Fear of a power interruption represents a source of anxiety for many organizations. A consistent power supply ensures a business can retain valuable data and information. Faced with everything from unexpected surges to turbulent weather conditions, your assets require assurance that the proverbial lights will stay on.
This article will examine the benefits of implementing an Online Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for your business.
Understanding Online UPS
The critical systems of your organizational infrastructure can’t go down. It’s that simple, and the battery backup benefits of a UPS system ensure that they won’t. If your regular power source fails or voltage drops below a sustainable level, a UPS keeps the power flowing, ensuring you can safely tend to your important assets. In addition to protecting your electronics equipment from various AC power fluctuations, Online UPS systems feed power to the load without interruption.
Often described as the “heart” of IT-based organizations, UPS systems are critical applications for many segments of the industry. The medical, financial, and education sectors rely on accessibility to data and records, and even a momentary lapse in power could have significant and costly implications for sensitive equipment.
To combat the risk of power failure, Online UPS systems are a near-constant presence in the server rooms of many companies. How long you require an added power supply in the event of failure determines which battery backup solution is best for your systems and data.
UPS systems are categorized in three distinct topologies, each with differing power and characteristics:
- Standby
is essentially a break/fix type of UPS. The most basic type of UPS topology, standby resorts to battery backup power in the event of voltage sags, surges, or blackouts. If incoming utility power wavers from a safe voltage level, the UPS automatically switches to DC battery power, before converting to AC power to run connected equipment. These systems typically consist of a battery to provide a short-term power supply, a rectifier or charge to maintain voltage, an inverter to provide power during normal load, and a static switch to automatically transfer load between utility and the inverter. Suited for consumer electronics, home computers, and security systems. - Line-interactive
UPS technology possesses the ability to correct minor power fluctuations without switching to battery. This type of UPS is equipped with an autotransformer that regulates low and over voltages, enabling it to handle brownouts and swells. Line-interactive models are also suited for consumer electronics, gaming systems, PCs, and entry-to-mid range servers. Line-interactive UPS systems are ideal for protecting non-mission-critical equipment and are commonly found in offices and IT closets. - Online or Double-Conversion
UPS systems offer the greatest protection against power loss by providing clean, consistent, and near-perfect performance regardless of the condition of incoming power. The “king” of UPS, double-conversion converts incoming AC power to DC, and then back to AC. These systems operate on fully isolated DC power constantly and have a zero transfer time because they never need to switch to this source.
The Advantages of Online Double-Conversion Systems
Designed to protect mission-critical IT equipment, Double-Conversion UPS systems are typically found in data center installations, high-end servers, and large telecommunications installations.
The Online, or double-conversion, possesses advantages over other UPS solutions by offering always-online connectivity, and providing zero transfer time to your equipment. The internal static bypass ensures that, in the event of a major UPS failure, you’ll retain your online functionality and critical loads during repair replacement-induced downtime.
Online UPS also offers a pure sine wave output, which is a smooth, repetitive oscillation of AC power. Sine wave output ensures that equipment utilizing Active PFC power supplies do not suffer shutdown when switching from utility to battery power.
Other UPS topologies offer a simulated sine wave technology, an approximation achieved by pulse wave modulation that supplies more cost-effective battery backup power to equipment that doesn’t require sine wave output. Less expensive to manufacture, simulated sine wave is commonly used with both standby and line-interactive UPS.
How to Choose?
When it comes to selecting the best UPS solution for your business, consider the value of your systems, infrastructure, and data, and ask yourself the following question: What can you afford to lose?
That isn’t to say that your data, systems, and information aren’t valuable. Everything from the cost of operation to the size of your enterprise should factor into your decision. Another important factor in the decision is redundancy.
A single UPS system provides the means to bridge the gap when power utility fails, and the UPS steps in to handle the backup and critical load. This is an example of a non-redundant solution, as it meets the basic requirement of protecting the load from utility issues.
System redundancy accounts for multiple UPS systems, each powering half the load. Should one system fail, the load will automatically transfer to the other UPS system via a double corded connection.
Many businesses choose to adopt a solution that has the ability to support future growth by means of additional power modules.
Why Your Business Needs the Protection of Online UPS
If your organization is responsible for mission-critical IT equipment or data, you need the protection of a Double-Conversion UPS. Only Online UPS offers the highest level of protection against blackouts, voltage sags & surges, over-voltage or voltage spikes, frequency noise, or harmonic distortion.
Whether you’re operating in hurricane season or just anxious about the devastating effects of a power surge, Online UPS integration offers the highest level of protection. The benefits of a Double-Conversion UPS solution include:
- Safe transfer in zero seconds thanks to the DC to AC power conversion. Boasting a transfer time of precisely zero milliseconds between power failure and backup power restoration, risk of data loss or corruption is eliminated.
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Perfect voltage regulation due to the double conversion process. Your output never wavers more than 2% from perfect voltage.
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Battery-independent system design means you’ll never need to restart your system after the battery dies. The pass-through power after restore design prevents restarting of remotely installed systems manually at midnights in the event that the battery dies.
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Flexibility to suit your needs thanks to the ability to add battery packs. Enable daisy-chaining in order to extend possible runtime via easy-to-install support.
Vertiv Solutions
When it comes to finding the perfect strategy for your Online Uninterruptible Power Supply, trust the experts at Vertiv. By offering comprehensive, bespoke solutions that fit the precise power backup requirements of your organization, you’ll be able to implement a scalable power supply that can grow alongside your business.
Vertiv leverages years of deep infrastructure expertise in order to provide total power system availability paired with the asset insights vital to keeping your systems running smoothly.
We collaborate with our customers to envision and build future-ready infrastructures. We leverage our portfolio of hardware, software, analytics, and services, to enable your vital applications to run continuously, perform optimally, and scale with business needs.
Our team of experienced professionals will work alongside your IT resources and thought leadership to customize your Online UPS system. Together, we’ll effectively manage risk, reduce costs, and guide you towards the best decisions for the future of your organizational infrastructure.
Free resources such as Vertiv Power Assist provides software designed to gracefully shutdown an IT asset in the event your UPS battery backup experiences a threatening condition. You’ll be notified of the event via insights such as key metrics and historical data with this easily-installed application.
WIth Vertiv Power Insight, you’ll enjoy the comfort of free and accessible remote monitoring. This additional, complimentary web-based software increases the visibility of your UPS while protecting critical equipment and improving operational efficiency.
Rest assured, you’re not the only business facing the need to adopt new and increasingly powerful battery backup solutions. We encourage you to read about how critical systems across multiple industries are changing, and how Vertiv solutions are partnering with IT leaders to offer support in the face of new computing frontiers.
Modular, scalable and redundant solutions are available now.
Contact us today to learn how Vertiv can provide security and assurance for all of your power backup and Online UPS needs.