Network Communications News (NCN) June 2016 | Page 14

A DV E R T I S M E N T F E AT U R E

Intelligent Power Solution Helps British
Cloud and Networking Provider Exponential-e
enhance its SLAs and Gain Competitive Edge
Exponential-e’s full-service CloudNet platform
serves a diversity of industries, which include
Media, Technology, Finance, Insurance, Professional
services, Leisure and Public sectors. Its 1700+ UK
and Global customers trust Exponential-e to deliver
technology to the heart of their business.
Exponential-e’s ethos of excellence
and innovation meant that the data centre
infrastructure specification for the new colocation
business had to be as solid and reliable as its 100
gigE network. Leveraging its core competencies
in networking, security and high availability,
the 71,500-square-foot (1,625m2) data centre
facility has been designed for enterprise-class
connectivity up to 10Gbps, N+N redundancy on
UPS, and N+1 on all other critical services.
Rob Anderson joined Exponential-e as data
centre manager during the planning stage for
building the Tier III data centre in North London.
His role is to support Exponential-e’s expanding
colocation business.
“I had used Raritan’s intelligent rack
PDUs in other data centre operations,” says
Anderson. “Based on my success with the
Raritan solution, I advised the Exponential-e
team that this was the solution to help
us manage our new data centre
and to enable our customers to
manage their own equipment
and power. We wanted to
give our customers more
visibility and remote
hands-on to their own
dedicated data
centre cabinets.”

Raritan Advertorial.indd 22

Every cabinet in Exponential-e’s new
colocation data centre is now equipped with
redundant intelligent PDUs (iPDU) from Raritan.
By adding processors and network connections
to the PDU, Raritan created the industry’s first
intelligent rack PDU – which not only powers
sequence equipment over a network, but also
gathers information about the power usage at
the device level and at the rack level. Real-time
power information can be easily read at the rack
or from any web browser.

the power needs of each server cabinet and the
overall data centre. The forecasting tool came
in handy when the firm was moving to a new
electricity provider from the national grid.
“Power IQ helped us calculate how much
power we think we’re going to be drawing over
the next year, which was useful information in our
negotiations with the provider,” says Anderson.

Using Power IQ® DCIM Monitoring
Software to Manage Capacity

The Power IQ dashboard was added to the large
screen on the wall of Exponential-e’s UK-based
Network Operations Center (NOC), which is
staffed 24x7. Power usage for the entire data
centre is centrally monitored on the screen. All
iPDUs that are live are also being monitored; if a
PDU goes down, an alert appears on the screen.
“For any forecasts that we require, we can easily
obtain the relevant power information straight
from that NOC screen,” adds Anderson. “We also
can see on the screen power statistics on individual
servers, and if thresholds are exceeded.”
Power IQ also is being used to remotely manage
Exponential-e iPDUs. It enables the data centre team
to perform bulk firmware updates, and configure
the iPDUs conveniently from the web dashboard.
To protect the business from unauthorized
power cycling, the Raritan iPDU is encrypted with
256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) at
the hardware level. Also standard is stringent
password support and built-in firewall.

Exponential-e also selected Raritan’s Power IQ
DCIM monitoring software to analyze power
information that is automatically gathered by
the rack iPDUs – including data on voltage,
amperage, kilowatts, kilowatt-hours, and power
factor. The combined Power IQ-iPDU solution
helps the firm monitor the power in customer
cabinets and capacity based on actual loads. The
solution can also monitor power consumption at
the device, row, and data centre levels.
“From day one we could monitor the Power
IQ dashboard to determine the overall power
utlization in the data centre, and track future
requirements for the remainder of that year,” says
Anderson. “With (+/- 1%) billing-grade accuracy,
it is a great monitoring tool for us. We also can
see drill down to data about individual cabinets
to determine exactly how much power each
customer is drawing.
So, if a customer goes over the power amount
stated in their colocation contract, Power IQ
notifies us. We also are able to set energy limits.”
Power IQ also can be programmed to generate
energy bill reports by individual customers.
In addition to real-time charts on active
power, energy capacity and consumption, the
user-configurable Power IQ dashboard also
shows PUE weather maps, cooling charts, and
the carbon footprint of the building. Power IQ
also supports “what-if” analysis and identifies
under-utilized or idle servers.
By delivering visual information
on real-time power load, rate of
change and usage trends, Power
IQ helps Exponential-e plan for

24x7x365 Fully Managed
On-site NOC

An Energy Monitoring
Tool for Customers
The Raritan solution enables Exponential-e
to provide their enterprise customers with
remote access to power monitoring. Colocation
customers are given access to their equipment
cabinets through the Power IQ dashboard.
“We’ve set up a secure portal for customers
on Power IQ,” says Anderson. “Each of our
customers receives an individual dashboard with a
secure login. On the dashboard they can see their
power usage and individual iPDUs.
Customers like to know exactly what is going
on in their cabinets; not just with their equipment,
but also with their entire power usage. They

01/06/2016 15:45