Sensors central to Sentilla data center monitoring
Sentilla's sensor and software system directly connected to monitor SunFire X4100 and T2000 servers.
(Credit: Sentilla)Sentilla, a company that makes energy management technology, announced Wednesday it's also getting into management for data centers.
The Redwood City, Calif.-based company makes a software and microsensor system for detecting and managing the environments and energy consumption of commercial and industrial facilities.
Sentilla's new product announcement on Wednesday expands their reach to include analyzing the energy consumption of computers, servers, and their accoutrements in data centers.
Simply named the Sentilla Energy Manager, the system uses Sentilla's sensors with microcomputers to measure the change in activity levels and electricity consumption of servers. The devices are basically microcontrollers with built-in low-power wireless radios that run on two AAA batteries, according to the company. The computer is roughly the size of a dime and is loaded with Sentilla's Java-compliant software.
The microcomputers' data is sent wirelessly every couple of minutes to a computer so a human monitor can determine in real time a facility's energy patterns. Sentilla's sensors can also be used to monitor room temperature.
Sentilla received $7.5 million in Series B funding in early January from Onset Ventures and Claremont Creek Ventures. Prior to that, the company tested its technology on the Moscone Center in San Francisco during the JavaOne 2008 conference.
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. 
