Here's our latest edition of SmartIT, filled with news and information about Raritan, our solutions and special offers, all aimed at helping you run your data center or IT lab more intelligently, more efficiently.
We'll introduce you to our latest data center management tools, followed by a discussion from our friends at the Uptime Institute about the difficulties of installing – and using – data center visualization tools. We also examine the differences between KVM devices and so-called "free" embedded service providers, which you will find are not free at all.
Next, we'll challenge your knowledge of IT infrastructures and providers, and describe our latest offers (you could even win an Apple® iPad™ in the process).
Finally, we'll cover the important news from the last couple of months, as well as list our latest white papers and case studies that demonstrate real-world examples of our solutions in action.
Enjoy this issue of SmartIT. As always, we look forward to working with you.
Insights
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Efficient data center management begins with smarter racks
We're adding more intelligence to data center racks to help you better manage energy, IT assets and other resources.
First-of-its-kind intelligent environmental and asset management controller and smart asset tags, as well as new sensors, will now help make your data center racks smart enough to monitor operations health, deliver a holistic view of your facility and help you take corrective action if needed.
Our new products provide innovative ways to track IT assets and air pressure, airflow and cooling in data center racks, and expand our ability to monitor energy, capacity, changes and environment, as well as track IT and facility assets. They join dcTrack® for DCIM and Power IQ® for energy management and intelligent rack power distribution units (iPDUs) for metering at the device level.
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Smart racks with Raritan's solutions can help you:
- Capture and record detailed power consumption statistics at varying levels, including room, zone, row or rack level, on a continuous basis.
- Track and visualize data center assets, from floor PDUs and branch circuit panels to UPSs and CRAC units. You can also map physical relationships between devices to easily see how everything in the data center is
physically connected.
- Collect current, voltage, kW, kVA, kWh, temperature, humidity, airflow and differential air
pressure data.
- Collect data at the outlet level, circuit breaker level, PDU level, cool-air inlets at ASHRAE-recommended rack heights, hot-air exhaust for delta T, containment aisles, subfloor air pressure and perforated tile airflow.
- Generate billing-grade energy consumption data at +/- 1 percent accuracy.
- Interoperate within product suite and other vendors’ products as a result of supporting open standards, such as SNMP, ODBC and Web service’s APIs.
- Gather and access information over almost any network, including wired and wireless networks.
- Deliver multilayers of security – SNMP V3, HTTPS, SSL, AES, SSH.
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For more details on these new products, click here.
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Data center asset management and DCIM challenges…and solutions
David Humphrey and Rich Van Loo, professional service consultants at the Uptime Institute, weighed in on the topic of data center asset management for SearchDataCenter.com. Matt Stansberry at the Uptime Institute felt the subject needed more input, and turned to Raritan for more details. Here’s a portion of what Raritan had to say:
“The dcTrack tool maintains real-time views and granular details of every asset and their connections across the entire data center – i ncluding servers, networking, environmental equipment, power and Ethernet cable plant. It also provides up-to-the-minute views of a data center’s power consumption, heat dissipation, and available floor and cabinet/rack space for efficient capacity management.”
To see the full article, click here.
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The hidden costs of embedded service processors
There's no such thing as a free lunch. While ESPs are "free" in servers from major suppliers, in reality, they have many potential hidden costs. Derek Finch, Product Manager at Raritan, outlined the major differences in a recent NetworkWorld article. Here’s an excerpt from that article:
"Enterprising saloon keepers in the late 19th century offered free lunches to attract customers, then served up beverages at artificially raised prices, giving rise to the popular adage, 'There's no such thing as a free lunch.'
"Today our industry is serving up 'free lunches' in the form of embedded service processors (ESPs). While ESPs are "free" in servers from major suppliers, in reality they have hidden costs. In fact, when you look at total cost per server, ESPs with limited functionality may be comparable in price to KVM-over-IP switches while ESP operational costs can be higher."
Read the entire article here.
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Offers
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"Test your IT IQ" Quiz
Test your knowledge of IT infrastructure access and control – and enter to win
an iPad.
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"Power Distribution and Management" Quiz
Test your knowledge of power management solution providers – and enter to win
an iPad.
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KVM and Serial Trade-in Program
Offer extended! Until June 30, 2011, trade in your KVM and serial switches (whether they're Raritan's or our competitors') and migrate to Raritan's next generation
of products.
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Free Sensor Offer
Buy any PX™-1000 and get a temperature sensor included FREE. Special offer extended! Ends June 30, 2011.6/30/11
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News
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Keep tabs on the environment in your data center
You can lower data center energy costs by 3% by raising average ambient temperature by just 1 degree. See how our intelligent Environment Management Solution makes it easy to save energy, eliminate hot spots and more.
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Want real-time power-usage monitoring and control in the palm of your hand?
We’ve got an app for that. Download our iTunes™ Power IQ App now and see how when you take the controls of our data center.
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Watch our new power management solution video
Take an in-depth look at our power management solution, its components and capabilities. It only takes a few minutes of your time, and it's free.
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Running out of space? Power? Cooling?
Now it’s easy to manage the resources you have left. Learn how our intelligent Capacity Management Solution makes it easy to view and manage all of your data center resources.
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New White Papers
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Power Distribution in Data Centers
Data center managers are faced with increasingly challenging demands: supplying additional computing power, using less energy in a smaller space while staying within budget constraints, and maintaining mission-critical reliability. This white paper addresses how data centers can be designed to create sustainable IT environments that are capable of satisfying evolving business, financial and regulatory goals. Download this white paper now.
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The Advantages of Wire-Free Power Monitoring in the Data Center
Learn how using Raritan’s PX outlet-metered intelligent rack PDUs with RF Code’s wire-free solutions can help improve data center efficiency. Download this white
paper now.
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ESP Is Not Free: Look to KVM over IP for Efficient Data Center Control
Embedded service processors for free? Not so fast. To use the features you really need, you typically pay additional licensing costs. Plus, KVM over IP features lower TCO, multivendor support, enhanced security and flexible user management, among other cost savings. Download this white paper now.
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Testimonials
eBay: Real-Time Energy Optimization and Best Practices in a Mission-Critical
Data Center With compute loads – and operating costs – on the rise, eBay established a four-year data center plan with an ambitious goal: To cut power costs in half and double compute performance while gaining greater operational agility and increased reliability. They succeeded… with Raritan’s help.
Download this case study now.
AOL Deploys Raritan's Intelligent Power Management Solution to Reduce Data Center Energy Consumption and Find Unused Capacity
AOL needed accurate power measurements of their servers, routers and switches to improve their data centers’ overall energy efficiency. They also wanted to measure energy consumption at each power outlet, so they could gather an accurate picture of their energy usage. Raritan answered their challenge with a solution that provided management, charting and reporting capabilities, and more.
Download this case study now.
EPAM Systems Addresses the Growing Need to Increase Productivity and Reduce Downtime in Its Data Center
EPAM Systems, one of the largest developers of custom project software and one of the leading players in the field of IT consulting in central and eastern Europe, needed to ensure prompt, secure and reliable access to servers in its data center with the ability to remotely install software from connected drives and media. See how they accomplished this – and more – with the help of Raritan’s KVM-over-IP solution.
Download this case study now.