What Does PDU Stand For and What Function Does This Provide in a Rack Mount Server?

    LONDON, ENGLAND, June 24, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Seeking advice from IT experts is always a good idea, as they are able to advise on the sort of IT environment your business needs not only at the current time but in the foreseeable future as well. Toughrack now supply a range of PDUs, as well as install and consultancy of rack mount servers.

Growth is an important point to factor into an initial IT set-up, so you need to know the system you install is scalable. It should also be manageable and cost effective even if the initial outlay is often quite high. The investment made at the outset is soon recouped over a very short period of time if an IT system is reliable and cost effective.

You have probably heard about PDUs and wondered what this stands for. PDUs, or power distribution units, are the very heart of data centre power as well as energy management. IT environments are becoming more complex, and now include wiring closets, server rooms and data centres which come in all sizes. This means there has been an increased need for reliable power distribution to rack levels, servers and all the other components needed to run an IT system.

PDUs have become an essential component in all IT systems and for IT administrators so they can eliminate power management problems in order to maintain system availability in ever higher density equipment no matter what the systems happen to be.

As such PDUs, Power Distribution Units have to be considered as essential elements in managing the power capacity as well as the functionality for critical network, data centre and server equipment and this includes in a rack server mount.

There are many IT suppliers who offer various types of PDUs most of which are standardized units specifically designed to increase not only the manageability but also the efficiency of data centres. Individual power outlet control is offered by these units for power recycling remotely and IT systems power up and power down, as well as offering remote load monitoring in real-time, of all connected equipment.

IT administrators have to know they can rely on PDU alarms as a means of warning them about any potential power overloads. They need this information before a critical IT failure occurs which would disrupt a company's IT system.

Power Distribution Units designed for rack mount servers are much smaller than for traditional tower servers and are a lot cheaper too. These units distribute electrical power within the rack, in particular to computers and networking equipment that's housed within a data centre. These are often referred to as Rack-based PDU, Intelligent PDU, Smart-PDU, or more simply 'Power Strip'.

The most common rack-based PDUs are distinguished by the input power used which can be single-phase and three-phase with the output phase (power supplied to the load device) normally being single-phase.

Rack PDUs can be known as what is termed 'dumb' which basically means they don't have any instrumentation and they are not manageable but they can be metered. This means they have a display that indicates current load on each of the phases. They can also be switched and metered and this allows some, as well as all of their receptacles, to be individually turned on or off remotely. This goes for the meter usage too.

There is a definite trend for more intelligent and much higher quality Rack-PDU devices because more IT professionals are now realising that power management needs to be monitored closely in order for IT systems to remain available at all times.

Toughrack now provide not only the products needed, but also advice and setup if you should require it. Get in touch today for more details.

Website: http://www.toughrack.co.uk

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