Server Technology (News - Alert), a global leader in power distribution products and data center power monitoring software, is spreading the word about its latest technology, Per Inlet Power Sensing (PIPS) – the best infeed power measurement technology on the market for data center rack-level power monitoring, according to company officials.
“There are several different places where you can manage power in a data center – you can measure it at the UPS or the remote power panel (RPP),” Andy Szeto, product manager for Server Technology, told TMCnet in a recent interview. “Those measurements are farther away from the actual loads so to get more accurate information at the rack level, the benefit of using PIPS is that you are the next closest device to the server.”
“You have a more accurate measurement at the rack level than if you were to measure it further upstream in the power delivery system,” he added.
While PIPS has been around since the end of last year, the data center power monitoring company is promoting its new PIPS technology more aggressivley and is planning on aligning PIPS with some of its newest products in the upcoming months.
The feature replaces power monitoring at the RPP in data centers while boasting greater accuracy and lower cost monitoring of each power circuit attached to a cabinet power distribution unit (CDU). PIPS replaces the already accurate Digital True RMS feature currently available on intelligent Smart, Switched and POPS CDUs by bringing more types of power measurements from the power infeed to the built in graphic user interface (GUI), according to company officials.
The main advantage for customers, however, is that it can measure seven different parameters in terms of power. When PIPS is deployed in tandem with Server Technology’s Sentry Power Manager (SPM), the company can provide an input power measurement for the different standards such as PUE and DCiE measurements.
“We are able to accumulate and sum up power and give those power parameters specifically at the rack level,” Szeto said. “And, if you use it with a data center infrastructure manager, such as SPM, you can now look from a holistic view at a rack level and take PDUs that run in to the cabinet and look at the power that the whole cabinet is consuming.”
“From a data center managers’ perspective, they can now see the power that’s actually available at the rack level and they can manage it a little bit better by using the SPM,” he added. “They are also able to see what is going on at each individual rack and they can identify available capacity – what power is left in the rack that can be used by other devices.”
“It’s the absolute positive most granular level that a data center manager can get,” Julie Brown, marketing manager at Server Technology, added. “The more data center managers can know and the more they can stuff into those racks, the more economical it is for them.”
In addition to measuring data center power, PIPS technology, when used along with Server Technology’s switch product lines, allows data center managers to monitor environmental conditions as well such as temperature and humidity.
PIPS technology also has an impressive track record with its accurate readings. According to clients who have used the technology, the measurements are 6 to 15 percent more accurate when measuring with the PIPS feature than at the RPP. Moreover, Server Technology designed PIPS technology to be used in conjunction with SPM to be able to provide plus or minus 1 percent accuracy on the current and voltage and plus or minus 2 percent in terms of the power information.
Companies from financial institutions to large data centers to those in the healthcare industry can benefit from this new data center power monitoring technology, according to company officials.
Server Technology also wants to remind its customers that its newest technology offers all these features at a lower cost as well.
“At the rack level, you are typically purchasing an intelligent device anyway, so if you are managing and monitoring power at the rack level you also have to purchase a cabinet level power distribution unit,” Szeto said. “With the PIPS technology, the incremental cost is very insignificant relative to refitting a RPP with the capability of measuring the same parameters. When you are purchasing a rack level PDU the incremental differences with the PIPS technology is that you are getting the same technology at the rack level without a huge upfront cost.”