Survival in our 24/7 world
has put demands for power protection solutions at an all time high
By Jorma
Mannerkoski
product marketing director EMEA
Invensys Power Systems
May 20 -June 02, 2002
Correct me if I am wrong here, but haven't times
changed? It seems like only yesterday that 5:00pm was the time people
quit work for the day, that the workplace used to sound bells or horns
to signal the end of the working day. There was no significant
overtime, no long hours just a pure and simple working week. And once
workers arrived home they simply had dinner, met up with friends, or
watched TV and went to bed to ensure that they got up in time to go to
work the next morning.
Indeed things have changed. Welcome to the digital
age where we live in a 24/7 existence of extended shopping hours, more
demanding customers, virtual shopping, mobile connectivity, the
Internet, are to name just a few things, that have combined to change
the face of the world in which companies and organizations must
compete. Everything is expected to work around the clock. People
expect to be able to access their bank account over the internet at
anytime of the night or day from anywhere in the world, or be able to
call to and from anywhere in the world at any time, or pay bills, book
holidays, buy clothes, in our busy lives we want to be able to do this
whenever is most convenient for us. Businesses supplying such services
need to be able to offer this, without problems or delays. They need
to be available efficiently and effectively 24 hours a day.
Just take the Internet for example. If the web site
supplying a service crashes or takes forever to complete it is a fact
that the customer will go elsewhere, maybe to another site that
doesn't crash, or change to a more reliable ISP. It's the same with
telecommunications companies. They need to be able to provide a secure
and stable service to its phone customers.
A supermarket relies on electronic terminals and
computers to process customer sales. If the system goes down then
customers will walk out and business is lost. Likewise a bank dealing
room which is processing millions of pounds worth of customer business
every hour cannot afford a minute's downtime due to power problems.
There is so much competition between organizations that they cannot
afford to disrupt their services at anytime.
According to the Venture Development Corporation (VDC),
"Demand for UPSs within Europe will expand steadily as computing,
networking, Internet based businesses and telecommunications continue
rapid growth within EMEA. The growing dependence upon this
electronically linked telecommunications infrastructure of mission
critical applications and data storage functions will be a growth
driver as the EMEA market surges toward US$2.2 billion (Euro 2.4
billion) in 2004, in contrast to US$1.4 billion (Euro 1.6 billion) in
1999."
Giving the customer what it wants and knowing how
to do it is the key to success in this new age. Business enterprises
and administrators (IT managers) responsible for maintaining systems
availability recognize the necessity of investing heavily in power
protection. The need for UPS relates directly to how critical computer
uptime is to your organization and in this day and age it is 24/7.
Thus solid reliable power protection 24/7 is key to the success or
failure of your business.
VDC states: "End users are appreciating and
seeking power protection for mission critical applications and
operations due to the unstable power grid, whilst more and more
operations are being defined as mission critical." Coupled with
traditional markets such as medical laboratories, hospitals and public
buildings, the new and more non traditional markets such as Internet
banking, telecoms, datacom, Internet-based businesses, call centres
and network centres to name just a few, will drive the UPS market in
EMEA over the next few years, as they strive to keep going 24/7. The
migration away from centralized information, data use and storage to
distributed processing has been the key to many application
developments. In the past few years, demand for UPS has involved
client server networking. With increased networking and Internet use
in EMEA, VDC expects this trend to continue, and to peak in two to
three years.
TODAY'S POWER PROBLEMS
Many people wrongly assume that the only time to
worry about the effect of power on computer and other electronic
equipment is when there is a total power cut, which in most countries
is not frequent. However, what has the greatest impact are the
fluctuations and disturbances in mains power and power grids which are
unseen but can affect the performance of equipment.
It has been estimated that in the past that almost
half of all unexplained computer problems such as data loss, network
crashes, mysterious error messages, damaged files and so forth can be
attributed to power input problems. Many people assumed that the
electricity coming from the mains is 'pure' but it is not. For
instance, the utility input voltage can fluctuate widely over a period
of time. Then there are a multitude of other power problems such as
sags, spikes, brownouts, surges and so forth. Many factors can affect
the quality of the power. For example, using the lifts in the building
or even switching on the photocopier can cause fluctuations in the
supply. Sensitive electronic equipment like computers, hubs and
routers are susceptible to power variations. Most PCs nowadays can
ride out power outages of a few milliseconds but no more.
UPS should be considered when an IT installation is
being planned or a building is first being constructed. Power
protection specialists advise on what equipment is needed to protect
the load and any special considerations, which need to be taken into
account. What a UPS does is not only provide backup power in the event
of a complete power failure but also take the input electricity, clean
it up and output what is called 'pure sinewave'.
The level of UPS protection varies with the size of
organisation; the criticality of systems and the way businesses are
set up. Some companies have one large UPS in the basement of the
building, which protects the power supply for the whole building. This
is also often backed up by a generator, which can provide longer term
uptime. Other companies may just protect the network server or
individual workstations where the data is vital to their business. As
VDC explains; 'The migration away from centralised information, data
use and storage to distributed processing has been the key to many
application developments. In the past few years, demand for low UPS
has involved client server networks. With increased networking and
Internet use in EMEA, VDC expects this trend to continue, and to peak
in two to three years.'
However, the most important thing to know is that
there is a UPS solution to suit your needs, whether its small basic
protection for every PC or workstation in your organisation or whether
you choose to back up everything with one large UPS. And as UPS
technology continues to advance your business / organisation will keep
up in this 24/7 world we live in.
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