Eaton Introduces ' World's Ugliest Server'

Eaton's Power Xpert Server Solution isn't going to win any beauty contests. In fact, the company is marketing it as the "Ugliest Server You'll Ever Buy." The product is clearly geared for folks who think power monitoring is sexy.

With the growing focus on data center energy efficiency, that's a growth demographic. The new server provides a web interface to Eaton's Power Xpert Architecture, and provides detailed information about power quality as the electricity enters the data center, identifying sags, swells, transient and other power events that could impact the IT equipment. Any unusual events are time-stamped for later analysis, and staff can monitor and manage the system remotely via the web.

"Topics of hard drive utilization, bandwidth usage and CPU capacity are all second nature to IT managers," said Jim Thompson, product line manager, Software and Meters at Eaton. "However, the entire community of IT professionals is increasingly being asked to understand electricity because damaging power disturbances such as sags, swells and transients pose threats to critical infrastructure equipment. The Power Xpert Server Solution is a single server that runs continuously to monitor the single most misunderstood component in data centers, server rooms or other IT facilities