Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Everyday products like laptops, telephone systems, data centers and network file servers depend on a clean, uninterrupted supply of power. However, power outages and brownouts can happen at a moment’s notice and without warning.

Minuteman UPS/Para Systems, a company that produces some of the industry's most reliable power technology products, has a spot on its homepage dedicated to answering the question, “Why is power protection needed?” And, according to the power protection company, the answer is because at any moment you can lose access to your important data.

Luckily for IT managers and CEOs everywhere, there are uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) that can make a difficult moment a little bit better. UPSs can “be justified with simple arithmetic,” according to Minuteman. Outages can suck money as several hours of professional work can be lost due to a momentary brownout; a computer can crash before the work can be saved, and an organization can pay for loss of time and disruption.

But, by using a UPS as a form of power protection, “a brownout can pass unnoticed,” according to Minuteman.

“Spending as little as a hundred dollars on power protection can buy complete protection and peace of mind,” officials state.

Brownouts, or spontaneous dips in the AC power supply to a level under 100 volts, are normally caused by the use of heavy machinery nearby, such as motors and compressors which when turned on drain the power grid.

Companies can also be affected by complete power outages, which are especially common along the Gulf Coast where the power grid is exposed to tropical storms. Outages also frequently occur in suburban areas where lines are hung on poles that are exposed to lightening.

Offices are particularly susceptible to power problems, including brownouts and outages, because of their increasing use of local area networks. Most of the files on these networks are centralized on one high-speed file server so a brownout affecting a file server could disrupt 50 to 60 individuals. Because such systems often do not have an operating staff, power protection must also be automated.

“While people often operate under the assumption a problem will not happen to them, the fact is that outages happen frequently in the United States,” Bill Allen, marketing director at Minuteman, told TMCnet recently.