The Raritan Blog

Top 3 Challenges You Face with IoT and How to Overcome Them

Jessica Ciesla
October 24, 2018

Just a few years ago there were roughly 15 billion devices connected to the IoT, or "Internet of Things". By 2020, that number is expected to grow to 30.7 billion - representing about $1.29 trillion across all markets. Countless products - from industrial sensors, workspace management applications, to wearable devices - are all connected to the Internet, and to each other. This is allowing them to create and share valuable data every second of the day.

For business leaders, this is cause for celebration - to an extent. While it's true that IoT as a concept brings powerful benefits in terms of productivity, efficiency and cost savings, it also brings with it its fair share of challenges. These challenges often lead to projects stalling out before they've even had a chance to begin.

In this blog post, we’ll go into detail about the top three challenges you are most likely to face when beginning an IoT implementation - and how to address them in the most effective ways.

Data Center Physical Security at the Rack

Rick Gonedes
November 29, 2017

Data security has been growing in importance as society continues to progress towards a more digital world. According to a 2017 study that was conducted by IBM and Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a single data breach incident decreased by 10% between 2016 and 2017 to around $3.6 million dollars. The news isn't all positive. The decrease was mostly attributed to the strength of the US dollar. Even still, $3.6+ million is an expense that most organizations simply cannot afford.

Yet when many people think of data security, they think of the software measures that need to be put in place to protect data in its virtual form. What they don't think about are the physical measures that must be deployed to protect the actual data centers that house confidential information around the world. With Raritan’s SmartLock Door Access Control System, this is exactly the type of issue addressed.

Data Center Cabinet Load Balancing:  there’s a less complicated way.

Scott Fier
March 28, 2017

Why do we load balance?

Without going into the complicated math, suffice it to say that load balancing in a 3 phase system is desirable.  The more unbalanced a system the more problems it creates.  UPS life, for one, can be affected by unbalanced systems.  Although one circuit (server cabinet) being out of balance won’t have much effect, if many or all circuits on a panel are out of balance, the main circuit supplying the breaker panel will be out of balance and this can ruin your upstream UPS.  There are also efficiency issues with unbalanced loads.

How is load balancing currently accomplished in a rack cabinet?

To balance a load in a cabinet, the loads of the equipment power supplies are spread across the 3 phases – L1/L2, L2/L3, L3/L1.  This is done by plugging the first server (or switch/router) in an outlet wired on L1/L2, the next server on L2/L3, the next on L3/L1, then start over.  The goal is to get an equal number of devices/loads on all 3 phases – or as close as possible. 

This approach can quickly turn into a cabling nightmare. Most rack PDUs are linear in their phase layout of outlets – there are only three banks of outlets, one for each phase.  For example, on a 36 outlet PDU, outlets 1 through 12 will be on L1/L2, 13 through 24 on L2/L3, and 25 through 36 on L3/L1.  If you use the above method of balancing, and start racking the devices at the bottom U position, the third device you plug in will need to reach the top third of the PDU and the last device may have to reach back to the bottom of the PDU.  In other words, a lot of crisscrossed cabling.

How do Raritan’s balance the cable and load balancing challenge?

In certain Raritan PX three-phase models the architecture gets around the cabling issue by staggering the grouping of outlets - there are at least 6 banks of outlets.  For example, outlets 1 through 6 are on L1/L2, 7 through 12 on L2/L3, 13 through 18 on L3/L1, but then we start over at L1/L2 for outlets 19 through 24. (See Illustration below)

This intelligently engineered architecture results in more reliability and easier execution.  The devices towards the top of the cabinet don’t need to be plugged in to the bottom of the PDU and devices at the bottom don’t need to be plugged in to the top.

Top 5 Reasons for Raritan Power Management

Minder Singh
June 21, 2012

If you're not totally satisfied with your current power management solution, take this opportunity to learn more about Raritan's industry-leading solutions, security, service and support. 

1. Raritan is committed to our market and our customers

• We’ve been in the industry since 1985 
• We continue to evolve our product line to keep pace with the latest technologies 
• We have an unwavering commitment to customer service, support, and power management. 

2. Raritan offers industry-leading data center and remote security with:

• Strong encryption 
• Strong passwords 
• Permissions, LDAP/S and Active Directory® 

3. Raritan’s energy management solutions offer superior performance, including:

• Remote power monitoring and metering of current (amps), voltage, power (kVA, kW) and energy consumption (kWh) down to the individual outlet level. 
• Billing-grade accuracy capable of ISO/IEC +/- 1% kWh 
• Energy management software that can map temperature and humidity sensor data onto a cooling chart with customizable thresholds 

4. Raritan leads in innovation – we were the first to offer:

• Power metering at individual outlets on rack PDUs 
• ISO/IEC +/- 1% billing-grade kWh metering 
• Intelligent rack PDUs with the option of plug-and-play sensors 
• Energy management software that works across virtually any rack PDU vendor’s products 
• Intelligent rack PDUs with USB ports 

5. Raritan offers a complete solution for your energy management needs in one place with:

• A full line of intelligent rack PDUs including outlet metered / outlet switched, outlet metered / unswitched, unit metered / outlet switched, unit metered / unswitched and inline meters 
• One of the broadest lines of environmental sensors of any rack PDU manufacturer 
• Energy management software that can manage virtually any rack PDU in the market; gather data and present the information aggregated by location, user, or type of equipment; and environmental data plotted on a chart showing whether the data is inside or outside the thresholds.

Test Drive Power IQ   Test Drive PX iPDU

Change Management

Minder Singh
January 3, 2009

Managing change in the data center can be painful. But relief is at hand.

Manage moves, adds and changes in your data center easily and efficiently with Raritan’s DCIM solution.

It’s no secret that data center operations are more complex than ever. There’s a constant stream of devices being added, removed, repurposed and reassigned at any given moment. This means data center operators are always dealing with questions like:

• How do I manage a multitude of moves, adds and changes?
• Who does the work?
• How will I know when the work is done?
• More importantly, how will I know if it’s done correctly?

Page 1 of 6 pages  1 2 3 >  Last ›