Our sister publication, Inside_Networks_ME, looks at how big data is affecting an enterprise’s UPS and power management requirements.
The noise around big data gets louder and simultaneously the business stakes are increasing. A present-day organisation’s data requirements have changed; Big Data has led to a strain on many an organisation’s data centre and therefore puts more of an emphasis on how a company ensures it has the correct products and procedures in place to cope both now and in the future. Businesses want to improve efficiency, they want to be able to plan more effectively and enable the company to offer a better level of service. Big Data is the answer but it can only be effective if the data centre is efficient, however the data centre is feeling the strain.
The realisation is that almost every new technology leads to more reliance on the data centre therefore reinforcing the importance of data centre reliability and uptime. Data centres must no longer be considered cost centres but rather a key component of a company’s business strategy, especially when it comes to the customer. Therefore, clear planning is required; the cost of powering servers and storage platforms along with cooling solutions have become a large percentage of today’s data centre budget.
Data centres require a continuous supply of electricity however anything from a minor power system design error or an electrical failure can bring the most sophisticated data centres down. There is no one single answer, previously data centres have utilised UPS equipment to protect against power anomalies, these systems provide emergency power if an outage occurs while cleansing electrical systems. Older data centres (more than 10 years old) will typically be transformer based with last generation power conversion units. Modern solutions offer better efficiency and performance. Todays UPS have eliminated inefficient transformers and improved power conversion units.
Many UPS solutions are now capable of achieving 99% efficiency – this represents a 15 to 20% improvement on actual data centre load profiles. From a cost perspective replacing existing UPSs with newer models can not only reduce utility bills and overall operating cost but also increase efficiency and boost reliability at a relatively low cost. With energy costs representing a significant portion of operating costs it makes sense to change to a high-efficiency, multi-mode UPS. Analysis of the global data center UPS Market provided by Frost & Sulivan, predicts that revenue of $1.61 billion in 2013 will reach $2.34 billion in 2019 as a result of the demand for data centers with fully functioning backup power.
Frost & Sullivan Energy & Environmental Research Analyst Anu Elizabeth Cherian added “Organisations are veering towards a new generation of UPS systems that complement the virtual server design and significantly raise the total power usage effectiveness of data centres.”
To see a range of next-generation UPS devices, please see http://www.insidenetworksme.com/issue01/
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