Specifications
The IBM suite of products easily integrates into IBM Director so
customers can get the most out of their investment. Power
management and power monitoring are all made easier with the
IBM Director plug-ins available for IBM-offered UPS products.
Have you deployed IBM Director?
All the IBM UPS offerings come with PowerChute Business Edition
software, which makes it easy to manage and monitor your power
at any point in time. The new IBM UPS3000X takes manageability
one step further by offering a suite of network management
opportunities via its built -n 10/100 Network Management Module
and Network Shut Down software.
What level of management do you
require for your power protection?
Be sure that the UPS you are considering will provide an adequate
length of runtime for graceful shutdown of all equipment. At full
load, most UPS products from IBM will provide five to seven
minutes of battery-powered operation. This may not be adequate
for some equipment. Even if you don’t plan on adding more
devices that will need power protection, buying a larger UPS can
achieve longer battery operation and shutdown time in the event of
a power failure.
In the event of a power failure, how
much time do you need to save
data, close applications and
completely power down?
Consider both current and future requirements when selecting a
UPS. Typically, it will be more cost-effective in the long run to
purchase a unit that can accommodate growth rather than
purchasing a smaller unit today and having to replace it at a later
date.
Do you plan to add equipment to
this UPS in the future? If so, what
will the new outlet and load
requirements be?
In addition to total voltage/wattage, the UPS must be able to
support the appropriate number of devices. It is easy to exceed the
total allowable number of outlets or the VA/Watt rating of the
original solution when taking into account all items.
How many outlets do you need to
cover your current requirements?
Proper sizing requires that you consider the power requirements
for all devices that will be supported by a single UPS. See page 14
for information on the rack configurator.
What is the sum total power
requirement of all the equipment
you want to protect?
Look beyond the server to identify all equipment that merits power
protection. This could range from switches and routers for a small
office to multiple servers, network switches and storage devices for
larger enterprises. It’s easy to forget items like monitors, printers
and other critical options when conducting an outlet count and a
VA/Watt analysis.
In addition to server(s) you plan to
purchase, what other equipment
needs protecting? Remember that
UPS products provide surge
protection and power conditioning
as well as battery backup.
You can provide maximum protection to your systems by investing
in an adequately sized UPS. Typically, the cost will be a small
fraction of the total cost of your servers and server options — and a
good value in added piece of mind.
What is the value of your equipment
purchase? How much are you willing
to spend to protect that hardware
investment?
Even though most power outages last only a few minutes, you
should consider having enough battery power to sustain operations
for longer term outages. For this reason, many customers often
oversize their UPS requirements by a factor of two.
How long a period of application
downtime can your business
tolerate?
Power protection almost always nets out as “cheap insurance”
when you understand the short- and long-term costs associated
with data loss and application outages.
How mission-critical is the data on
the servers you want to protect?
Factors influencing purchase decisionsPoints to consider
Selection
considerations
Advanced power protection solutions for high availability
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