Monday, February 27, 2012

An Industry Look at Locking IEC Power Connections

Not sure if any of you have experienced outages caused by loose fitting IEC power connections, but there is a big push in the industry to address the major problem of IEC plugs coming loose on equipment & power strips due to vibrations or inadvertent disconnects caused during rack equipment moves, adds and changes. Here are six (6) solutions we have found to address this issue:

1) IEC Lock. This solution is universal on the equipment side and addresses the problem by having a button that slides to engage a pin that drops down on the ground plug. This is now UL approved. IEC Lock
2) IEC C14 Grip Secure Insert. This solution is not UL approved, and only addresses the PDU side, but it is very inexpensive. IEC C14 Grip Secure Insert
3) APC / V-Lock by Schurter. The solution works well, but the APC PDU must be 8000 series and the equipment outlets must be changed out to also secure the IEC receptacle on the equipment side.

4) Raritan ETO Outlets. Some Raritan PDU’s are available with this option, designated by an –E2 on their parts list. It appears to work the same as IEC Lock, but they do not address the equipment side only the PDU side.

5) Server Technology Retention Clips. Server Technology provides retention clips that clip into their power strips only and clip around the head of the IEC power cord. This solution only addresses the PDU connection and works well with ServerTech power cords. It does not work with all IEC power cords as there are variances in the size of the IEC C14 heads and input cords.

6) HP PDU Notches and Bands. HP now has notches on their PDU's and they provide bands to secure the IEC power cords to the PDU. This only addresses the PDU side of the problem.

Would like to hear about your experiences and what your organization is doing to address this issue. See this link for more information on the solutions we have found.

Guaranteeing IEC Secure Power Connections

There is a big push in the data center industry to address the major problem of Independent Electrical Contractor (IEC) plugs coming loose on equipment & power strips.
IEC Secure Power Connections
Have you been experiencing this issue due to appliance vibration or accidental disconnects when maintenance and cabling work is performed in your racks?

If so, PTS recommends and distributes five different IEC Secure Power Connections to meet the needs of data center operators. To learn more click here.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Retail Industry PCI Compliance Support

PCI 11.1 mandates retailers must execute a wireless scan once per quarter, per store. Given that on average a scan runs ~$300, for a 700 store retailer that equates to an $840,000 annual expenditure. Worse, retailers that fail Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) audits can be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars.

FortinetTo support this requirement, PTS Data Center Solutions has teamed up with Fortinet as its 'go to' supplier in helping our retail clients reign in these costs and ease management of PCI compliance. And, not just we recognize that, check out the IDC, Gartner, and Frost Market Summary Report.

To learn more, read our recent IT Solutions Bulletin - Fortinet for Retail Industry PCI Compliance.