Dirty Power: The Hidden Threat to Data Center Reliability

Data center operations are highly reliant on electric power, and any disruptions to power quality can have a significant impact on the performance and reliability of data centers. According to a study by the Uptime Institute, power quality issues are responsible for approximately 33% of all data center outages. In addition, power quality issues can also lead to data corruption, hardware failures, and increased maintenance costs.

There are a number of different types of power quality issues that can impact data centers, including:

• Voltage fluctuations: These can cause data center equipment to malfunction or even shut down.
• Transients: These are sudden spikes or dips in voltage that can damage data center equipment.
• Harmonics: These are distortions in the waveform of the electrical signal that can interfere with the operation of data center equipment.
• Noise: This is any unwanted electrical signal that can interfere with the operation of data center equipment.

Data centers can take a number of steps to mitigate the impact of power quality issues, including:

• Installing power conditioners: These devices can filter out noise and harmonics and can also regulate voltage and protect equipment from transients.
• Using backup generators: These can provide power to the data center in the event of a power outage.
• Implementing a comprehensive power monitoring system: This can help to identify and troubleshoot power quality issues before they cause problems.
• Regularly testing power backup systems: This can help to ensure that they are functioning properly in the event of a power outage.

By taking these steps, data centers can help to ensure that they are providing a reliable and high-quality service to their customers.

It's now easier than ever to get started eliminating dirty power from your data center.  Advanced optical sensors deliver the capability to not only provide the depth and breadth of accurate data to measure power quality but also to deliver the fidelity and insight needed to enable troubleshooting the “invisible” problems plaguing reliability efforts and causing long-term and devastatingly expensive failures to these mission-critical systems.