by Shane Henson — November 11, 2013—Raritan, a provider of data center infrastructure management (DCIM) and rack power distribution solutions, recently introduced new versions of its three-phase intelligent rack power distribution units (iPDUs) to support data center equipment with multiple power supplies, such as blade and 1U servers, large network switches and routers, and storage devices.
The circuits on the V2 models of Raritan’s three-phase PX iPDU are uniquely laid out so each of the three circuits is both on the top and bottom half of the PDU—providing data center professionals more flexibility to plug in their high-density devices and streamline cabling in equipment racks.
In contrast, balancing the electricity load across all three circuits using a traditional three-phase PDU requires some power cords from devices high in the rack to be plugged into outlets at the bottom of the PDU, and devices at the bottom of the rack to be plugged into outlets at the top of the PDU, making for messy wiring, says Raritan.
Raritan’s three-phase iPDUs builds on its extensive iPDU portfolio, which includes single-phase, three-phase, high power (400V), outlet-metered, outlet-switched, and unswitched rack PDUs and inline power meters to meet the needs of diverse IT environments.
The intelligence built into Raritan iPDUs provides real-time, outlet-level monitoring of data center energy and loads, as well as monitoring of environmental conditions when using optional plug-and-play sensors. Raritan iPDUs are available with Ethernet, and Wi-Fi networking may be added. Raritan iPDUs also are available in 10 vibrant colors; data center professionals use color PDUs and cables to save time in identifying and locating power distribution pathways and to differentiate between multiple PDUs in a rack.
According to the company, all of its iPDUs are fully supported by Raritan’s Power IQ energy management software, which provides additional monitoring and management capabilities to show which devices are consuming the most energy, whether power conservation efforts are working, and if there are hot spots or over-cooled areas. Enterprise-wide data gathered by Raritan’s intelligent PDUs, third-party rack PDUs, and in-line meters enable Power IQ’s analytics to calculate and chart active power, energy consumption, cost and carbon footprint for servers and other IT devices, Raritan adds.
