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Raritan Introduces Dominion PX-4000 Series Intelligent Rack PDU for Measuring and Monitoring Energy Use of Blade Servers

Posted on: Monday, 27 April 2009, 10:23 CDT

- Portfolio expansion to include new high-power models with monitoring of kwh and unbalanced 3 phase loads -

SOMERSET, N.J., April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Raritan today expanded its data center power management portfolio with the addition of the Dominion(R) PX-4000 Series intelligent rack power distribution unit (PDU) for monitoring the energy usage of blade servers and other high-density networking equipment. The PX-4000 Series also is designed without remote outlet power switching to minimize blade servers from being switched off accidentally.

Blade servers, offering high performance/cost ratio and compact size benefits, are filling data center racks. However, blades, which run hotter than traditional servers and reside in higher-density racks, have created new power and cooling dynamics in the data center -- often placing greater demands on data center cooling capacity.

With the PX-4000, detailed power information on individual blades plugged into the PX intelligent power strip, as well as inlet temperatures at blade racks, can be monitored and measured. The PX intelligent power strips enable companies to gather from blades more useful and more accurate information -- including apparent and active power for devices with multiple power supplies, and kilowatt hour metering for energy cost and charge-back applications.

Designed for high-density environments, the PX-4000 models are rated to work at temperatures as high as 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius).

"With the PX-4000 customers will have a more complete energy snapshot of their data centers by measuring power consumption of all their IT devices, including blades," said Herman Chan, Director of Raritan's Power Management Solutions group. "Device-level power data collected on all data center IT elements by our family of intelligent PDUs can be analyzed by our Power IQ(TM) Energy Management software to gain even more insight on how data centers consume energy. With this information, operators can take steps to drive power efficiencies."

With the launch of the PX-4000 Series, Raritan is also launching PX firmware release v1.3.5. This firmware is included with all PX models and is a free download upgrade at Raritan.com for existing PX users. [http://www.raritan.com/support/dominion-px/]

Unbalanced load events: One of the features of PX firmware v1.3.5 is the ability to sense and provide alerts when current demands are out of balance. For example, a data center or facilities manager would be alerted when the current load on line 1 is greater than the current loads on lines 2 and 3 in a three-phase system.

Kilowatt-hour Metering: Actual, real-time accurate kwh metering is now available to support billing and internal customer charge backs. Kwh metering is far more accurate than measuring current, and then calculating kwh based on assumptions for voltage and power factor.

PX-4000 Series PDUs will be available worldwide from Raritan's channel partners beginning in June 2009. The initial 14 models will be three-phase models with 208V or 400V input, 30 to 60 amp input plug options, 6 or 12 IEC C19 outlets, and 6 single or double pole circuit breakers for branch circuit protection.

PX PDUs work with Raritan's Power IQ Energy Management software that tracks power consumption and generates energy usage reports based on all types of granular power information gathered at the IT device level. This information helps IT and Operations managers with 'what if' analysis, tracking energy changes, finding rack capacity and billing back energy costs to internal departments. A free trial version of Raritan's Power IQ analytics software is available at http://www.raritan.com/power-iq-download/

About Raritan (Raritan.com)

Raritan provides secure IT infrastructure management solutions that increase data center efficiency and productivity by delivering integrated in-band and out-of-band energy management, server access and control. Raritan's power management software, intelligent PDU, environmental sensors, KVM, serial console and centralized management products are in use in more than 50,000 locations worldwide. Raritan's OEM division provides embedded hardware and firmware for server and client management, including intelligent energy management, KVM over IP, IPMI and other industry standards-based management applications. Based in Somerset, N.J., Raritan has offices worldwide serving 76 countries. For more information, please visit Raritan.com

All marks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Raritan Inc.

Source: PR Newswire

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