PDUs in the Enterprise: How Data Centers and IT Managers Can Benefit From Them.
Here are comments gleaned from an interview with Mark Harris, Racktivity’s Vice President of Marketing:
PDUs are required for every rack to deliver multiple outlet power ports. Every Rack in a data center must have PDU devices. The number of outlets is based on the number of servers and switches and similar devices installed in each rack. Typically this is 16-24 devices, so the most common PDU sizing is 24 outlet ports. The topic of interest recently regarding these power distribution devices is the level of intelligence required for each given customer. Some customers treat these as mechanical devices only, others expect these power devices to establish monitoring and control points at the device level. With the industry in turmoil due to the increasing cost for energy, the majority of data center operators are looking for a much more intelligent power distribution device, with deeper insight into exactly how and where energy is being used. The higher the intelligence of a rack level PDU, the more granular a data center operator can be when analyzing their overall costs, and establishing their unique optimization initiatives. All operators are looking for ways to trim costs. Energy is a huge portion of their total costs, perhaps 40 percent or more today. The opportunity to trim energy costs requires a deep understanding about current usage and trends, at a very granular level.
Since energy in the data center consumes at least 40 percent of the overall data center costs, everything that provides an opportunity to actively manage these costs should be prioritized at the TOP of the list. Power costs will continue to rise, and anyone not actively looking for visibility and control of power is missing their opportunity and negatively impacting their future.
Some of the biggest challenges for data center and IT managers when it comes to PDUs?
There are so many choices and price ranges. For years these were treated as commodity insignificant devices, so the culture to look for advanced rack-based PDUs has not existed for very long. There are tremendous choices for highly intelligent PDUs, and these come with higher costs than their much less capable siblings, but the higher cost devices are the only way to obtain a granular working knowledge of energy consumption in the data center. Highly intelligent PDUs are available today that combine quality and intelligence at relatively low prices when considering the total cost of a rack and it’s included active devices. The bottom line is that full racks may have a total cost for all components exceeding $100,000 or more, and the difference between a poorly made PDU device and a highly quality, highly intelligent PDU device will be less than $1,000. Why risk power issues and limit power visibility to save what amounts to 1 percent or less?
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