News in the Channel - issue #15

EATON UPS

Backup power when you need it most

The need for reliable power supplies has never been greater, thanks to more business than ever being conducted online – so uninterruptable power supplies such as those provided by Eaton are becoming crucial to business.

This winter has seen the UK battered by numerous storms – indeed, there have been 10 named storms at the time of writing since September 2023, compared to just two the previous year. Storms present all sorts of dangers to businesses – and one of the biggest is through causing a power outage. Power outages are becoming an increasingly severe event for businesses due to more mission critical operations than ever being carried out online. Not only can work be lost when the power goes, it also means a business often cannot function until the power returns. The effects of a power outage can be significant for businesses. A single hour of server downtime can cost businesses more than €300,000 (£257,000) – and can reach up to €5 million (£4.27 million) or more in some cases, according to the ITIC 2021 Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability Report . This is why more businesses than ever are now turning to uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) to mitigate against this risk. A UPS system is an electrical apparatus that provides emergency power to a load when the input power source or mains power fails. A UPS system performs three primary functions: conditions the incoming dirty power from the utility company to give you clean, uninterruptible power, provides ride-through power to cover for sags or short-term outages and enables seamless system shutdown during a complete power outage. UPS provides reliability and peace of mind.

In the event of a blackout, UPS back-up will switch from mains supply to batteries, enabling systems to continue running until regular power is restored. It means employees can carry on working from where they left off, no data will be lost, and downtime is prevented. The impact of the digital transformation The need for UPS is set to continue to grow as the IT sector heads into a transformative period in 2024 defined by a myriad of trends and challenges. Digital transformation is one of the key priorities for the EU and the digital decade initiative sets out the EU targets for this until 2030. The IT distribution landscape has undergone a digital transformation, with data becoming ever more important, particularly in gauging consumer behaviour and market trends.

Power outages are becoming an increasingly “

severe event for businesses due to more mission critical operations than ever being carried out online.

The need for a new approach to power protection

This means that protecting and managing the supply of power to these resources will be critical, wherever they are located. Traditionally, an organisation’s hardware and software, along with the power and cooling equipment needed to keep it running, would be in one central location, like an office building or data centre. Today, though, a growing need for these resources to be located closer to end users means they are increasingly dispersed across multiple

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