If you’re thinking of replacing your dumb PDUs with smarter versions, that can be a great idea…
Accurately monitoring power usage using intelligent PDUs helps to provide the data needed to enhance rack power efficiency in data centres and server rooms. Power monitoring can help to reduce energy consumption (and the associated costs) and can even assist in identifying potential threats to network uptime before disaster strikes.
But decommissioning those older PDUs can be a costly and time consuming exercise. Let’s take a look at some of the overall costs involved:
Financial
Cost of new smart PDUs
Recycling old PDUs
Possible loss of revenue due to network downtime
Installation costs
Environmental
Old PDUs may not be fully recyclable
Impact of manufacturing/transporting new PDUs
Time
Personnel time to decommission old hardware and install new equipment
Network downtime
Of course, for a new-build data centre, some of the above costs won’t apply and in these cases smart PDUs are likely to be the smart choice. But for anyone updating legacy environments, it could be worth looking at other options. What if the existing hardware could have power monitoring intelligence added? There would still be time and cost implications (albeit significantly less than smart pdu implementation) but the environmental impact is hugely reduced – and with 10 million tons of potentially toxic, IT e-waste being generated per year these reductions are needed!
Making Dumb PDUs Smart
Our unique PowerZook sensors can help you to harvest valuable power usage data from your dumb PDU’s. They simply clamp around 2/3-core 16/32A PDU cables (without the need for any cable modification) and provide power usage readings to your existing NMS via SNMP. Not only do these sensors allow you to extend the lifespan of your existing dumb PDUs helping to minimise environmental costs, but they can be installed without any downtime or network disruption to help minimise your costs!
To find out how PowerZook works, please click here
