Location: Las Vegas, NV

Segment: IT Consultants

Problem: The company needed a highly efficient, larger capacity UPS to safeguard its systems, as well as software that could work in its virtualized environment.

Solution: Eaton 5PX and 3S UPS, Intelligent Power Software Suite

Results: The Eaton 5PX and power management software deliver all the protection and manageability that Kortek was seeking in a solution.

Background

Kortek Solutions provides worldclass computer support to businesses seeking increased efficiency and profitability. Offering customized network services designed to help businesses compete in today’s evolving and global market at a fraction of the cost of employing an in-house IT team, Kortek Solutions provides a team of expert IT consultants who deliver all the support and services needed to increase productivity, capitalize on opportunities, bolster the bottom line, and protect electronic assets. 

Challenge

Ensuring continuous uptime to its range of servers, network backup system, and various devices such as switches and firewalls is essential to Kortek Solutions’ ability to provide services to its customers. “The consequences of downtime for us would be severe,” reveals President Lyle Epstein, “because we rely on those servers to run our business, and we have customers who are logging in to our systems.” Faced with expanding power capacity requirements in 2011, Kortek Solutions began investigating a variety of uninterruptible power systems (UPSs). In addition to bolstered capacity, the company sought a model that could offer better efficiency and reliability than its previous APC unit. “We were also looking for a UPS with a management interface, as well as software to control our servers,” Epstein reports.

Solution

Kortek Solutions needed to look no further than the Eaton 5PX. Installed in its server room, the 3000 VA UPS answered the company’s desire for efficiency with an industry-leading rating of up to 99 percent. “One of the reasons we purchased the 5PX was for better power efficiency,” Epstein confirms, noting that he has noticed significantly less heat being generated from the unit compared to the company’s previous APC model. “It ran much hotter, and the decline in heat has resulted in our having to run the air conditioning a lot less, which saves us money,” Epstein points out.

The 5PX also protects more devices by providing 28 percent more wattage than comparable UPSs. “We definitely liked the fact that it provided more power than other models,” Epstein says. To further enhance reliability, the 5PX is equipped with Eaton’s exclusive ABM® technology, which increases battery service life by 50 percent. ABM uses an advanced, three-stage charging technique and closely monitors battery health to provide advanced notification when batteries are close to requiring replacement.

The 5PX’s next-generation LCD, which offers a graphical interface that displays all critical UPS information in a single screen view, is garnering rave reviews from Epstein, as well. “I like it because you can just walk right up, press it, and see what’s going on,” Epstein explains. “You can check everything right there.”

Yet another advantage for Kortek Solutions is the 5PX’s three-year warranty, which covers both the unit and the batteries — something no other manufacturer in the industry offers. The company is also reaping tremendous value from Eaton’s Intelligent Power® Software Suite, which provides all of the tools needed to monitor and manage power devices across the network, even in a virtualized environment such as Kortek Solutions’. The innovative software solution combines the most critical applications to ensure system uptime and data integrity by offering not only power monitoring and management, but also graceful shutdown during an extended power outage. “We have it configured to alert us through email and SNMP if there are any issues,” Epstein reports. “We look at the load and make sure nothing is getting overloaded, and there are graphs to determine if we are experiencing any sags from the power company. It’s all good to know.” “With the competitors’ brands, you have to pay for software,” says Epstein. “Eaton gives it to you for free. The UPSs also have attractive pricing.”

With its office located near some of the utility company’s central transformers, Kortek Solutions is subjected to power cuts on a somewhat regular basis, which Epstein theorizes may be related to work being performed. Having experience four outages — each of which lasted 5-10 minutes — since the 5PX was installed, Epstein reveals, “the UPS has performed just as expected each time.” The company has also deployed 550 VA Eaton 3S UPSs on each of 15 work stations. “They keep everything up and running when the power flips,” Epstein reports. “Eaton has been really great. We have been really happy with the company and the units.”

Results

With the 5PX in place, Kortek Solutions is able to focus on delivering essential IT services to its customers, rather than worrying about the integrity of its own equipment. The company is now able to:

• Ensure the high availability and uptime of its network
• Protect more equipment with the 5PX’s high power factor
• Slash power and cooling costs with the unit’s high efficiency rating
• Gain graceful shutdown of computers and virtual machines with IPM software
• Rest easy with a three-year warranty covering the unit and batteries