The Problem with Power
Source: APC
We live in the Information Age where countless data is created, transmitted, and
stored. We live in the Electronics Age where numerous electric-powered machines
aid in business and household tasks, as well as entertain and inform us.
The reality of living in this time of technological innovation is that the power
to run these machines can't keep up (at least not yet). In many locations around
the world, electricity generation, transmission and distribution have not evolved
at the same pace as computer and communications equipment. What was built years
ago for powering factories producing manufactured goods is struggling to adapt to
provide continuous, sufficient-grade power to sensitive electronics processing valuable
information.
What Is a Power Event?
Sags, surges, noise, spikes, blackouts…what really happens to connected devices
when they experience a power anomaly? A lightning strike is a frequent example,
although it is just one of countless problems that can strike your equipment.
Imagine lightning has just struck a nearby transformer. If the surge was powerful
enough, it travelled instantaneously through wiring (AC, network, serial, phone
lines and more) with the electrical equivalent force of a tidal wave. For PC users,
the surge could have travelled into your computer via the AC outlet or phone lines.
The first casualty is usually a modem or motherboard. Chips go next, and data is
lost.
For info on different types of power problems and their effects on electronic equipment,
click here.
Lightning Facts from APC
The utility responds to overvoltages by disconnecting the grid. This creates brownouts
and blackouts. If the voltage drops low enough, or blacks out, hard disks in computing
machinery may crash, destroying the data stored on the disks. In all cases, work-in-progress
stored in cache is instantly lost. In the worst case, password protection on the
hard drives can be jumbled, or the file allocation tables may be upset, rendering
the hard disks useless.
The Costs of Downtime
In the Information Age, data is quite valuable. It is the livelihood of businesses
across the globe, whether in the form of financial transactions or online purchases
or customer demographics or correspondence or spreadsheets or any number of business
applications.
The Internet has emphasized that availability equals viability. If companies do
not have reliable solutions for the continuing operation of their equipment, they
lose money. If one company's Web server goes down due to blackout, customers are
apt to click over to a competitor's. If mission-critical computers involved in manufacturing
are damaged by a surge, inventory runs behind and schedules are missed. If electronic
noise penetrates sensitive testing and measurement machinery, delays are inevitable.
For more information on UPS's and other services we provide contact us at:
Telephone:
1-610-917-2471
Fax:
1-484-921-2505
E-mail: info@aresolutions.com