When choosing data center equipment, the first step is to take the requirements of the data storage and transmission, and separate them into physical servers. These servers are the computers that perform data storage and transmission exclusively – they are not designed to perform calculations, receive mouse or keyboard inputs, or display screen results like a commercial portable computer. The size and placement of these servers is part of the physical design of the data center.
The second step when choosing data center equipment is to design the power distribution. The main power input, either from an electrical source or from an electrical generator enters the data center and is distributed among the servers and the supporting equipment for the data center. One of the key pieces of equipment for power distribution is the UPS (uninterruptable power supply). The general purpose of this equipment is for reliability of the data center performance.
Many home computer users are familiar with the commercial grade UPS units available for their personal computers. These can be essential for computer users in areas where the power is not reliable. The main purpose of these units is to give the user time to exit out of critical applications and save associated data, and to cleanly boot down the computer if a blackout persists.
A corporate grade computer designed as part of the data center equipment setup has these duties and more. One of the first requirements of data center performance is reliability, which is measured as downtime in parts per million. Roughly speaking that means that the data center can only be down one second in a week. As far as power is concerned, the main guardians of this reliability are the UPS devices.
An excellent example of a high-reliability corporate uninterruptable power supply for data center equipment is the Eaton 9355 UPS. One of its powerful features is the premium double-conversion power supply. This means that the output of the UPS is generated by stepping down the input voltage in two stages, with filters on each stage. This gives a very clean output power supply to the servers for extra-reliable performance. The Eaton 9355 also offers scalable battery runtimes. This refers to the major backup mechanism of a UPS which is a storage battery. The battery capacity determines how long each unit can supply the specified server load during a continuous power blackout. This helps the servers in the data center design be scalable as well. As new data center clients increase the need for the number of scalable servers, the power distribution units need to scale their capacity and distribution as well. This is the goal for scalable battery runtimes on the UPS units. These runtimes can be controlled through an optional integrated control module which may be supervised by a central control computer. It includes the ability to bypass the UPS units for maintenance.
The Eaton 9355 UPS offers an excellent capacity to size ratio. Its small footprint helps maximize the efficiency of the power distribution components for the data center. The tower construction matches standard server racks for data centers. It is designed to manage the 3-phase power requirements of an advanced data center. The Eaton 9355 UPS is an excellent choice for part of a data center equipment setup for power distribution.
