ServerTech Blog - Information for the Data Center Equipment Manager

Uptime Symposium conducting survey on managing energy use.

This survey on managing energy use in an industry wide survey.

The survey is part of the Lean, Clean and Green IT symposium which will take place in New York from April 13th to the 16th.

Take the Uptime Symposium survey now to receive a free symposium exhibit pass.  

Visit the Uptime Symposium site for more information on the Lean, Clean and Green symposium including Registration.  Be sure to register by January 31st.

Air flow Simulation

Interesting plug today in the Data Center Journal email I received regarding an airflow and temperature simulation for the Data Center in order to maximize cooling and ventilation.

Find out more about FloVENT airflow and ventilation simulation software here.

DC versus AC power

This article from Info world addresses the conversions power loss when converting AC to DC power.
According to the article 50 to 70% of power is lost during the conversion from electricity utility pad to the server location.

Furthermore, the article speculates that converting to DC power may be the best option for some organizations who are unable to get additional power from local utility companies.  It also appears a good option to continue operating in current infrastructure while increasing capacity within the data center.

A good article for anyone analyzing their options for changes to their power infrastructure or maxing out on data center capacity.

Server Technology Whitepapers - Measuring Power and Efficiency

Our new Whitepaper coincides with the recent release of the Sentry Power Manager and upcoming POPS release.

With the rising costs of power and consumption the industry is desperate to address how to decrease costs and consumption.  The first step in providing power management and addressing consumption is understanding how much power is being consumed.

The Sentry Power Manager is capable of providing the Data Center Manager and Data Center department with the following capabilities:

• A central interface to access multiple network monitored sentry power distribution units.
• Global view of all Sentry devices and ability to view devices based on temperature, humidity, current and device status.
• Control all networked Sentry cabinet power distribution units.
• Control Sentry POPS (Per Outlet Power Sensing) Cabinet PDU on a per outlet basis.
• Power information including kW and kW-hour information for billing, power monitoring, trending and power reports.
• IT equipment power information can be used to measure the efficiency in your data center for PUE and DCIE, power efficiency ratings from the Green Grid.
• ODBC compliant database permits power and additional information to be exported to a Building Management System (BMS).
• Managing and monitoring alarm conditions.
• Power consumption for capacity planning.
• Maximize each power circuit by realizing current power being drawn.

To make better decisions, reduce power consumption and maximize each cabinet installation, more information is needed, per device, per application per cabinet, per groups of cabinets and per facility. The ability to monitor the current draw or power of an individual outlet within a Cabinet Power Distribution Unit as well as the voltage in-feed opens the door for significant opportunities to monitor and maximize efficiency, plan for future installations and determine the best location to allocate additional cooling resources.

Download the New Whitepaper Now.

Determining Factors for Going Green

A new article from TheDataCenterJournal.com gives some interesting prospective regarding the incentives for IT to make green decisions.

Claiming that budget constraints for power fall outside of IT.  Thus, support for purchasing such equipment requires obtaining support based on a larger company initiative.

The article also provides Six frequently cited recommendations for improving efficiency in the data center. 

The "Uptime Institute looks at data center energy efficiency by measuring the total energy load delivered to the data center versus what is actually consumed by critical IT loads".  This requires some sort of tracking and management of energy consumption.