Racking It Up In The Data Center

It's been some time since the CRN Test Center has evaluated a rack cabinet -- not the usual piece of technology we review but a vital piece of information technology all the same.

Since the last major server refresh cycle about three years ago, much has changed in the data center. With new technology from Microsoft (Windows Server 2008) and Intel (Nehalem platform of CPUs for servers), as well as new rackable appliances, UPS units and more, there is now a greater opportunity than ever for small or midsize businesses to take their sprawling, far-flung IT inventories and consolidate.

Consolidating, rearchitecting or even building a small data center from scratch is a task that needs to start with two basic elements: power and infrastructure. This month, we take a look at Emerson Network Power's Knurr Miracel rack cabinet—a product we liked for its simplicity, design and price. It's a tidy piece of infrastructure that even small businesses can adopt without a lot of pain.

Here's what we found:

The Knurr Miracel rack is built with aluminum, not steel, so it's lighter than a lot of previous-generation racks. Since we had to off-load it from the delivery truck, which had no cargo lift, we became very thankful for Emerson Network Power's decision to go with aluminum. For delivery, it was listed at 300 pounds in weight.

Its dimensions make it nice for a small area: 6 feet, 8 inches tall by 3 feet, 7 inches deep by about 2 feet wide. It made it through the door and fit snugly but nicely into our real-estatechallenged lab.

It has wheels: Once we got it off the wooden pallet, we easily pulled it where we needed it to go. Our existing cabinets don't have wheels.

It's 42U, which holds the same number of racks as our existing cabinets but with a smaller footprint.

While it's compact, we found hardware mounting to be no more difficult than in cabinets with a larger footprint.

Cable and wire management is handled in a straighforward manner with lobster claws, velcro strap brackets and perforated strap, which mount easily and help prevent "rat's nest" issues as more units are added to the cabinet.

Oh, about that cargo lift. It's worth a call prior to delivery to make sure that the freight company has one. Trust us.

Here, we're looking forward to seeing how manageable it is and we have high hopes. Overall, we believe there's a major opportunity in data center upgrades (or first-time builds) for even small businesses.

The Knurr Miracel did not come to us with a PDU as other racks may; we were left to install third-party power units, but that was not a big deal.

Emerson Network Power does provide a nice user manual—we're big on user manuals around here—and it does provide easy-to-understand, best configuration practices for managing air flow inside the cabinet (like stacking appliances on top of each other, rather than staggering them and leaving spaces in between). While most VARs will already have that embedded deeply into their best practices for data centers, it may be a resource to share with the end-user customers, who sometimes believe they know more than the VAR about getting the most out of a rack cabinet.

Street pricing on the Knurr Miracel rack can range from $1,400 to about $1,700, which we believe is competitive. Emerson Network Power also provides VARs with financial incentives and support.

The bottom line: The coming months will be an opportunity for many small businesses to consolidate or rearchitect their data centers for more and ever-greater efficiencies. Combining Emerson Network Power's straightforward approach, nice design, price and channel programs, the CRN Test Center believes it's a good route to take for VARs that are undertaking data center design or redesign for small or midsize customers.

COMMUNITY: Connect with the Test Center at community. crn.com.

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