Yellowbook, a company that manages digital, mobile and print tools to allow its clients to concentrate on marketing their businesses, wanted to be sure things went smoothly when opening a new data center and knew it needed to contact Server Technology (News - Alert), given the firm’s track record in power distribution products and data center power monitoring software.
Yellowbook has been helping smaller businesses for eight decades by bringing in state-of-the-art technology and devices as they became available. But as the company was opening a new data center in Philadelphia they were very concerned about change management, according to company officials.
Yellowbook wanted changes to the data center to be undertaken “in a controlled manner to prevent overloaded circuits and downtime,” the company said in a customer case study.
The company also wanted outlet control, redundancy and to ensure that it could see and manage devices from a central location.Specifically, Yellowbook wanted outlet control to avoid “unwanted installation of equipment by unauthorized employees.”
Yellowbook faced problems in the past when new devices were added to server racks without the “proper notification.” It had led to downtime, overloaded circuits, and unsupported devices after they were set up, the company said.
Wanting to avoid similar issues, Yellowbook told Server Technology about the challenges. Guided by a Server Technology regional sales manager, the team found the right solutions.
Using the Server Tech Switched Cabinet Power Distribution Unit (CDU), each outlet can be turned on and off or it can be rebooted through a network interface. Yellowbook selected the CW-24VD-L30M model, which is a vertical, 30Amp, 3-Phase, 208V Delta CDU with (24) IEC (News - Alert) C13 outlets.
By using switched CDUs, outlet control was given to administrators. Switched CDUs offer branch circuit power monitoring through LED and network interface. In addition, users can set e-mail and SNMP traps and alarms using “defined power and environmental thresholds.”
A second specific request from Yellowbook was related to redundancy. Expansion units were installed adjacent to the master CDU. They supported the dual power supplies of the installed devices. A single IP address supported both CDUs and two probes.
“If a power in-feed was lost the remaining in-feed could support the entire load ensuring redundancy,” the company said.
And the third specific requirement was to have a management system that would let Yellowbook monitor and control the CDUs located in the data center in a seamless manner. Server Technology’s Sentry Power Manager (SPM) was chosen. The data center power monitoring product offers information on alarm conditions, status, current load, temperature, humidity and capacity, the company said.
In other data center power news, Server Technology’s SPM, a one-stop shop for combating data center challenges such as improved uptime, increased power costs, lower power availability and higher density cabinets, has been generating attention.
SPM, a 1U appliance and software package capable of monitoring and managing multiple Sentry CDU devices in IP-based enterprise networks, brings the entire network of smart and switched CDUs to a central interface, according to Server Technology officials.
Ed Silverstein is a TMCnet contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by Carrie Schmelkin