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Finding a UPS that will make the grade
With technology so heavily integrated within today’s curriculums, the ability to maintain continuous, clean power in learning environments has never been more critical. “Gone are the days of chalkboards and erasers,” emphasizes Ron Ehlers, director of technology for WCHS. “Now, when technology or the Internet goes down, things are at a standstill and learning opportunities can be significantly impacted.”
Ehlers recognized that in order to meet WCHS’s uptime requirements, a refresh was needed on the school’s fleet of existing uninterruptible power systems (UPSs). “They were becoming increasingly unreliable and we had no idea what was going on behind the scenes with any of our UPSs,” he explains. “We purchased them here and there, and had no refresh dates for any of them. Because we had batteries going bad and other issues, I decided to replace them all.”
An upgraded solution was needed to properly safeguard the equipment housed in numerous network closets across the campus, including those supporting workstations and access points connected to classrooms, an outlying maintenance shed, and the press box at the football field. “Our biggest concern was making sure that our storage array was properly protected during storms,” Ehlers notes. “In addition, our phone system is IP-based and in the event of an outage, we needed to be able to keep it online for at least 20 minutes so we could get calls out to the student body, parents, etc.”
In addition, WCHS required protection for its main server closet, which contains critical equipment such as a storage array, phone system and network switches. Ehlers also desired the ability to remotely monitor and manage the UPSs, which would eliminate the need for him to return to campus if a power issue were to occur off-hours.
Beyond remote management capabilities and high reliability, Ehlers had a more important prerequisite in purchasing a new UPS solution. “I can buy equipment from anybody, but what I really wanted was a partner who would move forward with me,” he acknowledges. “I wanted someone I could bounce ideas around with, and someone who would be willing to help me help work through any problem or concern, since I’m not an expert in this field.”
After requesting a UPS manufacturer recommendation from Dell, one of his preferred partners, introductions were made between Ehlers and Eaton Business Development Executive Tom Boucher. As Eaton’s longest standing hardware alliance partner and one of its top resellers, Dell is able to quickly and easily secure preferred pricing through Eaton’s Partner Advantage Deal Registration process. This, in turn, enables the company to offer best-in-class power management solutions at the best possible price. In addition, because of the historic and collaborative relationship, Dell can count on Eaton’s highly experienced regional support teams to provide outstanding customer support and value in a truly consultative manner.
“Dell set everything up for me and I really appreciated the fact that they were able to do that,” Ehlers shares. “When you reach out to a company on your own, you don’t always know who you’re getting or if it’s the right person.”
From there, Eaton passed Ehlers’ partnership test with flying colors; the director of technology found all the characteristics he was seeking – and much more.
“Eaton presented me with a couple of solutions, we looked them over, and then they came back and said we really didn’t need the more expensive, larger units. It really made me feel like they had our best interest in mind and weren’t just trying to sell me a product.”
Uptime that never plays hooky
During an initial consultation visit, Boucher discussed several product options with Ehlers, including the possibility of consolidating the school’s backup solution into one or two larger UPS units. However, it was ultimately determined that a combination of smaller Eaton 5P and 5PX UPSs would be a better fit — literally — considering the space constraints in some areas of campus.
“Although we initially thought about consolidating UPS systems, it just wasn’t practical, considering where the units were being installed and how Ron needed to manage the technology,” Boucher says.
“Working with the Eaton team was a great experience. Everything has been very easy.”
Ehlers’ intuition that Eaton was focusing on the needs of WCHS was further confirmed when Boucher shared that the school was eligible to receive E-rate funding from the FCC’s Universal Service Fund, which provides discounts for telecommunications, Internet access, and internal connections to qualified schools and libraries. However, because the year’s E-rate application period had already expired, WCHS opted to complete its UPS upgrade in two phases. The school initially replaced the dying UPS units in 2021, then applied the E-Rate monies to the balance of the project in the spring of 2022, with the remainder of the new UPSs deployed over the summer session and into the fall.
“E-rate was extremely beneficial to us,” Ehlers says. “Even though I missed the initial deadline, I purchased some critical replacement units right away because ours were failing. But waiting to buy the remaining UPSs using the E-rate discount was very valuable.”
Ultimately, WCHS chose to deploy nine Eaton 5P and 12 Eaton 5PX units, both of which deliver line-interactive backup protection ideal for a wide variety of applications and equipment, including enterprise-grade servers, storage, VoIP gear and networking equipment. Both models also afford advantages including a next-generation intuitive LCD display, efficiency rate of up to 99%, scalable runtime options, and a comprehensive warranty that covers both the UPS and the batteries for three years – a benefit offered by no other manufacturer in the industry.
Available in an extremely flexible form factor that enables the unit to be conveniently installed as a tower, wall-mount or rackmount UPS, the 5P affords backup power with scalable runtimes. Select models offer a more compact footprint that is just 2U in height and features a shorter depth than traditional UPSs, making it perfect for 2-post and 4-post rail-mounting, as well as wall-mounting. The 5PX also features a convertible form factor that enables the unit to be installed as either a tower or rackmount UPS. In addition to providing the space savings required by WCHS, the units were exceptionally easy to deploy, according to Ehlers. “I really liked the fact that I didn’t have to install any rails, so there were no hand injuries suffered!” he notes.
WCHS complemented the UPSs with the Eaton Gigabit Network Card (Network-M2), which combines speed and enhanced cybersecurity for improved business continuity. In addition to providing administrators with the ability to remotely monitor and manage power quality equipment, the Network-M2 issues alerts of pending issues and enables administrators to perform orderly shutdown of servers and storage.
It didn’t take long for WCHS to reap the benefits of the network card’s capabilities; shortly after the first UPSs were deployed, Ehlers received an alert about an issue while he was off-campus. Thanks to the notification, he was able to shut down the connected equipment in a safe, orderly fashion before the UPS lost power, avoiding potential data loss or corruption.
“I really wanted some insight on what was going on — something I definitely didn’t have with my previous solution,” Ehlers emphasizes. “With the Eaton solution, it’s great to be able to set it up, get alerts, be able to login in and see a problem, and even complete firmware upgrades
Ehlers appreciates the ability to proactively address any issue that might arise. “In the past, after being gone for a weekend, we’d come back and be walking through the halls and hear beeping coming from the network closets,” he recalls. “Then we’d discover that an entire rack was offline because the power supply had decided to shut down.”
“We were very grateful for the advice Eaton gave us, as the E-Rate program saved us a lot of money.”
