2011 certainly marked a high note for data center power distribution company Server Technology (News - Alert), particularly as the company introduced almost 300 new products into the rack mount power distribution unit space, bringing its overall offering to over 2,000 products.
“That’s unprecedented in our industry,” Julie Brown, marketing manager for Server Technology, told TMCnet. “Our customers have continued to ask us for unique, custom solutions and we’re able to deliver because of our Server Tech Quality Power Architecture which allows us to quickly develop situation-specific devices with the same quality, reliability and production processes found in all of our products.”
For more than two decades, Server Technology has been equipping some of the largest companies in the world with power management solutions. Server Technology is a global leader in power distribution products and power monitoring software and it designs, engineers and build innovative solutions for two primary markets with common technology – data centers and telecommunications.
2011 was a banner year for Server Technology, rife with hundreds of product releases including the introduction of the Smart POPS (per outlet power sensing) and PIPS (per inlet power sensing) features.
“POPS is for data center managers who need individual device level power measurements with secure outlet power that is always on,” Brown said. “PIPS gives data center managers the most accurate and granular rack power information available.”
Server Technology also unveiled the Sentry Power Manager (SPM) 5.0, a significant upgrade to its power measuring and management solution. SPM 5.0, touted as an “unbelievable solution“ for rack-level data center power management, provides significant innovations. This single pane of glass view has the ability to manage an entire CDU network while providing measurement, monitoring and trending data at the rack level or device level, according to company officials.
With so many new innovations, what does the data center power distribution company hope the industry took away from Server Technology this year?
“We continue to hear from our customers that they trust our PDUs for unmatched quality, reliability and performance – and that’s why they continue to buy from us,” Brown said. “Our customers also tell us that they rely on us for true power expertise, and rely on the advice and guidance of our team of engineers to help them with power decisions. We hope that those messages continue to spread to new customers.”
“We’re still the same size, but we’ve become a lot more efficient and agile in our design build processes and also in our speed to market,” she added.
As the industry continues to evolve, Server Technology shed some light on its predictions for 2012 with regards to the data center power market. One of the main trends the company predicts is that power densities will continue to increase with more demand for high density products such as 3-Phase products with higher current ratings.
Moreover, due to the unstable economy and the fact that many companies do not wish to invest in new data center facilities, the demand for colocation space will continue to burgeon rapidly.
What’s another prediction?
“Servers, servers, servers,” Calvin Nicholson, senior director of software and firmware for Server Technology, told TMCnet. “In many cases the demand for high density/high power server solutions like blades servers is reverting back to a large number of smaller ‘pizza box’ servers that are low profile (1U) and lower power draw-just more of them. And PDU products with higher outlet count to match.”
“This year will either make or break the container ‘data center in a box’ providers,” he added. “With 35 or so companies in the market there is only so much business to go around.”
Another trend Server Technology anticipates seeing is the push for green, in particular more efficient facilities. More companies will begin looking at the “tried and true 400/415V infrastructure (that most of the world is already using),” according to Nicholson. In addition, some organizations will begin examining whether they should implement 277/480 V solutions.
With the data center power industry on the brink of major change, how is Server Technology prepared to meet 2012 with fists flying? With “more and more innovative products,” according to Brown.
“We’re committed to providing leading edge products and solutions for data centers,” she said. “We continue to lead the industry in new data center power technology – 480/277V products, high-interrupt current protection, higher amp/higher power PDUs and new high power horizontal units for taller racks.”