Raritan Announces First Industry Standard 802.11 Wi-Fi Solution for Intelligent Power and Environment Monitoring at Gartner Data Center Conference

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Raritan, a leading provider of data center infrastructure management (DCIM) solutions, today introduced the first 802.11-standards-based wireless solution to simplify and reduce the cost of deploying intelligent rack PDUs (iPDUs) and an array of environment and asset sensors used in monitoring energy, capacity, assets and the overall health of data centers.  The announcement was made at the Gartner Data Center Conference 2012, where the new wireless solution is being shown this week. 

The Raritan Wi-Fi solution enables data center racks to be instrumented quickly and easily for DCIM capabilities and solutions, and eliminates the time and cost associated with wired Ethernet connections at each rack.  The Wi-Fi solution is ideal for new data centers that want to deploy power monitoring and sensors, as well as for existing data centers that do not have available Ethernet ports and want to augment basic PDUs in a cabinet with intelligent energy monitoring iPDUs and/or environment and asset sensors. 

Unlike proprietary versions of wireless mesh technology, Raritan's solution supports the widely adopted 802.11 standard and is Wi-Fi certified for the 802.11 a/b/g/n standards.

Deploying the Raritan Wi-Fi solution in a data center cabinet/rack simply involves plugging the Raritan Wi-Fi USB stick into a small magnetic USB dock, which in turn plugs into a USB port of a Raritan PX2 iPDU or EMX Smart Rack Controller.  Once installed, the solution immediately starts capturing real-time power monitoring data from Raritan iPDUs and information from connected environment and asset sensors, and sends the encrypted data over the air to a third-party Wireless Access Point -- which also provides a connection to the wired network.  The Wireless Access Point can support up to 6,400 sensors and up to 2,000 metered outlets.                          

To provide a more complete picture of data center operations, data collected -- which can include current (amps), voltage, power (kVA, kW), energy consumption (kWh), temperature, humidity and airflow -- is shared with Raritan DCIM software solutions (dcTrack® for asset, change, and capacity management and Power IQ® for energy management) that provide analytics and reporting.

In addition to ease-of-deployment and flexibility advantages, the Raritan Wi-Fi solution can help customers lower DCIM total cost of ownership (TCO) by reducing the number of Ethernet ports -- and associated costs in switching hardware, wiring and IP addresses.  Raritan's Wi-Fi solution results in 10 times savings over traditional wired Ethernet solutions.

eBay -- which monitors data center energy and temperature with Raritan's iPDUs and sensors -- used Raritan's Wi-Fi solution to eliminate two Ethernet drops per cabinet, reducing network CAPEX and cost of Ethernet cabling installation and maintenance.

"Our new Wi-Fi solution is designed to provide more flexibility and ease in deploying energy-monitoring iPDUs and sensors in racks, so that data centers can take advantage of DCIM capabilities to optimize data center performance," said David Wood, Director - Power Business Unit, Raritan.  "An instrumented data center delivers detailed performance, utilization and energy consumption information -- as well as clear visibility to all data center assets along with their connectivity and system status.  As a result, managers can be more efficient in their use of energy, space, equipment and human resources." 

According to Gartner, by 2015 DCIM tools and processes will be deployed by more than 60 percent of data centers.

Availability
Available worldwide, the Raritan Wi-Fi kit – DPX2-WIFI-KIT – is supported by Raritan PX2 iPDUs and EMX Smart Rack Controller.  Both the PX2 and EMX collect information from a large portfolio of Raritan sensors -- including temperature, humidity, airflow, air pressure, and contact closure -- cameras, and from Raritan's intelligent, electronic asset tracking sensors.

About Raritan (Raritan.com)
Raritan is a proven innovator of power management, infrastructure management, KVM and serial solutions for data centers of all sizes.  In more than 50,000 locations worldwide, Raritan's award-winning hardware and software solutions -- including intelligent rack PDUs; energy management software; DCIM software; KVM-over-IP and Serial-over-IP access products -- provide IT and facility directors, managers and administrators with the control they need to increase power management efficiency, improve data center productivity and enhance branch office operations.  Based in Somerset, N.J., Raritan has offices worldwide serving customers in 76 countries.  Visit us at Raritan.com or follow us on the Raritan blog.  

Raritan is an active member of the Green Grid, Climate Savers Computing Initiative, and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design associations.  The company has been recognized by the EPA for its contribution to the agency's data center initiative.   

Raritan was named a Gartner 2012 "Cool Vendor" in the research firm's DCIM report; a "major DCIM player worldwide" in IDC's MarketScape Report on DCIM; and, the recipient of Frost & Sullivan's "New Product Innovation Award, North America" for Raritan's Intelligent Asset Management solution.   Raritan has also been featured in 451 Research's Report "Raritan brings location tracking, other updates to its DCIM quartet."

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SOURCE Raritan