Server Technology (News - Alert), a provider of quality rackmount power distribution and monitoring solutions that help manage power capacity, reduce downtime and improve energy efficiency, offers a variety of PDU products. Its basic PDUs provide reliable power distribution for all of the devices in the equipment cabinet, from 2kW-6kW per cabinet. Its metered PDUs have local LED input current monitoring and allow network engineers to utilize the PDUs’ True RMS Power Monitor to precisely measure the current (in amps) that network devices are drawing on the power circuit.
In the third of a series that explores the PDUs Server Technology offers, we’ll take a look at its smart PDUs.
A smart PDU is basically a metered PDU that is IP-addressable. Because of that Ethernet connectivity, smart PDUs become the true workhorse in your data center as you can control them through a network interface. Server Technology offers more than 400 smart PDUs.
With smart PDUs, you can monitor your power, temperature and humidity levels through any Web browser, and you can get SNMP (simple network management protocol) alerts or e-mail alerts when any of those things – power, temperature or humidity – exceed thresholds that you have pre-assigned. So, you get the reliable power distribution that you need combined with remote power and environmental monitoring.
Any data center manager today would benefit from using a smart PDU. They provide the intelligence that a data center manager needs to efficiently run his/her data center. They need to know the power, temperature and humidity on every rack in the data center. And the e-mail alerts (or SNMP alerts) give them the peace of mind that they’ll know if something goes wrong.
Server Tech also offers a patented line of Smart PDUs that feature Per Outlet Power Sensing (POPS). These Smart PDUs add a per outlet power sensing feature to its PDUs. The POPS feature provides the most granular and accurate power consumption information.
“As we’ve talked about in this series, a rack mountable PDU mounts directly in a cabinet or rack so that it can control and monitor power to specific servers, switches and other data center devices, and assist in balancing power and loads,” said Julie Brown, marketing manager, Server Technology.
Its basic PDUs are simply incredibly reliable power strips. The metered PDUs add the LED display and the visual representation of the power being used. The smart PDUs, since they are IP addressable, add the all important component of network connectivity, so that they can be managed remotely and easily through a Web browser.
“Server Technology prides itself on being able to offer the world’s most reliable power distribution,” Brown said. “Our 100 percent Performance Tested PDUs provide the quality, durability, performance and reliability that you won’t see with any other PDU manufacturer. And our units have been independently tested by UL and reported to be the most accurate PDUs available today.”
Server Tech’s smart PDUs are also Cisco (News - Alert) EnergyWise certified and interoperable with Cisco’s EnergyWise client technology. Its PDUs are the first PDUs to pass Interoperability Verification Testing (IVT), Cisco’s process to ensure compatibility with Cisco technology.
Before starting the buying process, you should ask yourself the following questions:
- How many outlets do you need? What type? Will you have enough outlets for future growth?
- What type of input power do you need? Is that enough to provide redundancy?
- Are you interested in monitoring or controlling your data center power? Are environmental monitors important to your situation?
- What type of PDU mounting are you looking for? Vertical? Horizontal?
To learn more about ServerTech, visit www.servertech.com and stay tuned to the data center power channel for the next in the PDU series.
Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.
Edited by Brooke Neuman