Buyer’s Guide: Selecting the Right Products for Your Mission-Critical Equipment

Selecting-the-Right-Products-for-Your-Mission-Critical-Equipment

While all operations benefit from power protection equipment, each business has its own distinct needs. You’ll want to consider your specific operations when purchasing your power products to ensure your facility’s needs are being met.

Consider the following factors before making a purchasing decision to guarantee you’re getting the right products for your mission-critical facility:

Rack PDUs

Power

Consider how much power your equipment demands to run. Your watts or voltage must exceed the total amount of energy your devices use. Depending on the extent of your power requirements, you may need to purchase several power distribution units (PDUs) to support your hardware.

Type

PDUs can be either horizontal or vertical. Horizontal PDUs are small, using one to two rack spaces, and are placed directly inside the rack. While they can be great for saving space, they won’t hold very many outlets. Vertical PDUs are larger and have a much higher capacity, allowing for as many as 40 outlets. They are installed on the side or back of the rack.

Plugs and Outlets

You’ll want to confirm your outlet types are compatible with the plugs your equipment uses. Certain models will support multiple kinds of outlets. Choose a PDU with enough outlets to maintain all of your equipment, including additional outlets to support your future needs.

Cables

Bandwidth

The larger your facilities, the higher your bandwidth requirements will be. You’ll also need to consider what kind of data your operations use. More complex data requires higher bandwidth, even if there isn’t a massive amount of devices connected.

Travel Length

It’s essential to ensure your cabling length matches your facility size. Smaller operations won’t need as much range, but if you have considerable distance between your equipment or need your data to transfer to different buildings, cables with longer travel span will be necessary to avoid distortion.

Environment

You’ll need to consider the setting of your facility when choosing your cables, as certain cabling may not be well-suited for your operations, depending on the atmosphere. Environmental factors such as climate and cleanliness of space require different types of protective sheathing.

Read our Cabling Guide to learn about the specific types of cables available and the differences between them.

UPS Units

Volt-Amps (VA)

Different uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units will supply different amounts of voltage. If your UPS voltage is lower than the power your devices require, it will die, regardless of its battery life.

Backup Runtime

Consider how long you’ll need your devices to stay connected in the case of a power anomaly. Some UPS units will supply enough power for your operations to continue throughout a blackout, while others will only provide sufficient time for you to save your work and safely shut down your hardware. The more equipment you have, the bigger your battery should be.

Outlets

The amount of outlets provided on a UPS differs, so you’ll want to make sure the one you’re purchasing has enough to plug in all of your devices. Just as with your rack PDUs, you’ll want a UPS with more outlets than you currently need so you don’t have to upgrade to a larger one as your company grows.

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