The world is going into lockdown. Country by country we are being forced to reevaluate our daily routines and how we do business. The number of employees now working from home has reached an unprecedented level, which is only set to increase in the days and weeks to come.  

With many businesses temporarily pushing pause, our economic landscape is shifting dramatically. At the heart of trying to sustain business continuity are data centres. Recognised ‘essential infrastructure’, data centres are under more pressure than ever to continue to provide uninterrupted services.  

The complexity of our digital framework is all connected through data centres. They form the central point of managing, receiving, processing and storing digital information. All our online activities from online shopping, posting on social media to downloading files and emailing, all involve at least one data centre. Where multiple transactions are involved or where there is supply chain cross over, this relies on data passing from one data centre to another. The sustained operation of all these facilities will keep us connected.  

However, anticipated variants to power quality coupled with the added pressure placed on data centres could have quite costly consequences if not managed correctly. Preventing data centre downtime is more crucial than ever before.  

Data centre owners, like many others, have had to make some difficult decisions; choosing where to invest and what to invest in. Recommendations from the industry advisory channel, the Uptime Institute, includes a review of essential maintenance works. The guidance given is to ‘consider the consequences of deferred maintenance, as it may increase risk of component or system failure’. This advice should be applied to all critical equipment including backup power supplies.  

The role of a UPS in a data centre is to guarantee a continuous supply of power in the event of a mains power disturbance or total failure. Due to the vital role UPS systems play within a data centre, they are without question one of the priority items.  

It is recommended that all UPS solutions within any sized data centre have a routine maintenance check and that any system over eight years old be considered for replacement. The overriding message is to act now and not get caught out later.  

Power Control Ltd works with data centres across the country and supplies, installs, commissions and maintains backup power solutions for all applications. The company holds over £2million of stock including three phase UPS solutions up to 300kVA. Its team of nationwide engineers are also available to respond to immediate call outs. For more information please visit www.powercontrol.co.uk, email info@powercontrol.co.uk or call the office on 01246 431431  

Alternatively, please visit our product pages for specific product information or email Power Control’s solutions director direct rmather@powercontrol.co.uk  

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