Look what Schneider Electric and Microsoft have cooked up to energize large data centers

by Brianna Crandall — April 10, 2017 — Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management and automation, recently announced it has partnered with technology giant Microsoft on the design of a Universal Rack Power Distribution Unit (UPDU), introduced at the Open Compute Project (OCP) U.S. Summit 2017 in Santa Clara, California.

The co-engineered solution offers a single UPDU to simplify rack power system procurement, inventory management and deployment processes for data center operators managing large, hyperscale and colocation data centers.

The UPDU’s flexible input connector allows data center operators to use a single power distribution unit across their rack system architecture, which eliminates the need to employ an array of remote power distribution units (rPDUs) with differing densities and geographies.

The UPDU also supports a wide range of input power ratings including: 16A 3Ph 400V, 30A 3Ph 208V, 32A 3Ph 400V, 50A 3Ph 208V.

Schneider Electric Director of Data Center Standards Robert Bunger stated:

Working closely with Microsoft and within the open source community has enabled Schneider Electric to deliver a truly innovative solution that overcomes real issues seen in large-scale global deployments. The Universal PDU will enable our partners and data center operators to deploy rack scale capacity anywhere in the globe at speeds not seen before, while minimizing project risks.

Last year, Schneider Electric unveiled a new portfolio of products and resources aimed at enabling data center managers to make more informed decisions around open compute data centers and make implementation easier. The solution was also on display at the OCP Summit.

For more information on Schneider Electric’s open source solutions and resource tools, visit the company’s OCP Tools and Resources Web page.