Intelligent Data Centres Issue 25 | Page 70

Ensuring uptime is a critical objective for data centre managers . Technology is helping to ease the load by providing intelligent insights into power usage .
Calvin Nicholson , Senior Director of Product Management at Legrand DPC ( Data , Power and Control Division ), which includes the Server Technology brand , tells Intelligent Data Centres ’ Jess Phillips about the key benefits of the company ’ s PRO3X PDU and how it is helping infrastructure teams to future-proof their devices .
Jess Phillips

hHow important is continued uptime for data centres and what are some of the factors that influence uptime ?

Uptime is critical and there are a number of things that influence it . Most of our customers use two PDUs , an A and a B feed that can be from two separate grids or one grid and a UPS , for example .
You ideally want to load each side to 40 % so that if you get a failure and one PDU is picking up the whole cabinet ’ s load , you ’ re running roughly 80 % of the load .
Organisations aren ’ t permitted to run continuously at above 80 , so it ’ s really as simple as knowing the overall kW , distributing that load evenly , ensuring the cabinet is powered and plugged in properly during installation and then making sure that power is distributed over both of the PDUs within the cabinet .
Product name : PRO3X PDU
How far does real time monitoring reduce the risk of downtime and what tools can data centre managers use to assist with this ?
Real time monitoring can refer to power , but it can also be environmental – we know there ’ s a focus today on saving money , and saving money is saving power . That can be within the cabinet and it can also be within your cooling infrastructure .
For example , we have several customers that are running at higher temperatures . The advantage of that is you don ’ t have to provide as much cooling , so you save power , but if you have

Creating a power strategy to ensure uptime and avoid unexpected outages

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