Take a deep breath. Hold it in for a count of ten.

OK, now exhale.

How do you feel? Relaxed? Energized? Composed? Must be that clean air in your office! No smoke, good airflow and not too humid right? Hope that lighting in your office is comfortable for you.

Go ahead, take another deep breath. You’ve earned it! Do you know what else likes clean, pure air? Servers. Racks of them, in data centers all over the planet. If you want to make them safe and happy, you should install some data center Environmental Monitoring Systems (EMS).

You want to make sure your servers are healthy and performing at their peak. Have you ever opened up a server case and seen inside? Would you want your lungs to be filled with dust? It’s easy to keep tabs on the weather outside, but what about the weather inside your data center?

If you’re shopping for an EMS for your server rooms, you’ve come to the right place. Here are five of the best in the market, and why they’re so awesome. Take another deep breath, and dive into this list.

1.    ITWatchDogs

Besides having a great brand name, ITWatchDogs offers a wide spectrum of

• Air flow management appliances
• Environmental monitoring systems
• Environmental sensors
• Room air controllers

ITWatchdogs systems are sold by resellers around the world, supported by an expert team in Texas, and offer a wide range of appliances for different server room sizes and a variety of conditions. You can find high praise for these Geist products on many review sites like Spiceworks.  

2.    AVTECH

Avtech is another big player with quality products in the enviro monitoring business and offers:

• Affordable appliances, starting for under $200
• Measures for factors like:
  • Temperature
  • Room entry
  • Power on/off and amperage
  • Smoke/fire
  • Water and humidity
  • Air flow
• Software

Avtech is based in Rhode Island, and has resellers around the world as well. Many large, well-known companies like AT&T, Sprint, and Avaya trust Avtech and their GoToMyDevices.com software which allows IT engineers to monitor for room alerts from  anywhere in the world.

Editor's Note:

According to Russell Benoit, Marketing & Channel Communications Manager of AVTECH, "GoToMyDevices has been re-branded RoomAlert.com to make it much easier for users to access their Room Alert monitors, alerts, and reports through any internet-connected device. It's also the primary source of downloads for our users, including firmware and MIBs (for using our products with third-party SNMP applications). Any Room Alert user can sign up for a non-expiring account to help keep their hardware up to date."

3.    American Power Conversion

APC , a division of Schneider Electric, offers a number of very innovative Environmental Monitoring Units. Their NetBotz monitors have sensors for conditions including:

• Airflow
• Camera motion
• Dewpoint
• Human activity
• Humidity
• Smoke
• Temperature

APC is a big player in the environmental sensor appliance space, and their product line offers options for a number of different data center facility sizes and sensor conditions.

4.    Temperature @Lert

Temperature @Lert plays on the “low price segment” of the market compared to APC which leans towards large enterprise.

Temperature @Lert products are available across USB/WiFi/Cellular communications and connectivity protocols. They are used by some well-known organizations like Apple and Microsoft.

Sensor Cloud is Temperature @lert’s monitoring software, which the company claims is monitoring over 50,000 sensors.

Some of the user reviews we’ve read mention ease of use and installation, a broad set of use cases, and affordable price point as the reasons they are loyal to the Temperature @lert brand.

5.    Ubiquiti Networks

If you are looking for a reliable, affordable set of sensors and software, Ubitquiti’s mFi sensors offer detection including:

• Human motion
• Humidity
• Power current
• Room entry
• Temperature

The mFi sensors connect to a central device called the mPort, which logs information in Ubiquiti Advanced Management Software. You can connect mFi devices to mPort via Ethernet or WiFi, and user reviews are very positive.

The Bottom Line

After reviewing all of these data center Environmental Monitoring Systems, don’t you think it’s your data center’s turn to take a deep, clean breath of air?

Ensure your servers perform at peak performance, mitigate the risk of fire or humidity damage, and detect any unauthorized entry to your server rooms by the bad guys.

Have you tried one of these server room monitoring units? Are there others you’ve tried and are a fan of? Tell us about your experiences in the comments section below!

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