The majority of organisations today are dependent on ICT equipment to a critical degree, and that equipment has a total dependence on a good quality, consistent power supply. This dependence highlights how critical uninterrupted power supply (UPS) systems are, no matter how big or small the setup is.
Understanding users’ needs
We all know how frustrating a power outage can be, whether it’s in the workplace or at home. But an interruption or spike in power supply can have serious consequences, causing business interruption, and impacting travel, safety, and can even cause loss of life.
One example shows how severely air travel can be disrupted, in this instance when a control module malfunctioned, causing a surge and resultant loss of power. It illustrates how damaging an outage can be, not only logistically, but the knock-on effect such as business reputation, costs, which might include compensation to customers, and the reaction investors may have.
A recent survey of ICT equipment users in the UK revealed that three-quarters of them had experienced a cut in power during the previous twelve months, meaning that they’d had to fall back on their UPS to protect their systems. While there are inevitable planned outages, many are not, which is why over four-fifths of users agreed that the reliability of UPS is paramount in order to protect against an unreliable power supply.
UPS protection
The UK’s power grid continues to face new challenges. Managing the network is becoming a more complicated task as new energy sources such as wind and solar continue to grow. A large increase in demand is expected, too. Roisin Quinn, head of strategy at the National Grid, anticipates that sales of battery-powered cars will start to take off in the mid-2020’s, and as electric cars become more commonplace, so will the need for a smarter way of charging, to avoid peak demand times.
These additional challenges mean that businesses and organisations need to ensure that their critical equipment is protected from unexpected outages and spikes now and in the future. Ranges of solutions from providers such as Eaton UPS, can be found through outlets like http://www.cppsales.com/.
A surge protector with battery backup will protect devices in your home, while more heavyweight systems are built to protect networks, storage, servers and data centres.