Raritan reinvents the Rack Power Transfer Switch

Raritan International India, a provider of IT infrastructure management solutions and a KVM major, has announced the launch of The Intelligent Rack Transfer Switch – which uses a patent-pending hybrid design for fast and reliable load transfers from one power source to another offering outlet-level metering and power switching. It is the first of its’ kind to offer both electromechanical relays and silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs) to overcome the limitations of a traditional automatic transfer switch (ATS). Ideal for cloud computing infrastructures and data center racks filled with one-power-supply devices, the new switch is one of the fastest in the industry twice as fast as standard automatic transfer switches and one of the most reliable.

The new transfer switch can monitor power at the outlet-level, as well as the inlet-level, providing more granular energy information useful for capacity planning and managing energy costs. The transfer switch’s new secure switching capabilities enable power to a device to be turned on and off remotely – eliminating visits to the data center.

“Before Raritan released its first intelligent rack transfer switch model, the choices were limited,” says David Wood, Director, Power Business, Raritan.  According to Wood, automatic transfer switches (ATS) were inexpensive, but suffered from longer transfer times of 8 to 16ms, and often failed as a result of electrical arcing that welded contacts together.  And, static transfer switches offered very fast transfers of 4 to 6ms, but were nearly six times more expensive than ATS, drew more energy, and produced excess heat that consumed additional cooling resources.

Sanjay Motwani, Regional Director, India, SEA, Taiwan & Hong Kong, Raritan International says, “Through this launch, Raritan happens to be first in India and the world to offer inlet, outlet, and branch circuit level power metering and outlet-level switching for better remote power control. By introducing outlet-level metering and switching capabilities to our transfer switch today we are providing tools to help customers better manage their infrastructure resources and create intelligent data centers.”

Available worldwide, the Raritan Intelligent Rack Transfer Switch offers a number of options and a range of voltage and plug types.  The switch comes with an intelligent network-ready controller with display, and with two USB-A and one USB-B ports to support Wi-Fi networking, webcams and cascading to share IP drops.  The switch’s sensor ports support optional Raritan plug-and-play sensors for monitoring environmental conditions in the racks.