Raritan reinvents the rack power transfer switch, again

—Fast and Intelligent Rack Transfer Switch Now Features Outlet-Level Metering and Switching—

NEW YORK CITY (March 16, 2015) — Raritan, a leading provider of data center infrastructure management (DCIM) and rack power distribution solutions, today announced new power management capabilities for its award-winning Intelligent Rack Transfer Switch that helps data centers keep equipment operating through power failures and provides insights on energy usage and rack-equipment health.

The Intelligent Rack Transfer Switch – which uses a patent-pending hybrid design for fast and reliable load transfers from one power source to another – now offers outlet-level metering and power switching.  Ideal for cloud computing infrastructures and data center racks filled with one-power-supply devices, the new switch is one of the fastest in the industry — twice as fast as standard automatic transfer switches — and one of the most reliable. 

Similar to Raritan’s intelligent rack power distribution units, the new transfer switch can monitor power at the outlet-level, as well as the inlet-level, providing more granular energy information useful for capacity planning and managing energy costs.  The transfer switch’s new secure switching capabilities enable power to a device to be turned on and off remotely – eliminating visits to the data center.  For more visibility to the data center rack, many customers use Raritan’s DCIM software to analyze and monitor the power information gathered by the transfer switch, as well as the health of the power chain. 

“Before Raritan released its first intelligent rack transfer switch model, the choices were limited,” says David Wood, Director, Power Business at Raritan. According to Wood, automatic transfer switches (ATS) were inexpensive, but suffered from longer transfer times of 8 to 16ms, and often failed as a result of electrical arcing that welded contacts together.  And, static transfer switches offered very fast transfers of 4 to 6ms, but were nearly six times more expensive than ATS, drew more energy, and produced excess heat that consumed additional cooling resources. 

“Raritan overcame these limitations with a new hybrid system that uses the best of both electromechanical relay and silicon-controlled rectifier technologies to deliver fast performance and better energy efficiency and reliability,” adds Wood.  “By introducing outlet-level metering and switching capabilities to our transfer switch today we are providing tools to help customers better manage their infrastructure resources and create intelligent data centers.”

The new Intelligent Rack Transfer Switch will be unveiled at the Datacenter Dynamics conference in New York:
Presenter—David Wood
When – March 17 at 2:20 pm
Where—Solution Stage Presentations in the Exhibit Hall

Availability
Available worldwide, the Raritan Intelligent Rack Transfer Switch offers a number of options and a range of voltage and plug types.  The switch comes with an intelligent network-ready controller with display, and with two USB-A and one USB-B ports to support Wi-Fi networking, webcams and cascading to share IP drops.  The switch’s sensor ports support optional Raritan plug-and-play sensors for monitoring environmental conditions in the racks.

About Raritan
Raritan is a proven innovator of energy and infrastructure management 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 and environment sensors; DCIM software; and KVM switch 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 operations.  Based in Somerset, N.J., Raritan has offices worldwide serving customers in 76 countries.  Visit us at Raritan.eu, RaritanDCIM.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 EPA has recognized Raritan for its contribution to the agency’s data center initiative. 

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