August 11, 2004—Despite last summer’s extensive power outages in North America and parts of Europe, including the UK, the majority of companies appear unprepared for future outages.
In a recent survey carried out on behalf of American Power Conversion and focusing on senior executives in IT and facilities, just over half of the respondents were concerned about the state of the National Grid. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said that their business had experienced a power outage in the past 12 months.
Commenting on the findings, Michael Adams, APC MD for UK & Ireland, said: “These results are a wake up call for many businesses. Gone are the days when companies could just take power for granted, and those that do will reap the rewards of such complacency.”
He added: “Trends such as consolidation and compaction may reduce the demand for data centre real estate, but they dramatically increase heat density and, with that, the requirement for forced air cooling. Companies will need to look at the bigger picture, otherwise problems at the physical layer will start to show in equipment failures and reduced availability.”
—Elliott Chase
Reprinted with permission; copyright 2004 i-FM
