When it comes to managing power supply for large-scale data centres, the main aspects to take into account are that the power is clean and dependable. Unfortunately, at times this can be more of an afterthought.
The fact is that with a lot of data being transferred to cloud and virtualisation growing by leaps and bounds, network devices, servers and storage systems tend to endure a lot of stress. These systems use components that are so tiny and sensitive that they can fault & fail if the power conditions aren’t steady and consistent.
The Importance of UPS
There was a time when Information Technology played only a supporting role in the overall working of any business. However, all of that has now changed and it is central to the functioning of businesses in most industries. If the IT systems are down, that can impact the productivity and working of the entire organisation.
This is what makes UPS an integral part of any power setup. Here we debunk some power protection misconceptions; this will help you make a more well-informed decision while choosing the right one for your business’ IT applications:
Some misconceptions about UPS
Misconception #1 – Utility power is always reliable and clean
Fact- Utility power is neither 100% reliable nor clean. There can be a voltage fluctuation in the range of 5.7% to 8.3% under absolute specifications and depending on where your set up is there can be outages as well.
Misconception #2 – A very brief outage won’t really impact my bottom line
Fact- If you lose power for even as little as 1/4th of a second, that can trigger larger events that can potentially keep the IT systems unavailable for anywhere between 15 minutes to several hours. This type of a downtime can impact your business in a big way. There is research which indicates in the wake of a power outage that impacts IT systems:
- 33%+ of organisations take in excess of a day to recover
- 10% of organisations take more than a week
- It can take days/weeks to re-configure lost data
- It can take a minimum of 48 hrs to reconfigure an affected network
In simple words, power outages can result in significant losses for the affected company.
Misconception #3 – My business isn’t large enough to need proactive power protection
Fact – Power problems are actually equal-opportunity threats. They can hit & impact small business with the same frequency and severity as bigger ones. Regardless of the size of your business, your computer network and servers are as important to you as they are to larger enterprises. In fact larger businesses have the money power to bear financial losses in case their company gets hit by a power issue; but a smaller business has comparatively less holding power.
Misconception #4 – I have surge processor as well as a generator and don’t require a UPS
Fact- While surge suppressors and generators are a good start; they prove to be incomplete solutions for typically systemic problems. A backup generator can address power outages; however, it doesn’t provide any protection against many other power disturbances. Aside from this, a number of critical systems can also lock-up within the 10 to 30 seconds that it takes for the system to switch to the backup power.
Surge suppressors address power surges. However, they don’t have an effect on the variance and under-voltage conditions which can zap the systems within no time, or can slowly affect the health of your equipment over time.
In comparison a UPS system will protect your IT systems as it conditions incoming power and smooths out the spikes and sags that are very common on any primary sources of power.
If you want to know more about our power products and services, don’t hesitate to contact us at KaRaTec Power Supply Pty. You can give us a call at 612 9808 1127. You can also fill in this contact us form.
Thanks for reading,
Karatec Power Supply Pty
612 9808 1127