Winter is just around the corner, days are getting shorter, nights are getting longer, and temperatures are dropping significantly. We all know what that means, well on the highveld, at least.... Electricity bills go up, since, when the sun goes down, almost every household scrambles to get those heaters up and running, to fight off the icy grip of cold.
The average person thinks little about this yearly phenomenon, and only about getting warmer. What they do not realize is that many businesses regard this time of year as a very high risk.
With the increased strain on the electrical system, comes the high risk of power failures. With these power failures comes more than just a ditsy cold spell for businesses, but also the fear of damage to electronic equipment and components, and, more importantly, potentially losing mission-critical data if companies do not have a back-up plan. Power disruptions can cause problems of major proportions for these companies and their customers, not including the massive amounts of money that are lost, which can run into the thousands and even millions of Rands.
OK, a total black-out is not the only problem, and these do not necessarily only happen during winter. The fact of the matter is that any kind of disruption to power, be it surges, spikes, brown-outs, or sags as they are also known, lighting strikes and the all-too-common unexpected power cut - most recently brought to the fore in the media through the tales of the Izinyoka stealing cables - poses a serious threat to companies.
What is there to do? How do companies safeguard themselves from sure disaster? The answer is simple - turn to the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) manufacturers and suppliers. But this is more easily said than done... What is the best solution?
The UPS has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a small battery back-up, which allowed users to protect their equipment, and gave them about 10 minutes to save their work and shut PCs down with no major data corruption or loss.
The UPS market has become as much of solutions market as the rest of the ICT industry, with total power and rack solutions being sold to major corporations, incorporating complex power management capabilities for hundreds of PCs and mission-critical servers at a time.
Kobie Coetzee, MGE product manager at IT systems and communications distributor Comztek, agrees that the UPS has evolved over the years: "Previously little more than a small battery backup to enable PC users to shut down in the event of a power failure, and a lightning protection device, it is now one of the most important network components."
Says Carl Kleynhans, American Power Conversion Corp. (APC) country GM for Africa: "Originally hardware and equipment was expensive, and the main reason that companies implemented UPS solutions was to protect these devices from damage due to power failures. These days there is much more at stake, and data has become more valuable. Protecting the mission-critical data of companies and their customers has become the main focus for the UPS vendor."
"If you own a computer, you most definitely should be concerned about protecting it from problems that can be created by your local power supply," says Graham Beyleveld, sales director for sub-Saharan Africa at Meissner Power Systems.
Coetzee exclaims that UPS systems are no longer a ?nice to have", but a critical necessity. She says that, in today"s networked environment - particularly with the rapid adoption of VoIP in the business arena - a company"s risk management strategy has to take account of more than just the provision of power. "The quality of that power has become critical," she adds.
Kleynhans says that availability is a key strategic issue now and power is critical in this strategy. Beyleveld cuts to the chase and lays it out straight: "Nobody can tolerate a power failure any more."
Continues Coetzee: "For many people, their only concern is to avoid power failures, when they should also be concerned about the quality of the power that is driving their equipment. This means the power has to be regulated - and that is where today"s UPS systems come to the fore."
Kleynhans notes that UPS is no longer the ?dumb battery in a box" and that more intelligence has been built into UPS systems and solutions, where software has been introduced, with important diagnostics tools playing a critical role for companies to monitor current systems environments. He stresses that manageability has become key in the ICT environments of today"s companies and UPS" evolution is right on track with this notion.
"UPSs of today are equipped with total power and rack solutions suitable for small to medium businesses as well as major corporations. They also provide for simplified manageability of Local Area Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs), while allowing IT managers to monitor power usage across networks," Coetzee adds.
TCO versus solution
"To optimize the total cost of ownership (TCO) of any UPS system, users must determine their primary power supply needs in order to implement an appropriate solution. This could range from short-term power provision to more advanced power filtering with 12-hour uptime.
"Users may find an offline UPS that provides basic, short-term power provision for up to four PCs more than sufficient, while other organizations may require a more advanced line interactive or dual conversion UPS that provides voltage regulation, power regulation and filtering, as well as significantly longer system uptime," she says.
When looking at installing a UPS solution, as with any ICT solution, cost is an issue. Says Beyleveld: "TCO does not seem to be a front of mind consideration. Companies are initially only looking at the price of a UPS solution, forgetting about how the solution can save them money, and possible loss of data, in the long run. Price rules everything," he says.
Beyleveld says this is born out of ignorance, with IT specialists not knowing the technical subtleties. He says it is frightening to see that people still think that cheaper is better, forgetting about the hidden costs, which may only become apparent when the cheaper solution does not work.
According to him, companies do not know and do not understand what they need to do to protect their equipment and mission-critical data when the power is disrupted. He says there is a major technical requirement deficiency in IT departments when it comes to choosing a workable UPS solution, and that educating and consulting with companies on what they need has become a huge part of UPS suppliers" jobs. "Companies spend Rand 1 million (US$162,639) on a UPS system without looking at what they actually require," he adds.
Most UPS purchases are also still seen to be ?grudge" buys, after the damage has been done to equipment, and critical data has been lost. Beyleveld says that he cannot believe that, after all this time, this attitude still exists.
The UPS market has also expanded extensively, with the ?always on", ?on demand" and ?always available" nature of business these days. It reaches further than only business and enterprise as home users are increasingly transacting online, through Internet banking and online retail stores at times that are convenient to them.
