Voltage monitoring should be a concern. Why? Because your battery backup will only last so long and you need to know when / if they are being used. Below is a rough outline of a conversation I had recently with our network engineer during an ice storm:

Mike: Hello Tom, does the office have power?
Tom: I don’t know, let me check.
<60 seconds>
Tom: I can ping the server at the office so we must have power.
Mike: Ya but, is it on battery backup or does the office have power?
Tom: Ah, good question.

Thankfully, we had the voltage detector configured in our server room. Think of this sensor as sort of like those handy voltage sensors you keep in the house to see if you are getting power from an outlet.

Monitoring power consumption is a smart idea. If your data center goes down, even if it is only a couple of servers, a router and a switch, it could cost you serious money.

A good environmental monitoring solution should include power monitoring when it comes to the data center.

- Mike