Data Center Software: Power Management Functionality

Power availability is a key consideration within data center operations, especially when it comes to IT deployment and data center resilience. Our data center software makes it easy to visualize and manage one-line power connectivity from utility power to IT devices within the digital twin model. ​This blog discusses the main benefits of our data center solution’s power functionality and highlights a few of its key features.

Data Center Power Management Functionality: Benefits​

Our data center software supports the design and management of data center power infrastructure. Specifically, the software can:

• Visualize and track your power network to facilitate decisions on IT deployment and automatically assess potential power failure​ scenarios
• Examine and assess connected power network routes with expandable and collapsible views, quickly identify breaker loading information and cabinet connectivity, and calculate inefficiencies​
• Integrate power considerations with cooling and space all under one platform ​
• Display monitored and calculated power data for phase balance, failure overload, and poorly connected systems resulting in single points of failure​

Using power network diagrams, the software enables users to assess the impact of changes or failures to the power distribution and identify power delivery issues. The software can be connected to live power monitoring systems to ensure the data center's digital twin power usage matches the operational data center. Additionally, the software helps integrate and connect data center power management with cooling management to help facilities operators, operation managers, and IT managers collaborate and work together in one space.

Data Center Power Management Functionality: Specific Features​

The software can track and identify available power and system capacity in the model using design loads, live measured power, or budgeted/sold power values. Zones and cages in the model can indicate power provisioning specified from PDUs or RPPs to give users insight into power usage and availability within different zones of the data center.

The software can also track spare breakers and breaker slots for single, two-pole, or three-phase breakers. Using power connections in the model, the software can automatically check for overload in both a normal operational state and for any single point failure. The software enables users to navigate through the entire power network or individual components from utility level down to the power socket level for an all-encompassing view.​

Figure 1. Power network view with expanding objects from utility power to cabinet

Figure 2. A view of the expandable power network

When examining a cabinet using the cabinet connectivity view, the software will show which power strips and PDUs a cabinet and its IT equipment are connected to. In turn, the auto-connect feature automatically creates power connections between all unconnected IT and available power strips.

Figure 3. Cabinet connectivity view with equipment connections to sockets

Users can quickly identify breaker loading information with the software’s panel schedules report, which includes the loading information for each breaker in the selected PDU, RPP cabinet, RPP, or breaker panel. This data can be exported in CSV or XML format.

Figure 4. Example of the panel schedule view

An automated power failure report systematically fails components in the power configuration, such as RPPs or PDUs, and provides an in-depth analysis of how the system responds to the failure. Details of where the power is transferred to, any system components that breach SLA or recommended limits, and a full list of IT assets that lose power is produced. When combined with Cadence Reality DC Insight, this failure can be run on a schedule with reports automatically saved after each failure simulation.

Figure 5. Failure scenario details

Safer IT Deployment and Data Center Resilience

Our data center solution’s power management functionality makes it easier to visualize, analyze, and share power network data to ensure safer IT deployment and data center resilience. Learn what else our software can do by checking out our data center solutions page or fill out our free trial form to get a personalized software demo.