Summertime is often considered one of the most demanding times for power consumption, and the effects of high power consumption could come at a cost to your business or home workstations and servers.  We always recommend to our customers running uninterrupted power supplies for their workstations and servers to prevent the possible issues that an unprotected device can suffer.  Issues that often arrise during high-power consumption include brown outs, bouts of bad power which can damage equipment, and power surges.  An Uninterrupted Power Supply or UPS will protect you from these possible outcomes, and we've gone through how you should pick out your UPS, why they're necessary, and what they can do for you.

Finding Your Power Requirements

UPS's are essentially surge protectors, combines with a battery unit and power inverter.  In tandem these three components work together to protect the equipment that is attached to it from power failure and surges of power that could damage the connected equipment.

To ensure you have the right amount of power protection, it's recommended you determine three factors:

  • The level of UPS your devices need
  • How much runtime the UPS should provide to the attached equipment
  • What type of applications you need to support and maintain

Identifying your workstation and server power requirements will help you to find the exact type of UPS system for your home or offices needs.

Capacity describes how much power a UPS will provide to the attached equipment.  The more capacity of the UPS, the larger quantity of the connected equipment that can be connected.  To find your needed capacity, add up the total power consumption of all your devices you expect to connect to the UPS.

Runtime is the umber of minutes a UPS system can support any given load during a power failure event.  The minimum runtime needed is how long it takes to safely shutdown any connected devices and equipment.  Runtimes should be long enough for the slowest device to finish powering down.

Application refers to the voltage and frequency requirements of the devices that will be connected to the UPS.  In the US and Canada, most consumer electronic device components use 120V AC power at 60 Hz.  Make sure the voltage and frequency of the UPS model you choose match the devices you plan to connect to it.

The Cost of Data Loss

Data Loss due to power failure can be costly to your company, especially if you don't have a backup, or if the backup you have is also effected by the power failure.  A University of Texas research study tells us that 94% of businesses that experience data loss do not survive, 43% never reopen and 51% close within 2 years.

Many of the causes of data loss are preventable too with the right precautions and equipment.  Some causes include:

  • 46% of data loss is due to unexpected power outage
  • 33% of data loss is due to Application Failure
  • 28% of data loss is due to accidental data deletion by users
  • 20% of data loss is due to Virus/Malware
  • 9% of data loss is due to natural disaster
  • over 400,000 hard drives fail in the US each year
  • An hour of downtime can cost $20,000

You can help avoid the chance of data loss due to power failure by using UPS battery backup's to safely shut down equipment or make a backup of your data.

The UPS that's Right For You

UPS equipment comes in all assortments of sizes, and there is no one-size fits all solution.  Finding the right kind of Uninterrupted Power Supply for your equipment is best for saving your data, and devices.

The two most commonly used and well known UPS companies are CyberPower and APC.  Both of these providers offer a wide assortment of UPS and battery backup equipment to protect any size home or office set up.

A small, inexpensive UPS is great for anyone that wants to protect their home computer or wants to keep their home WiFi up in case of a short brownout or power loss event.  Unlike traditional phone services, the internet equipment requires continuous power to stay active.  Adding a UPS backup unit to your internet equipment will help keep you connected even when the power go's out.

Larger UPS devices with extra power and features can keep home offices and workstations up and running during business hours.  In cases of extended power loss, larger UPS devices can offer users more time to safely shutdown equipment, and save data.  In some cases, a UPS can provide critical backup power even in cases where home medical equipment like CPAP machines can continue to work.

Whether you need to keep a continuous flow of power to your home computer and router, or your trying to protect your office workstations and valuable data, a UPS battery backup is highly recommended.  As a San Diego managed services provider we highly recommend pairing your computer equipment with a UPS.  If you have questions or would like recommendations on the best way to go for protecting your equipment from power failure contact us today!