ServerTech Blog - Information for the Data Center Equipment Manager

The cloud is definitely in it for the long haul.

I just caught this article in the LA Times by David Sarno comparing cloud storage for the public. It is certainly good for our line of business to see this being pushed more and more into the public's perception. With the ability to move all books, music, movies etc to a "safe" place independent of computer hardware and the ability to then access that data from various devices, how can one not see exponential cloud growth for years to come. 

Personnally, I looking forward to being able to talk to my car and get access to my cloud music. Chris Woodyard with USA Today has a nice article.

Video Interview: Calvin Nicholson talks about what's new for data center power

 

Calvin Nicholson, Director of New Technologies, at Server Technology talks about data center power with Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC, at Interop 2011. 

Topics discussed in this video:

How Server Technology is powering the 2011 Interop NOC.

How often power is exceeded on a server.

Specific example of how Server Technology has helped companies with powering their devices.

Maximizing circuits

Wire-Free Power monitoring with RF Code

Higher-Densities (480V 3-Phase)

A new version of Sentry Power Manager (5.0) COMING SOON

What problems are data centers experiencing today?

Hot spots in the data center

Capacity on circuits

 

Just Curious - Can hackers ever be reliably thwarted?

It seems that every time I turn around, there is another reported major breach of network security somewhere exposing sensitive information of millions of people. With the recent problems bringing down the Playstation Network and exposing credit card information (which is claimed to be encrypted), I am reminded of the numerous times I have received notice from my bank or creditors that this or that retail store or online company has reported exposure.

This makes me wonder if these companies have hackers on staff to test their vulnerabilities? Just curious...

"The biggest mistake you can make is to assume that a PDU is a PDU."

While out searching the web, I happened to stumble upon a great article by Dennis Cronin over at Mission Critical.  Click here for the article.  This article states very clearly the necessary planning that should go into selecting a PDU (power distribution unit) for your data center rack. 

Bob Von Stein of Revco Inc. has a great quote, "The biggest mistake you can make is to assume that a PDU is a PDU."  This is something that we at Server Tech hear a lot.  We continuously hear from data center professionals that they didn't do enough research when shopping for PDUs and ended up settling for a lower quality device that they aren't happy with.  Von Stein goes on, "Any manufacturer worth anything should be able to provide you with an evaluation unit. Set it up and test it out. In most cases, it will do what the manufacturer says it will do. But, the next step is to physically take it apart! A top quality manufacturer shouldn’t care and should even encourage you to do so! Look at the internal construction and compare each of the brands you are considering. In many cases, you will see a difference."  Server Technology has a free evaluation program where we encourage clients to test out the products and see how they like them.  Test them against other manufacturers.  We are very confident in our engineering team's design and we are sure you will be too.  Although, don't take your eval unit apart.  We are more than happy to show you the insides of a unit without destroying one.  Just ask!  We've seen the rats' nest of wires on some of our competitors PDUs, and we are proud of our clean, efficient, patented engineering designs and are more than happy to show our customers. 

Another source quoted in this article is Charles Hobart from a Seattle consulting firm.  He tested our products and some of our competitors products a year or two ago. He states, "Some of the strips were over 18 percent in error per socket so if you depended on the readings to add another server that rack may go down...On the other hand, one strip was accurate to the Fluke within 1.5 percent."  We're excited to say that 1.5 percent was a Server Technology PDU.  View his full report here.  

Check out the article.  It's a great read and really emphasizes the importance of bringing in a power expert early on.

Get Connected: Participation in The Green Grid

 

Server Technology is a proud member of The Green Grid.  Our products and practices improve data center power efficiency and business computing around the world.  In this video, learn more about the Green Grid, and hear from Calvin Nicholson, the Server Technology Sr. Director for Software and Alliances.  For more on green data center power monitoring, check out this solution: http://www.servertech.com/solutions/device-level-measurement  

Server Technology is now on Twitter

Server Technology has added Twitter as a means to communicate with our customers.

Out twitter page is http://twitter.com/ServerTechInc. 

We will be tweating daily about the latest products, upcoming trade shows, industry news and providing links to important articles.

We hope you'll follow our daily tweats!