Home and business
What will happen if a person is in the middle of an online transaction - banking or shopping online - and the power fails? What happens to the money? Home PC users thus also have a requirement for a UPS or power surge protection solution. There are a number of UPS solutions currently on the market, ranging from a solution for the residential user, or an SME with 20 users, up to large corporates with over a thousand users on their networks. All at a price, of course.
It seems people still waste money on cheap solutions. For the home user, says Beyleveld, the budget surge protector or power strip, which many people buy at their local hardware stores, usually offers no protection against either electrical interference or power-supply irregularities. For a surge protector to be effective, it must be carefully designed and be able to respond fast enough - within a time literally measured in millionths of a second - to prevent a power surge from reaching, and damaging, electronic equipment.
According to Beyleveld, a more effective solution for these users is to invest in a small-scale UPS. "When your computer shuts down improperly, such as when there is a power outage, any unsaved work is lost, and there is always a risk of files on your computer becoming corrupted. A good UPS includes surge protection and a filter to protect against electrical noise, but it also includes a back-up power supply provided by one or more rechargeable batteries," he comments.
Beyleveld notes that some smaller UPS models also include the ability to run a computer and some peripheral equipment for an hour or more. He says that one should remember that generally, the more expensive the UPS, the more run-time it provides.
"If you live in an area that frequently suffers from brownouts, consider getting a UPS that includes Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR)," advises Beyleveld. A UPS with AVR has the ability to automatically compensate for irregular line voltage, thus protecting equipment from the electrical ?stress" that a brownout can impose on it.
"When you consider the value in equipment and data as well as time that your computer system represents, a good surge protector or UPS represents a relatively inexpensive and wise investment," Beyleveld adds.
It seems clear that the answer to power protection is more complex than UPS has been in the past, suggesting a solution that incorporates racks, cooling systems, power management and batteries that are highly scalable and customizable.
Coetzee adds that local businesses remain largely unaware of the part played by the power supply in productivity and operating costs, and says that companies should realize that complex power management capabilities can ensure network uptime for hundreds of PCs and mission-critical servers simultaneously, which can only be to the benefit of any organization. She also notes the importance of UPS suppliers providing comprehensive pre- and post-sales support, as well as technical service, to customers, as part of the total solution package.
In terms of TCO, Beyleveld believes that the UPS will outlast the IT or PC infrastructure hardware by
3:1, which means that investing in a good UPS solution can save companies money in the long run, and also enable companies to avoid costs when they have to implement the new IT infrastructure.
According to Kleynhans, another issue impacting on UPS systems and TCO is resource underutilization. This fact can have a serious negative impact on any ICT budget - if companies over-invest initially, and do not realize a return on investment as quickly as they should have.
Kleynhans further notes there are scalable solutions today that provide specific kVA in increments as it is needed.
According to Kleynhans, the current trend towards higher availability of computing and networking resources has led to an increased focus on the underlying physical infrastructure on which those resources depend. Increasing server depths, combined with the requirement for more effective cable management and power distribution, has led to a need for deeper equipment enclosures, with businesses increasingly looking to adopt scalable, ?pay-as-you-grow" equipment, in order to deploy an ?on demand" infrastructure. "Businesses have become even more dependent on ICT and electronic equipment, and the convergence of voice and data networks, shared storage and other business-critical ICT applications continues to drive the need for highly available, scalable solutions," Kleynhans adds.
Further issues to consider when buying a UPS, keeping TCO in mind, are whether the solution includes built-in maintenance bypass switches. If it is compact and scalable, for instance, does it have hot-swappable batteries? According to Kleynhans, self-management, remote or Web-based UPS management is increasingly becoming a relevant issue, which IT managers consider when acquiring a UPS solution. He says: "In smaller data centers, IT managers must manage and maintain part of the solution themselves, and often do not have specialized personnel on hand to help out. This is particularly true in a branch environment, where personnel are rarely available, and all maintenance is on-call."
Parallel redundancy is currently the buzzword in the industry, due to the ?always available" system needed for companies today, according to Beyleveld. He claims, and Kleynhans agrees, that the best solution for medium-sized businesses and large enterprises would be to invest in a UPS solution that can be deployed in a parallel configuration.
According to Beyleveld, Kleynhans and Coetzee, the most disturbing fact is that although there have been large and beneficial changes and developments to UPS systems over the past few years, buyers still wait until something goes wrong before they implement a UPS solution, and, moreover, go for the cheapest option, which costs less initially, but much more in the long run. It is the general feeling that companies should start to realize that a UPS solution is insurance and worth paying for.
What is in the future?
Kleynhans and Beyleveld foresee a problem with power-grid overloads increasing in the future, and both say urban
sprawl is already a major problem for Eskom, which the power company will have to address. If this does not happen, they say, companies and home users will have to ready themselves for more frequent power outages. This, of course, is not bad for the UPS industry, because the uncertain power supply will warrant more UPS implementations.
Kleynhans notes that there are huge developments within the UPS battery environment, and users can expect alternative fuel cell technologies - which are more environmentally friendly and have greatly extended battery life - to be available soon.
A consensus from the industry is that with the legalization of VoIP and the massive uptake of this technology as a critical and cost-effective business tool, the need for uninterrupted calls will increase the need for UPS solutions.
Beyleveld adds that UPS systems are constantly evolving, and interfacing more effectively with IT systems. This is resulting in a more proactive approach of system maintenance, with intelligent systems predicting when maintenance to the UPS needs to be done. He believes that companies will see the benefits of this in the future, and will hopefully adopt this approach soon, whilst at the same time saying that the major growth within the industry will remain in the mid-solution range market, with large corporates buying less frequently.