What is a UPS? Protecting your IT appliances and IP security systems, against power cuts and surges has become more important than ever to ensure business continuity. Power failure resulting in network downtime can cost businesses substantial sums in revenue; in addition, data lost during those power failures is often not recoverable.
This is how a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) device can protect your organisation. This is an appliance that can provide back-up power in the event of a power cut and sits between the incoming power and the protected device. The UPS also provides power filtering to iron out any power peaks and troughs. In the event of a power cut the device continues to provide power from its battery or battery pack.
This is important in protecting your IT infrastructure and devices and we would always recommend that your CCTV System, for example, has a UPS installed to ensure your property is protected what ever happens to your power supply.
There are a range of UPS devices so your IT equipment can be protected whatever the size of your business. Meanwhile some of the larger server manufacturers now recommend the use of a UPS as part of their warranty stipulations.
The key benefits of a UPS system:
- Immediately provides backup power during power failure to keep your business running
- Bridges the power gap until a standby generator is synchronised
- Protects against brownouts, power spikes, voltage dips, fluctuations and complete power failures
- Shuts down a computer or server in an orderly manner
- Reduces downtime costs and protect critical equipment
- Protects against data loss; increasing user productivity.
Protecting your UPS
You need to remember that UPS devices also require monitoring and batteries generally tend to last for around five years. You can monitor the UPS locally or remotely. Alerts can be sent to inform you of events or when a UPS battery change is due to help you maintain the resilience that you require.
Key reasons why you need to monitor a UPS:
- To enable you to respond quickly if action is needed
- So you are the first to know when there is a problem
- Alerted when the battery isn’t performing at full capacity and requires maintenance
- Extend the life of the battery with temperature monitoring
- Optimise energy efficiency, reduce energy costs and ensure the best performance of your UPS
- Prevent costly IT downtime
- To know how much runtime you have in the event of power failure
Ecl-ips provides a range of APC-branded systems manufactured by Schneider Electric so that we install the right appliance for the power required. These systems can be designed for specific needs or provided quickly in an emergency situation. Single computers, servers, data centres and communication rooms would benefit from rack mounted or tower UPS systems. In large data centres we can provide room-based UPS systems complete with power monitoring and control.
Schneider Electric’s latest appliances come with a Secure Network Management Card (NMC) System subscription that enables device-level remote monitoring and management. This includes firmware management with its Secure NMC System (SNS) Tool so that updates occur in a timely mannered and meet the highest cybersecurity standards (IEC 62443-4-2).
If you want to know more about how a UPS and other devices can help with power protection and monitoring, please get in touch.