Electricity can seem both simple and confusing at the same time. A refresher on things like the differences between volts, amps and watts never hurts. Or a recap of where a direct current system may make the most sense. One particularly tricky concept to master is the idea of three-phase power, especially in a Delta configuration.
Plumbing and car enthusiasts: rejoice! In this post we'll present a plumber's (or car mechanic's) version of a three phase power system.
Topics: data center operations, Know your power, Data center power, Power basics, 3-phase power
Power monitoring is essential for efficient, cost-effective facility management. The stakes are even higher in critical facilities where power or environmental anomalies can lead to expensive equipment damage and customer services failures.
Power monitoring helps identify and resolve problems and proactively manage power usage. This enables facilities managers to control costs, limit the risk of outages, and respond faster if there is an outage. You can get the data from your power monitor through a wired connection or any number of wireless technologies. Here is how your options compare.
Topics: wireless monitoring, data center operations, wireless power monitors, Facilities monitoring, reduce energy costs, energy benchmarking, wired power monitor, wireless power monitor, manage power usage, wired vs wireless monitoring, wired vs wireless monitor
Data center industry jargon is filled with acronyms and expressions. Even the most experienced professional can get caught off guard by a new term or an old abbreviation. Here are the acronyms and phrases you’ll run into the most.
Topics: data center operations, Data center power, DCIM
Power and environmental monitoring can reduce outages and downtime by keeping you abreast of operating conditions within your critical facilities at all times. You can be alerted to issues quickly before they escalate into serious problems. And you might be able to save money with more efficient power consumption. You cannot entirely prevent outages, but you can be prepared by constantly monitoring conditions in your facility.
Topics: realtime alerts, data center operations, Know your power, power monitoring, Power basics, Facilities monitoring, remote monitoring, environmental monitoring software, facility downtime, wireless power monitoring
Cooling is one of the main drivers of data center operating costs, but figuring out how to get the information needed to drive costs down can be confounding. Read on for ways to break the overall challenge into manageable pieces as well as what you need from a monitoring system to support each approach.
Topics: Packet Power, data center operations, data center cooling, environmental monitoring
We ran across a good article in the Data Center Journal written by Leon Adato entitled "Monitoring Nirvana" describing data center monitoring and who should be doing it. The full article can be found here. If you're short on time, here's a synopsis.
The stability of the power grid is important to people responsible for operating critical facilities such as data centers, and a great deal of effort is put into ensuring that all risks to the uninterrupted supply of power are anticipated and accounted for. So it's interesting to note that the power grid is most frequently "attacked" by squirrels.
Topics: data center operations, Data center power
Data center hot spots are a bit of an enigma. While they remain colorless and odorless, you know they're there. You can feel them as you walk by rows of humming server racks. We've all done it -- the hot spot drive-by. You feel it. It's kind of hot right here, isn't it?
Data center hot spots
It's unfortunate that some managers don't take hot spots seriously. Perhaps it is the covert and evasive nature of hot spots that place them on the back burner. Yet it only takes one negative thermal event to get management's attention.
Topics: data center temperature monitoring, data center operations, environmental monitoring, data center hot spots
