One of the best parts is the number of outlets on the PDU. It allows for excellent wire management so you don't have a spider web of power cords.

I also really like the way they lock, so that somebody can't accidentally bump a power cord and it will come out. I, personally, was working on the back of a systems rack and it was a very tight space. As I was moving, my knee bumped across a power cord, not very hard at all, and it took down half of the rack. We were right in the middle of updating some OS files and we lost two servers completely that had to be completely rebuilt.

Also, the solution's color chassis options are a benefit. One of our new standards is that we've gone red and yellow with all power cables and PDUs, for primary and redundant. It's very easy for a technician to see that he's not unplugging both the power supplies of one unit. When everything is black and you're trying to trace it, sometimes your finger accidentally comes off the cable and you get on the wrong one. Next thing you know, you've unplugged both power supplies of a system and you have a crash. I've never done that one, but I have seen it done several times. The red and yellow make it almost idiot proof.

In addition, it allows you to configure as many outlets as you want, in a length that fits your specific rack size, so you don't have to have multiple PDUs.

What's most valuable about this is that Eaton built for us the exact model that I needed. We went through the customization options, everything from the cable length and electrical specifications to the color of the PDU. It showed different color PDUs to keep my company's data center that much more organized.

For me, it's about the basic, stable, dependable, reliable operation, not the flashy features.

The PDUs' color chassis options are a benefit. We use different color PDUs in our data center to mark the primary and redundant side of the electrical circuits, and we also use matching-colored electrical cables going between PDUs and the servers in our equipment. So, because we use remote hands to perform a great deal of our data center work, the color-coding matching makes it that much clearer for whoever's working in the cabinet. It's cleaner and it's more organized.

If we do have a technical issue that requires us to trace down or replug cables, which in a data center it's not like plugging something in your home. We need to pay attention to the power balance, all the electrical phases, and the load across all the cabinets. We need to take care. We need to be very careful about what is being plugged into where. Otherwise, we suffer a power failure and server outage. That makes our job that much easier.

Eaton's PDUs provide more outlets than any other PDUs. It was significantly important when making our decision to go with Eaton.