Data centres are currently undergoing a period of great change. Data centre managers are struggling to keep pace with growing capacity needs while working under the constraints of tightened budgets and energy efficiency initiatives and the challenges presented by new technologies such as virtualisation and cloud computing are transforming

As data centre environments become more dynamic and complex, many organisations are taking a more proactive approach to management and gaining better control of their data centre operations so they can maintain or improve availability in increasingly dense computing environments while reducing costs and boosting efficiency. One area of improvement is inside the rack with the growing importance of intelligent Rack Power Distribution Units (rack PDUs).

As the last link in the power chain delivering critical power to IT loads, intelligent rack PDUs are a strategic asset for achieving high availability through elevated levels of responsiveness to change in data centre capacities and densities. The emergence of data center infrastructure management (DCIM) is further increasing the role of the intelligent rack PDU within the data center. Data centre managers are taking advantage of the benefits provided by the technology, including access to rack-level and IT equipment power consumption, visibility into rack-level environmental conditions, the ability to directly control power to IT equipment and rack-level capacity and power management.

This white paper discusses the considerations that need to be made when investing in intelligent rack PDUs to ensure that they do indeed provide a high availability solution.

Five aspects of a high availability design for Intelligent Rack PDUs include:

1. Reliability
2. Functionality
3. Fault Tolerance
4. Maintainability
5. Adaptability