South Africa is bound to experience increasing power interruptions because of its ongoing infrastructure development.
"It is imperative that businesses have a business continuity strategy to ensure the availability of their IT infrastructures and the reliability of their critical applications and processes," says John Middlewick, MGE product manager at leading ICT distributor, Comztek.
MGE UPS Systems is a global provider of power quality solutions designed to increase the availability and uptime of mission-critical applications or processes.
A third of all IT equipment downtime is due to poor quality power supply*. This problem can easily be avoided by installing an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). It should supply not only protection against power fluctuations, however, but also power management functions such as automatic shutdown and remote supervision.
"The costs of downtime are staggering," says Middlewick. "A break in service of a few hours could cause losses of several million rand for e-business companies.
"High availability power is the key to business continuity," says Middlewick. "Businesses must ensure they are protected against any type of power supply fault, and should proactively monitor power to ensure data integrity."
Power management functionality includes remote management, reporting and remote supervision. The Power Management software is available for both individual workstations and network applications across all platforms (including Linux).
To ensure system and data integrity, a computer operating system must be shut down in the correct sequence. UPSes can automate various functions in case of a power problem. For example, they can initiate a shutdown sequence or hibernation after a pre-set timeout, or just before total battery discharge, to maintain service continuity. Or they could restart the operating system automatically or in manual mode when the mains power is restored.
UPS systems can also be supervised remotely, using a Web browser. The manager can get an overall, consolidated view of the main operating parameters of all the UPS systems, accessible from any workstation.
"Reporting - on everything from downtime to battery issues - is thus global, enabling administrators to check their systems whether they are in Johannesburg or Atlanta," says Middlewick.
"The manager can also get alarms, if required, transmitted by e-mail or SMS. In addition, the log of events and operations helps preventative management of UPSes."
Environmental sensors allow for conditions such as temperature and humidity to be monitored and reported on.
"With proper power management software, companies can begin to properly manage power - both from a day-to-day operations point of view, and for future planning," says Middlewick.
Managers can start to see how many power dips are experienced each month, measure their returns and identify areas in which they should dedicate their spend.
"UPSes were prohibitively expensive and required specific electrical skills, but today there are options for all price brackets, and in many cases have standard IEC outputs up to 4kva," says Middlewick. "However, small businesses still tend only to buy them in reaction to a power crisis."
* Source: Global Continuity, February 2003.
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