Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

As a business leader, part of your mandate is to ensure maximum ROI on your technology investments.  A huge part of that goal is to choose the best solutions to meet both current and evolving needs, along with providing proper training to users to increase adoption and use.  It also means investigating additional investments to secure your investments – from both a cybersecurity perspective, which is in the forefront of media coverage on a daily basis – but also from a physical perspective, protecting technology from electrical damage.

The latter is not always top of mind – until a power outage or surge damages equipment resulting exceedingly high repair or replacement costs.  Unfortunately, power protection systems are too often a reactionary expenditures, rather than preventative measures.

Instead of taking chances with damaged equipment and lost data, the smart move is to install a UPS system that will provide safety and continuity during outages and eliminate the risk of damage from surges.  UPS systems can be designed and installed in a variety of configurations to meet any business’ needs, whether they are looking to simply provide short-term backup to allow for safe shutdown of systems, long-term power solutions to allow systems to remain operational during extended outages, or something in between.

The first step is to determine what you want to protect and what size and type of UPS system you are going to need.

Standby UPS systems are the lowest cost solution, but provide adequate protection for smaller load network equipment, security devices, and PCs.  In addition to providing power filtering to protect against spikes and surges, the small-capacity battery is designed to offer enough runtime to finish or save ongoing activities and properly shut down those systems.  When paired with management software, these tasks can be automated to happen at the onset of an outage.

Line Interactive UPS systems provide similar benefits, to standby systems, but offer higher efficiency and longer battery capacity for longer runtimes during outages.

Online backup systems are an even higher grade alternative, leveraging double-conversion technology and providing zero transfer time to battery power during an outage.  These systems also provide protection when power switches from primary circuits to backup generators.  Because they deliver tru sinewave power to equipment, they are ideal for sensitive mission-critical network technology and information and communications systems that are the lifeblood of operations.

In all likelihood, a combination of systems to provide different capabilities to a range of equipment is the way to properly protect your investment and business without spending more than you have to.  But, the first step is to understand that no business is immune to outages and power spikes, and no equipment is immune to damage.  The only way to ensure you won’t have to contend with the headache and cost of damages is to preemptively install a power protection system.