Critical power management is vital within any server room environment. Power management becomes more complex within Server racks and the datacentre, due to multiple devices making such demands on the power supply. For this reason, it is usually no longer acceptable to use Power Distribution Units (PDUs) without some form of intelligent control and monitoring of the power delivery which is essential for managing multiple or remote sites from a central location. Choosing the best solution for your server room can have an enormous impact on overall power reliability, monitoring and control, thus contributing towards environmental, energy efficiency and management of the critical loads themselves.
Critical power management is vital within any server room environment; This is why intelligent PDU's (iPDU's) are always the preferred option over basic or even metered PDU's. They allow power monitoring and management down to the outlet socket level. The benefits of correctly specified and sized iPDU’s are immediate and critical to the power protection plan adding to the systems' resilience and energy efficiency and contributing to significantly lower ownership costs.
Features and Benefits
- iPDUs are IP networked devices with intelligent monitoring and control features using an integrated web browser and SNMP and DCIM software, giving precise monitoring and control of power delivery.
- Monitoring of energy usage is possible overall and down to individual sockets.
- Remote rebooting of individual sockets
- Remote on/off power control for individual sockets to disable unused sockets preventing accidental load connection or unauthorised power access.
- User-defined power boot and sequential start-up of sockets allow correct reboot order of server equipment.
- The iPDU can have sensors to give temperature, humidity and security monitoring for water leakage, smoke, fire and access control.
The iPDU’s monitored information will assist with:
- Planning of Capacity: Real and apparent power used within the server room facility can be measured in real-time.
- Device Installation: When a new server or other device is powered up remotely, its power draw is instantly apparent.
- Energy Efficiency: Ensuring efficient server utilisation by cutting standby energy usage.
- Security: Incorporation of alarm sensors to only allow authorised devices to be connected or disconnected, and to monitor other environmental factors, such as water, fire or unauthorised rack cabinet access.
- Prevent Cascade Failures: Circuit breaker thresholds can be set to help prevent a single device failure or short-circuit tripping the entire system.
- Breaker Failure: Monitoring PDU breakers allows a quick reset if a breaker trips.
- Temperature and Humidity Management: Temperature and Humidity sensors within racks can be integrated into the iPDU.
- Branch Monitoring: Ensures branch and phase load balancing for three-phase iPDU’s.
- Energy Usage Billing: Useful in Co-Location datacentres or shared server cabinets, to accurately bill clients
Internet of Things (IoT) & Industrial Internet of Things (IIot)
The Internet of Things (IoT) connects multiple billions of remote devices which can share data quickly and accurately. See:
Most companies (and many private households) are now dependent on the IoT. Organisations providing and relying on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIot) are processing vast amounts of data within their core server rooms and Cloud datacentres and in Edge computing applications. In 2020, over 50 billion IoT devices were connected and generating around 4.4 Zettabytes of data – for a definition of Zettabyte see:
Cisco predicted 2.2Z by 2020 in 2016 – so that has been double already and will only increase!
Datacentres have to operate 24/7 to provide services to clients and adapt to the challenge of this rapid expansion of IoT devices. Not only will the organisations have to adapt and expand their infrastructures to cope continually, but there will be an ever-increasing demand to collate, analyse and store the data centrally.
The IoT has expanded most organisations' network boundaries and will continue to add additional resilience and maintenance pressures. The Datacentre infrastructure will need the flexibility to maintain 24/7 uptime and allow for system upgrades and maintenance. High speed 5G mobile communications and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity will inevitably see many more devices connecting to the IoT, causing data streaming into and out of the core of the datacentre to rise exponentially. This rise increases the urgency to provide ultra-efficient local and remote power management, monitoring and control, within the datacentre.
In these more complex networks, remote power monitoring and control to thousands of devices is vital and will require the deployment of intelligent power management controlled via an Ethernet/IP connection on-site or off-site via a Cloud-portal. iPDU’s and power strips are an easy way to manage and control these devices.
Deploying iPDUs in an IoT network is a highly cost-effective solution, providing remote monitoring and control and reducing service costs and response times. Environmental monitoring of ambient factors such as temperature, humidity, water leakage, smoke and access, and connected sensors ensures maximum IoT uptime.
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