A lot of my clients bought UPS’ back in 1999 when they were upgrading their computers/networks in preparation for the Y2k bug. Like a lot of things, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it applies to UPS’ too.

If your UPS beeps and all the lights are on and don’t flash, then the chances are that your battery is dead. I have to tell them that UPS’ are like insurance, you don’t need them until you ‘NEED’ them!

Take a read on the following FAQ and if YOU have questions, please send them on to me. I love answering questions!

UPS Battery Maintenance

Sealed Lead Acid Batteries (SLA) are considered maintenance free, however they do discharge if they are not charged monthly.
UPS Battery Charging

Sealed Lead Acid Batteries are the best technology available today for UPS applications, however they must be properly charged at all times to perform effectively in UPS applications.

Common UPS battery charging problems are overvoltage and exposure to excess heat that can come from dense server room environments, etc. UPS devices should be properly ventilated to cool them, to prolong battery life and overall battery performance.
Battery Life

In terms of years of service, sealed lead acid UPS batteries properly maintained may perform satisfactory for as long 2-3 years, this is subject to variation that depends on actual UPS environment operating conditions, and the number of discharge / recharge cycles their UPS experiences.

In a UPS application that cycles over to battery power on a monthly basis, and is kept in a stable temperature environment under 85 degrees Fahrenheit, UPS batteries should last 2-3 years before performance begins to deteriorate. If the UPS is loaded beyond 75%, or the UPS kicks over to battery more than once a month, you may want to replace batteries annually or every two years to ensure maximum runtime and overall performance.
Battery Runtime

UPS Battery runtime is determined by 2 basic factors; the amount of actual UPS battery storage capacity and the actual amount of power load the UPS. Most UPS applications perform best with 50% or lower load in terms of runtime. Depending on the UPS make model, some UPS manufacturer’s offer solutions adding additional battery packs can extend that, but beyond 30 minutes of runtime, a generator solution usually makes the most sense.
What is an SLA Battery?

SLA Batteries are Sealed Lead Acid Batteries, non-spillable and maintenance free.

Antivirus software doesn’t do it all any more. Now you need a combination of that and antimalware. And you have to keep up on those too! Long gone are the days of turning on the computer and having an interesting surf thru cyber-space!

But the end is not in sight my friends! At least not for securing your computers and networks! If you do the numbers, it costs less to have an experienced, trained professional come in and secure your network and computers.

Let me ask you this… “How much do you think it costs you on a daily basis to have problematic computers and networks vs having a professional secure and configure your networks and computers properly?”.

Let’s say you have 5 computers running Microsoft Windows XP Pro and one server running Microsoft Windows Server 2003. If each person loses 15 minutes a day because their computers froze and they had to reboot to get back to work. Now multiply that by a weekly time loss of 5 computers x 15 minutes loss per day x 5 days = 375 minutes a week or 6 hours 15 minutes. Multiply that times their billable rate $100/hour (if you are a law, accounting or health care firm you are billing at a much higher rate) and you now find that you are loosing $625 per week (or $2500 per month) in billable time to computers freezing up or running slow.

Now bring in the computer professional who will clean up all your problems and create a proactive approach to your support consisting of a visit once a week, plus managed services, plus off-site backup and your monthly cost is way less to have a properly configured, secured and running computer network. Fees vary depending on your location but here on Long Island, NY you are looking at approximately $1000 per month.

And that includes supporting the server also! And we didn’t even get into your company data being protected. What if the server goes down????