SOMERSET, N.J. -- To improve operational and energy efficiency in data centers, Raritan announced adding systems integration capabilities to its Power IQ data center energy management software and support for more data center equipment. Power IQ helps companies track and analyze energy usage down to the individual IT device level and implement energy-saving actions from a central power console.
Power IQ's new Web Services APIs -- Power Control API and Configuration Item API -- enable customers to integrate Power IQ with their existing enterprise systems, such as HP Asset Management, as well as build custom tools. A customer, for example, can write Web service scripts to automate power control to support their unique operational needs. "Power IQ enables customers to manage their data centers smarter," said James Cerwinski, Senior Product Manager in Raritan's Power Business Unit. "Now with the new Web Services APIs, we provide customers a way to implement their creative ideas to manage their enterprises' power."
At North Carolina-based WebAssign, for example, Power IQ is helping the company reduce costs and manage its data center with less resources. "Power IQ allows me to manage and forecast easily my power needs in the data center for optimal efficiency and uptime," said Matt Pusateri, Systems Administrator at WebAssign, the leading provider of online instructional tools for faculty and students. "I can look in one place to obtain energy usage reports and to do firmware upgrades of our Raritan intelligent rack PDUs -- rather than having to visit each PDU individually. Additionally, the centralized aggregation of power consumption will be invaluable in planning future data centers, and analyzing future power needs."
Power IQ -- which collects and analyzes energy data of IT equipment connected to Raritan and third-party Ethernet-enabled intelligent rack power distribution units (PDUs) -- now supports APC and Liebert UPSs. "Not all IT equipment is connected to rack PDUs," explains Cerwinski. "Some equipment, such as routers and disk arrays, is connected to rack UPSs or directly to floor UPSs. Power IQ now enables a UPS to be a source for power data collection, which helps provide a more complete picture of IT power consumption in a lab or data center."
The new release of Power IQ also supports deployments up to 5,000 rack PDUs, making it the most scalable Energy Management Virtual Appliance on the market. In addition to collecting data from Dominion PX's environmental sensors for analyzing rack temperature and humidity information, PowerIQ now collects data from ServerTech rack PDU probes and NetBotz. Power IQ also gathers power information on IT equipment connected to 'not-so-smart' PDUs using Raritan's Dominion PX-3000 inline power meters, which are designed to be used in conjunction with dumb rack PDUs to provide comprehensive strip-level metering on all types of IT equipment.
Power IQ recently achieved VMware certification and is designated "VMware Ready." Many customers deploy Power IQ as a virtual appliance because it helps save rack space, energy and hardware costs. Power IQ is also offered as a hardware appliance.
Enterprise-wide data collection at the device level enables Power IQ's analytics to calculate and chart active power, energy consumption, cost and carbon footprint for servers and other IT devices. Power information is presented in user-configurable graphs and reports that can be accessed from anywhere with Power IQ's Web-based dashboard. Graphs can easily depict which devices are consuming the most energy, whether power conservation efforts are working, and if there are hot spots or over-cooled areas. Remedial steps -- such as scheduling devices to turn off for periods when not needed or increasing a server room's ambient temperature gradually -- can be made easily using Power IQ's remote power management capabilities.
Power IQ 1.5 is available now through Raritan's channel partners; and is available in English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, German and French. To learn more and to download a free five-device version, visit: http://www.raritan.com/products/power-management/power-iq/