AFCO unfurls three new systems for data center power distribution
I haven't written much about the providers of data center scale power management systems, but noticed some news from a few weeks back out of a company called AFCO Systems, which has several new power distribution units to tout.
AFCO is worth investigating because it was one of the first (if not THE first) vendors to market with a cooling solution for extreme high-density blade installations. A couple of years back, it actually won a 2006 Power Quality & Power Suppliers Technology Innovation of the Year Award from Frost & Sullivan. This link, which talks about the award, is interesting because it also contains the names of a whole bunch of green technology innovators that you and I should probably be researching more deeply.
For now, however, here's the skinny on the new products from AFCO. They include:
- The Basic PDU (Power Distribution Unit) Series, for situations where monitoring isn't required. - The Metered PDU Series, which gives a data center manager a local view of what's going down with utilization trends. - The Smart PDU Series, which allows for remote power management (not just monitoring). It supports AFCO Resource Management software that can look at power usage from either an aggregate point of view OR drill down into individual devices that are plugged into the unit. (The software supports SNMP and HTML.)
AFCO's flagship line is actually comprised of technology and enclosures that get sold under the fun name of Kool-IT. The link I've provided has a pretty thorough explanation of what makes AFCO's approach different from other options: It has to do with the design of their enclosures, how air is directed, as well as variable speed fans that react to changing temperature conditions.
Other well-known companies in roughly the same marketspace as AFCO include Raritan, Eaton Powerware, APC, Liebert and Tripp-Lite. I also turned up this systems integration company, Geist, which will build a power distribution unit to your custom specifications.