At Marigold member libraries, local power outages or “flickers” usually cause minimal, if any, disruption in library services. Despite this, such events can be hard on networking and Supernet equipment. A solution was needed to streamline the process of bringing a library back online following a power outage and protect the hardware in the long term.
Marigold’s IT department, headed by IT Manager Richard Kenig, found a way to ensure that small local outages – which occur in the region about every two days, on average – don’t prematurely degrade the hardware: high-end Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) battery back-ups.
“Any type of electronics, particularly when we deal with networks and servers, losing power suddenly can cause all kinds of problems,” Kenig said.
“People talk about the lightning strike frying equipment. You get the same effect from a power dip. This [new] equipment prevents all of that from happening.”
The UPS battery back-ups will be installed at Marigold’s 37 member library locations this year. The new system ensures that the networking and SuperNet equipment at member libraries lasts as long as expected and prevents service interruptions when there is a small local power outage. In addition, new functionality allows the Marigold IT department to be proactive rather than reactive.
“Up to this point, we didn’t know that something was going to fail until it failed, because we didn’t have any way to monitor it,” Kenig said. “The other great thing about this is that when one of these units gets to a point where we need to replace the battery, we’ll know before there’s a power outage. Right now, we get tickets afterwards, and people tell us something is beeping really loudly in the network room. It definitely is going to save IT tons of time.”
This UPS battery back-up system is already being installed at member library locations. The installations are expected to be completed by the end of this year and will coincide with other installations, such as new wireless equipment and new network switches.