Patent for Simplified, Integrated Electronic Locking on Intelligent PDUs Awarded to Chatsworth Products

New Technology Integrates Electronic Access Control, Power Management and Environmental Monitoring for an Enhanced Cabinet Ecosystem

 AGOURA HILLS, Calif., March 7, 2018 — Chatsworth Products (CPI) was recently awarded a patent for a cost-effective, simplified electronic access control (EAC) product for data center cabinets. This new technology combines access control, intelligent power management and environmental monitoring into a single, integrated platform—highlighting the company’s pioneering expertise in power products and solutions for the data center.

Increasing migration toward remote edge compute sites and multitenant data centers (MTDC) creates the need for effective remote management of the data center cabinet. Furthermore, growing data privacy regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), and the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are driving the need for improved cabinet access control.

U.S. Patent No. 9,865,109 covers the integration of the functions of a rack power distribution unit (PDU), EAC and environmental monitoring into a single appliance within the cabinet. Through CPI’s intelligent eConnect® PDU, data center managers can integrate environmental sensors and electronic locking capability as a single solution. Users can view and manage power at each outlet and cabinet, monitor status of environmental conditions and control each cabinet access attempt with an audit trail report that is easily exportable via a user-friendly web interface.

Additionally, these three systems can be linked through Secure Array™ IP Consolidation, allowing up to 32 PDUs, 32 EAC kits and 64 environmental probes to be networked under only one IP address—saving data centers thousands of dollars in networking costs. For example, a row of 16 cabinets with two PDUs each would only require two network connections with Secure Array, but would need up to 32 network connections in a standard deployment.

“The integration of EAC into the rack PDU continues our focus on simplification and efficiency for the CPI ecosystem. We wanted to bring a simple, cost-effective cabinet access solution to market without adding complexity to the data center,” says Donald Conner, Electronics & Software Engineer Manager.

CPI’s approach to data center efficiency begins with the cabinet, addressing it as an ecosystem that provides the groundwork for successful and simplified operations. CPI GlobalFrame® and TeraFrame® cabinets can be shipped with EAC and eConnect PDUs preinstalled, and can be easily integrated with Power IQ® for eConnect—CPI’s DCIM solution—for more granular reporting of the cabinet and the facility itself.

For more information on CPI’s eConnect EAC, visit the product page. For more information on CPI’s Cabinet Ecosystem approach, click here.