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Data Center Infrastructure Monitoring
Branch-level power visibility and rack temperature are hardware you buy once and read forever. We quote switched and metered PDUs and environmental sensing as part of the rack build, rather than as a retrofit after the first thermal event.
- Scope
- Rack-level power metering, outlet control and environmental sensing
- What we quote
- Switched and metered PDUs, sensors, containment and airflow
- Best bought
- With the rack build — retrofitting a PDU means a power-down
- Boundary
- DCIM software platforms are sourced on request, not held
You can only retrofit power visibility by turning the rack off
A rack PDU is decided once. Choose a basic strip at build time and the only way to add branch-level metering later is to de-energise the rack, unrack the strip and re-cable every unit above it — which is why the upgrade almost never happens, and why capacity planning in most halls runs on a spreadsheet of nameplate ratings that bear no relationship to actual draw. Uniqcli quotes the metered and switched PDU, the environmental sensing and the containment as part of the rack build, at the point where the decision is cheap. What you get afterwards is unglamorous and permanent: real per-branch current, per-outlet control for a remote power cycle, and inlet and exhaust temperature at the rack rather than a room average from a wall thermostat.
Four PDU classes, and the one decision that cannot be undone
Rack PDUs come in four broad shapes. A basic strip distributes power and reports nothing. A metered unit reports aggregate or per-branch current, which is what capacity planning actually needs. A switched unit adds per-outlet control, which is what lets a remote hand cycle a hung device without a site visit. A monitored-and-switched unit does both, per outlet, and costs accordingly.
Sizing is the other half. Input phase and voltage, plug type, the number and type of outlets, and — most often missed — the physical form: a vertical zero-U strip consumes no rack units but has to fit the cabinet depth and the cable-management path, while a horizontal unit costs you rack space you may want back later.
Environmental sensing rides alongside. Inlet and exhaust temperature per rack, humidity where the room lacks tight control, and leak detection under a raised floor or near an in-row cooler are all modest hardware purchases relative to what a single thermal event costs. Our shelf here is thinner than the power line — this is genuinely a quote-and-source category rather than a deep stocked one, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
Rack instrumentation, quoted with the build
Power distribution is the deepest shelf on this page; sensing is real but thinner. Naming a manufacturer describes the market, not a Uniqcli partnership or endorsement.
Switched rack PDUs
Per-outlet control for remote power cycling, which is the difference between a two-minute recovery and a truck roll. Server Technology carries a fully priced switched and metered line, with Vertiv, Eaton and Legrand alongside across form factors. Specified against input phase, plug type and outlet count before anything is quoted.
Metered and branch-metered PDUs
The capacity-planning workhorse: real current per branch rather than a nameplate sum. Branch-level metering is what tells you a circuit is at seventy percent before a new server takes it past its limit, and it is the single most useful number a hall can collect about itself.
Temperature, humidity and leak sensing
Inlet and exhaust sensing at the rack, plus humidity and leak detection where the room design warrants it. This is an honestly modest shelf — dozens of priced lines rather than thousands — so most sensing requirements are quoted and sourced against the specific platform rather than picked off a page.
Containment, blanking and airflow
The cheapest thermal fix in any hall is usually blanking panels and brush grommets, not more cooling. Panduit and Legrand carry deep containment, blanking and pathway lines, and airflow components are quoted alongside them as part of the same rack package.
What stays yours to run
The DCIM platform itself — the software that aggregates every PDU reading and sensor into one view, models capacity and drives the alerts — is not a line we hold. Where one is in scope we take it as a sourcing request through authorized US distribution and say plainly if it cannot be sourced. Naming a platform we cannot verify in our own catalog would be worse than saying nothing.
We also do not operate the facility. We do not build, own or run data centers, we do not watch your thresholds, and we hold no credentials on your power infrastructure. We supply and integrate the instrumentation; the hall, its readings and the decisions taken from them are yours. The program stays yours to run — the policy, the schedule, the decisions and the records. What a supplier puts behind it is the hardware, the licensing and the integration work that puts either into service.
Rack instrumentation questions
Metered or switched — which do we actually need?
Metered if the problem is capacity planning; switched if the problem is remote recovery. Sites with staff on the floor often need only metering, while dark or remote sites justify per-outlet switching almost immediately, because one avoided call-out can exceed the price difference. Where both matter, monitored-and-switched units do both per outlet.
Can we add metering to racks that are already live?
Only by taking the rack down. Replacing a PDU means de-energising it and re-cabling everything it feeds, which is why this is a build-time decision. Where a live hall genuinely needs visibility, the practical alternatives are upstream metering at the panel or waiting for the next planned outage — we will say which applies rather than quoting a swap that cannot happen safely.
Do you install and commission the PDUs?
Rack integration, cable management and configuration staging are part of our integration lane, delivered as deployment-ready racks with a serialized asset record. Electrical work upstream of the rack — the circuit, the panel, the permit — belongs to your facilities contractor, and we do not represent otherwise.
Do you sell the DCIM software?
Not from the catalog. DCIM platforms are sourced on request through authorized US distribution, and we say plainly where a given platform cannot be sourced. The instrumentation those platforms read is what we quote as a matter of course.
Power selection tools and reading
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Instrument the rack while it is still on paper
Send the rack elevation, the input phase and the outlet count. We come back with PDU, sensing and containment quoted as one line item in the build.