How can a smart PDU differ from its basic counterpart?

Answer 1

Understanding a power distribution unit

Datacenter and its power distribution units have gained prominence due to the increasing dependence of the IT industry on data generation and its management. The entire operation of the IT infrastructure is dependent upon power distribution units (PDU) to disseminate power to the servers and business-critical equipment within the IT infrastructure facility. It has multiple outlets that connect with the networking equipment as well as storage devices within the rack. So, PDUs play an important role in distributing the power through multiple outlets to ensure consistent, reliable, and adequate power supply throughout the servers and networking equipment to ensure business continuity.

Choose your PDU wisely!

Now that the importance and reliability of PDUs are understood within the IT ecosystem, it is relevant to analyze the difference between a basic and intelligent PDU. This will help one to choose the PDU appropriate for the business to gain long-term value.

Basic vs. Intelligent PDU

A basic PDU is a standard and dependable power supplying unit. It distributes power from the UPS system, generator, or utility wall outlet to equipment racks within the Cabinets. It is a convenient and cost-efficient solution that complements the benefits and features of a UPS system by converting a single high-amperage UPS outlet to multiple low-amperage outlets. Hence PDU can be considered as the easiest and most efficient way of distributing power to multiple rack loads when the requirement is basic and clearly demarcated. However, perfect a basic PDU may appear it cannot handle the challenges a data center faces such as:

• Managing energy consumption judiciously
• Monitoring and managing environment
• Ensuring physical security
• Accommodating demand-based computing capacity
• Monitoring and managing assets to prevent replacement of misplaced assets
• Understanding and managing the electrical power capacity to reduce downtime

Now, compared to the basic PDUs, the smart or intelligent PDUs cater to specific IT infrastructure with complex requirements. It meets the need of modern data centers to make optimal use of power, space, and cooling. It can monitor circuit breakers that enable users to locate where the trip occurred to reset it. It is an advanced version of the standard PDU that hosts a wide range of features and has the capability to address all the challenges that a data center faces in a cost-efficient manner. Hence it is more operationally efficient, reliable, and environmentally sound for data centers with critical operational workflow.

Intelligent PDUs can be categorized into the following types.

• Metered PDU
• Switched PDU
• Switched PDU with Outlet Metering

Why does Netrack trust intelligent PDU?

Netrack offers intelligent power distribution units solutions to IT enterprises to improve utilization of power resources along with equipment uptime and capacity planning decision. The focus here is to save power, ensure business continuity, save money, and becoming a green data center. The SNMP alerts and user authentication through LDAP, MSAD, CCSG play a crucial role in it. Let us now consider the advantages of intelligent PDUs that gained trust.

• It provides metering at both inlet and outlet that enables a data center to monitor the circuit breakers and reduce the risk of tripping.
• It also helps to locate the specific area to reset the trip in minimal time.
• It collects real-time data on power and energy consumption to help a data center initiate sustainability.
• This real-time data helps to stay informed with reports and alerts.
• It has environmental monitoring sensors that empower a data center to use its cooling resources appropriately.
• It offers door lock systems that restrict access to individuals without authorized network access.
• It can alert data centers of any leak or environmental hazards.
• It supports computing capacity through intelligent distribution of voltage.
• It boosts data center uptime and staff productivity through remote management capabilities.
• It provides software-based automated, accurate, and reliable asset management.

Make a difference with intelligent PDU!

Ensure your business continuity with optimized power and cooling management through iPDUs while reducing both energy consumption and cost. Hence, boost your data center performance, capacity planning, and increase the uptime of business-critical equipment.