Raritan hasintroduced its next-generation intelligent rack PDU (iPDU) — the PX3 — with energy-saving features and other enhancements to help data centers measure and monitor energy, cooling and overall health. The announcement was made at the AFCOM Data Center World conference.
Advancing its charter to help data centers save energy, Raritan's new iPDU switched models use patent-pending latching (bistable) relays that do not require power to stay in their designated on or off states. A 100-cabinet data center, for example, can save more than $6,000 per year in energy and cooling costs using the PX3. In the event of a power interruption, the PX3 can be pre-configured to have relays stay latched in their last state or go through a custom power-up sequence. Raritan also added a third USB port to all PX3 models, providing one USB-B and two USB-A ports.
The new rack PDU is the third generation of the industry's first truly intelligent PDU. Recognizing that a rack PDU has one of the best monitoring vantage points in a data center, Raritan was the first to add a user-programmable computer to a rack PDU to create a platform for smarter racks and intelligent data centers.
The iPDU makes racks smarter by providing real-time, outlet-level energy monitoring, environmental monitoring — with plug-and-play sensors — and other important information. From the PDU's LCD display or a Web browser, data center operators can monitor energy, temperature, humidity and the status of PDUs, lines, circuit breakers and individual outlets. Data gathered by the PX3 —which measures real-time kWh energy consumption with 1% billing-grade accuracy — can be further analyzed and monitored using Raritan's DCIM Power IQ® energy management software.
Three-Generations of Success
"Raritan iPDUs can be found in data centers around the globe gathering information to help make data centers more efficient andmore reliable, while operating at lower costs," said David Wood, director of power management solutions at Raritan. "Our introduction today of the PX3 with latched relays is another example of how Raritan's iPDUs help lower operational costs."
Raritan's Power Business — which has four patentsand two pendingpatents — has introduced a wide range of industry firsts and has received numerous awards. Most recently, the PX3 won the German DataCenter Award for Energy Technology. The award,presented in Frankfurt,recognizes products and projects that enhance the energy efficiency in the data center.
Raritan's iPDU is the first outfitted with: a user-programmable computer; a sensor port for adding temperature, humidity and other sensors; and USB ports to support Wi-Fi networking, PDU-to-PDU cascading, and security webcams. It also is the first iPDU available in multiple colors to help in identifying and locating power distribution pathways and in differentiating between multiple PDUs in a rack.The PX was also awarded the first IEC 62368-1 certification by Underwriters Laboratories.
