Physical Cloud
Cameron Sturdevant is the executive editor of Enterprise Networking Planet. Prior to ENP, Cameron was technical analyst at PCWeek Labs, starting in 1997. Cameron finished up as the eWEEK Labs Technical Director in 2012. Before his extensive labs tenure Cameron paid his IT dues working in technical support and sales engineering at a software publishing firm . Cameron also spent two years with a database development firm, integrating applications with mainframe legacy programs. Cameron's areas of expertise include virtual and physical IT infrastructure, cloud computing, enterprise networking and mobility. In addition to reviews, Cameron has covered monolithic enterprise management systems throughout their lifecycles, providing the eWEEK reader with all-important history and context. Cameron takes special care in cultivating his IT manager contacts, to ensure that his analysis is grounded in real-world concern. Follow Cameron on Twitter at csturdevant, or reach him by email at cameron.sturdevant@quinstreet.com.
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The Raritan EMX system monitors the environment and the presence of rack mounted systems.
Even the most airy cloud is, at the end of the day, made up of very solid steel, copper, and silicon that channel electricity. And monitoring the working condition of the server systems that live in giant data centers is of greater concern for IT managers as virtualization drives up consolidation ratios, putting an ever greater number of eggs into a basket that will eventually fail.
On September 27, infrastructure management maker Raritan introduced the latest versions of it's EMX Smart Rack Controller. The zero U or 1U device con monitor temperature, humidity and other environmental conditions while also enabling asset sensor tags to track equipment removal. The two models -- EMX2-111 and the EMX2-888 that support up to 16 sensors and up to 128 sensors respectively. The manufacturer's suggested retail price starts at $375 (U.S.) for EMX2-111. The EMX systems can also provide video of the data center so that an IT manager can do a quick sanity check to confirm what the water and smoke sensors and reporting. I like remote sensing systems that keep an eye on power consumption and environmental conditions. There is nothing more disconcerting than walking into an equipment area that should be refreshingly cool and feeling 90 degree heat.
I'm looking forward to getting an EMX system into eWEEK Labs. Although I suspect the results will be boring (a steady temp at 70 degrees) it would be interesting to get a confirmation of the air chiller's effectiveness.
