Have you ever experienced sudden power failure when you’re editing a word document on your PC? There may be a chance that you will lose all your data. The same is true for data centers. When a power failure occurs, all processing in the server will be shut down immediately. The inability to keep the data means that a large amount of data will be lost. So to make sure the information is available all the time, data centers are designed for maximum reliability. For example, many data centers are equipped with high stability UPS systems for power backup.

What is a UPS？

UPS is d device that provides continuous power supply to critical equipment in the event of power outages or other power problems such as low voltage, surge, etc. With a storage unit such as a battery or a flywheel, a UPS can become the primary source of power when power is interrupted. When the main power is on, ups will charge the battery and is on a standby mode. UPS systoms for data center play an important role at providing power protection for the entire electricity system.

How UPS systems protect a data center?

1.Provide reliable power backup for data center 

Different from a generator, a UPS provides power backup with zero transfer time while in a short time(depend on the battery you install) ranging from a few minutes to a few hours so that you can switch to a backup power supply or save your data.

2.Provide clear power for sensitive IT loads in the data center.

The power we get from the grid consists of lots of impurities like sag, swell, harmonics, overvoltages, spike, etc. IT servers are very sensitive to these impurities. If IT load directly subject to this raw power then there will be high chances of failure of server and in some cases, it can burn also due to high voltages. UPS in the data center removes all these impurities and delivers pure power to your servers.

However, you may ask what if a UPS failure in a power outage? According to the Ponemon Institute’s 2016 survey, UPS system failure remains the top cause of unplanned data center outages.

Besides regularly monitoring UPS batteries’ ambient temperature and cell voltages to keep track of their status and follow battery maintenance best practices when performing capacity testing and do it. The engineer also figure out a solution to cut the risk of failure even in worst-case scenarios: Redundant design.

UPS Redundancy Design for Data Cetner

N+1 Redundancy

“N” stands for the full UPS capacity required to handle the total load. +1 means an extra UPS module is installed.

2N Redundancy

“2N”stands for double power supply. An “Aside” and a “B side” can feed the computer equipment. Each side would be able to handle 100% load capacity. This is referred to as 2N redundancy. 

Over the years, UPS systems used in data centers are developing rapidly. They are more efficient and easy to deploy. Of course, they have higher reliability. When you are selecting a UPS brand or designing UPS configuration for the data center, remember to consider all aspects to ensure the stable operation of the data center.