| Eaton identifies 5 Best Practices to protect IT infrastructure against seasonal power problems |
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October 7, 2009 Eaton Corp. offers five tips any business can use to reduce the risks associated with against seasonal power problems, and enhance the reliability of IT systems. 1. Know your risks Power outages are often assumed to be rare and unlikely events, but severe weather is a major threat to power systems; three of the top five most significant outages reported in 2008 (in the States) were caused by hurricanes Ike and Gustav, and tropical storm Hanna. These storms affected about five million people according to Eaton’s Blackout Tracker (an online tool that provides a snapshot of reported power outages across North America). 2. Consider your investments Even a small server configuration and LAN represents an investment of tens of thousands of dollars. Add applications, management systems and critical databases, and it’s clear that significant company assets depend on power that is not always dependable. Eaton’s Blackout Tracker Annual Report catalogued more than 2000 power outages in 2008 in the U.S. 3. Power problems are equal-opportunity threats Computers, servers and networks are just as critical to a small business as a data centre to a large enterprise. In addition to severe weather, equipment failures, lightning, copper thieves—even wayward snakes—can cause power disruptions that have the potential to bring business to a halt. Look beyond generators and surge suppressors and consider an uninterruptible power system (UPS). 4. Treat any IT equipment location as a data centre In small- to medium-sized businesses, the rack environment may be the data centre; even in this environment, it is important to consider the same logistics as a large data centre, such as access control, thermal management, power protection and distribution, etc. 5. Determine the level of power protection needed Consider what type of UPS, best deployment strategy and how much UPS capacity is required for your business. Assess how much battery power you need to shut down systems or switch to backup generators. When an outage extends past the limits of backup systems, power management software can orchestrate the selective, sequential shutdown of loads to extend available battery backup time. A comprehensive power protection plan should not only address power failure, but other problems such as power sags and surges, line noise and frequency variation. EATON BLACKOUT TRACKER EATON POWER QUALITY |
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