27 percent of data center costs are for power, according to a DCD report in 2014. As you can imagine, the result has been a drive for proportionally higher server and power densities across the globe.

Google recently learned the hard way about what can happen when Mother Nature strikes near your data center. Their facility was impacted when a series of four lighting strikes hit the power grid which connects to its Belgium-based data center. The strike caused the building to experience unexpected power loss, thus causing its backup power supply to kick in.

Last week, we talked about six of the key features of our PRO2 PDUs, which sport the latest in innovative design from Server Technology. This week, we’ll explore six more ways the PRO2 serves as the PDU built to not only meet customers’ needs today, but to ensure flexibility for the future.

Not long ago, we introduced you to our PRO2 line of PDUs, giving you an overview of this powerful new tool that’s packed with features designed for a new generation of data centers. This week, we’re kicking off the first of a two-part series that looks closely at the PRO2’s features and what they mean to data center operators. A great starting point for this discussion is our video, “Introducing PRO2,” which features commentary from Calvin Nicholson, Server Technology’s Senior Director of Software and Firmware Development. In the video, Calvin deftly lays out the argument for including PRO2 PDUs in your next data center upgrade.

When President Harry S. Truman coined the phrase, “If you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen,” in 1942, he was referring to critics of his aggressive use of war contracts in the Second World War. Good advice for politics, perhaps, but not so much for data center management. In fact, when the heat becomes an issue in your data center, it’s time to do something about it. Each kW hour of server power creates an equivalent amount of heat. Over time, this heat can accumulate, impacting server performance. You can monitor this within the cabinet, zone, and location levels. While servers have been adapted to withstand higher temperatures, computing power is rising, and this is generating more heat. Add on top of this the growth of virtualized servers leading to fewer idling computers, and you have an endless cycle of heat generation.