To enable more accurate IT equipment performance in the data center, Power Assure, Inc. (www.powerassure.com) has integrated its PAR4 power measurement software with Universal Electric's StarLine plug-in raceway and data center power monitoring meters.
The companies say the combined system forms an integrated test environment to measure actual idle and peak power consumption of individual IT equipment and IT racks in data centers, leveraging standardized and patented measurement procedures for accurate, reliable and repeatable results. Integrated with various inventory systems, these measurements can be used to place equipment to the right rack and location in a data center without risk of overloading circuits, while maximizing the amount of equipment placed into each rack, for improvements of over 30% in IT capacity for a given data center, claims the companies.
“Power Assure combined the StarLine plug-in raceway and meter with its own power measurement software to make it easy for data center operators to measure idle and peak power of IT equipment and racks at the time such equipment arrives at the data center,” says Clemens Pfeiffer, CTO, Power Assure.
Related: Voltage performance monitor sniffs out data center, critical IT equipment failures
Pfeiffer adds, “Our mutual customers will benefit from being able to accurately place equipment in the data center by leveraging the plug-in raceway. We can now offer a solution that can be self-adopted to any circuit type from single phase 120V to 3-Phase dual power circuits with various connectors to servers and racks that can be easily changed without the need for electricians.”
The companies contend that, when selecting a new generation of server to provision, IT typically uses performance indicators based on processing capacity expressed in transactions per second. However, the energy consumption can differ significantly between equipment with similar performance characteristics and capabilities. Additionally, comparing performance and energy efficiencies between different generations of IT equipment can generate a very appealing ROI for early hardware refresh cycles.
Many data centers operate with standard rack configurations. In these cases, racks are pre-configured and populated with a standard set of servers and other devices to a standard “total rack” design. Therefore data center operators are interested in establishing the power consumption profile of the entire rack. Power Assure notes that its mobile PAR4 measurement system and the PAR4 software have been designed to allow for either a single machine or, by using a double set of parts of the equipment, an entire rack to be PAR4 tested.
Mark Swift, marketing/business development manager for Universal Electric Corporation comments, "This is a great use of both products to deliver an innovative solution for end users. Having the ability to benchmark your IT gear to better understand your power usage is critical in today's data center environment, and this tool provides the means to accomplish this necessary task."
See also: Web seminar addresses data center power and cooling efficiency