Sponsored: Data Center Power Best Practices - Designing for Resiliency & Redundancy

The data center industry has seen significant growth over the past few years as more organizations are now working with data center providers to make their businesses more agile. This translates to greater requirements around uptime, resiliency, and cost efficiency.

According to the latest AFCOM State of the Data Center report, 70% of respondents indicated that power density (per rack) has increased over the past 3 years. Twenty six percent indicated that this increase was significant.

Because of the critical dependence on data center services, redundancy and uptime are big concerns. There are fairly steady trends around redundant power levels spanning today and the next three years. For example, the report shows that at least 55% already have, and will continue to have, N+1 redundancy levels. Similarly, no more than 5% of respondents either currently have, or will have, 2(N+1) redundant power systems. For the most part, data center managers are using at least 1 level of redundancy for power.

However, not everyone is as prepared for an outage as they probably should be. Consider this - only 27% of companies received a passing grade for disaster readiness, according to a 2014 survey by the Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council. At the same time, increased dependence on the data center and providers means that overall outages and downtime are growing costlier over time. Ponemon Institute has released the results of the latest Cost of Data Center Outages study. Previously published in 2010 and 2013, the purpose of this third study is to continue to analyze the cost impact of unplanned data center outages. According to the new study, the average cost of a data center outage has steadily increased from $505,502 in 2010 to $740,357 today (or a 38 percent net increase) per incident.

Throughout their research of 63 data center environments, the study found that:

When it comes to your own data center environment – what are you doing to design your IT ecosystem to ensure resiliency and uptime? Most of all, how do you make sure that you're not hit with a massive outage price tag?

The good news is that there are powerful data center systems which take uptime directly into consideration. And, this technology has already been deployed. With tens of thousands of High-Density Outlet Technology (HDOT) PDUs already installed, Server Technology has now completed its popular and innovative product with the addition of the HDOT Switched POPS (Per Outlet Power Sensing) PDU. This technology includes device level power monitoring, and is the most uniquely valuable rack PDU on the market aiming to tackle challenges around density, capacity planning, uptime, and remote power management for the modern data center.

Click here to see the Rack PDU Feature Options that Server Tech offers.

The HDOT Alt-Phase PRO2 rack PDU expands on Server Technology’s modular PDU design allowing custom user configuration. With thousands of configurations possible, the customer is sure to find exactly the right product for their application.

“Integrating power measurement to our HDOT Alt Phase modular product family was a significant engineering challenging which I’m proud to say we accomplished without sacrificing quality or manufacturability,” said Travis Irons, Director of Engineering at Server Technology.

When it comes to uptime – the new HDOT PDU takes this directly into consideration:

Remember, greater levels of uptime must revolve around technologies which help make the data center easier to manage. To simplify load balancing and cable management, Server Technology offers PDUs with Alternating Phase outlets, which distribute phases on a per receptacle basis (rather than in discrete separate banks), providing tangible benefits in the form of shorter cable runs, resulting in better airflow, easier load balancing, and greater efficiencies. Prior to the advent of HDOT, Alternating Phase products were impractical to build due to the low outlet density inherent with discrete commercially available outlets.

Power management within the data center is absolutely critical. New PDU solutions from Server Technology expand upon their already innovative power products on the market. These new power management systems can help resolve major data center challenges revolving around density, capacity planning and uptime. Ultimately, easier to manage data centers with greater levels of uptime help keep both your IT environment and your business a lot more resilient. Most of all, with downtime costing more every year, Server Technology PDUs aim to tackle uptime concerns by integrating redundancy and better management; all helping cut down costs and outages.

This article was sponsored by Server Technology.