Energy efficiency and power consumption are one of the most important things to consider when deploying a server rack or data center. The individual or business that operates the hardware needs to consider the cost of energy and balance that cost with the amount of profit earned from their server’s. Energy efficiency is a major selling point for newer computer hardware, newer hardware runs at a fraction of previous generations of hardware, but that’s not always enough. The software running the server or data center needs to optimize the amount of hardware being utilized in order to save energy, and the power supply unit utilized in the deployment needs to meet the needs of the hardware without exceeding recommended wattage. Newer deployments utilize power distribution units to optimize the amount of power being pulled from the grid as well.
A power distribution unit, or PDU, is the device the servers are plugged into in order to supply the hardware with the necessary power. Recently intelligent PDU devices have been integrated to supply just the right amount of energy to a unit in order to operate more efficiently. When server is operating at lower capacity it won’t need as much power, allowing it to shut off certain parts of in order to conserve energy. An intelligent PDU will send the right amount of power to the server to keep it running properly while conserving energy and reducing the cost of operating the server. When implemented in a data center that operates many servers there is a huge saving potential.
Data centers utilizing intelligent power distribution units will be able to use less energy and save on overall operation. Back up power supplies will be able to run longer, overall energy consumption will be reduced, and power supply units in the servers will last longer. For a data center that utilizes many servers there will be a dramatically increased profit margin, not only from savings on hardware lasting longer, but in energy costs for day to day operation. When combined with intelligent power distribution and an efficient operating system data centers will be able to run on just a fraction of the energy they would normally use.
