Electrical & Backup Power Supplies
Infrastructure (2 of 7)
One of the most overlooked components of your IT network foundation is your power source. The electrical circuits within the walls of your building that deliver electrical power to your I.T. equipment are absolutely critical to your I.T. network health. While not a requirement, it’s always best to have a circuit dedicated specifically to the I.T. infrastructure. This will ensure that there is no interference or loss of power due to the demands of non-it equipment, such as appliances, tools, machinery or other equipment. A backup power supply (often called an Uninterruptible Power Supply, or UPS) ensures that, in the event of a power failure, a backup battery continues to power the most critical equipment long enough for it to be gracefully shut down.
So here are some of the things you want to consider when purchasing an Uninterruptible Power Supply:
Objective Time
How much time is enough time? When the power does fail, how long will it take to discover and assess the situation? Once you’ve decided it’s time to shut everything down gracefully? How long will it take do do so?
Voltage Draw
How much power will be drawn from the battery per second? per minute? If you have multiple servers or pieces of equipment, your I.T. consultant will need to calculate the amount of battery capacity you will need to meet the objective time.
A Great Idea!
Most of the better UPS’s offer software that will automatically start shutting down your critical server equipment whenever a power failure occurs.
When it comes to electricity, thinking ahead and planning your network infrastructure is all part of Simplifying I.T. Thankfully, our consultants and engineers are very familiar with the mainstream power supply and UPS solutions available. Feel free to contact us for some help making sure this piece of your network infrastructure is done correctly.
