The Power Problem
As our demand for electricity increases, the ability to receive and maintain high quality, uninterrupted power decreases. It's a problem that many companies face today. Where early equipment ran comparatively slowly, new equipment is a lot faster and very sensitive to even the smallest glitch from power supply. This demand by IT equipment, especially in Blade servers means we have a greater dependence on clean power.
Clean, consistent power is simply not available from the electric utility. Surges, spikes, sags, brownouts and blackouts happen daily. A minor power fluctuation can cause irretrievable damage that can bring productivity to a standstill and require costly software or hardware re-construction.
All business operations use some form of equipment that relies heavily on electric power. Reliable electric power is the one thing companies depend on for competitive edge. However, it could be the very thing that leaves a company powerless to compete.
There are nine common types of power problems:
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1 Power Failure10 main causes of system downtime
10 most overlooked results of computer breakdowns
10 reasons for buying an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS)
10 main causes of systems downtime
- Power Failure/Surge: 45.3%
- Storm Damage: 9.4%
- Fire or Explosion: 8.2%
- Hardware/Software Error: 8.2%
- Flood & Water Damage: 6.7%
- Earthquake: 5.5%
- Network Outage: 4.5%
- Human Error/Sabotage: 3.2%
- HVAC Failure: 2.3%
- Other 6.7%
(Source: Contingency Planning)
10 most overlooked results of computer breakdowns
- Loss of business
- Loss of financial control
- Loss of customer account management
- Loss of working day and backlog of work
- Poor customer service
- Loss of goodwill
- Inability to run reports/pay staff
- Financial loss
- Loss of operational data
- Loss of customers
10 reasons for buying an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
- Power failure is responsible for 31% of computer system breakdowns
- Over one third of companies take more than a day to recover from the disruption caused by a power failure. 10% take more than a week.
- Because of a power failure, 33% of companies lose between £15,000 and £260,000, 22% lose between £260,000 and £1.1 million, 15% lose over £1 million
- Following a power failure it can take up to 48 hours to reconfigure a computer network
- Out of 450 leading companies surveyed, each suffered an average of 9 computer failures each year. (Source: Find FVP/Fortune 1000 companies)
- It can take days, weeks or even months to re-input lost data. Sometimes data is lost forever.
- Loss of market share, damage to a company’s reputation, and loss of goodwill are not covered by insurance following a computer disaster
- 90% of all companies that experience a computer disaster and don't have a survival plan go out of business within 18 months (Source: Price Waterhouse)
- UPS power prolongs the life of the internal components for most IT equipment by protecting the quality of power
- A small investment that will keep a company up and running when the competition are in the dark
