Location: Lakewood, NJ

Segment: Medical

Challenge: Frequent battery failures and difficulty managing multiple UPSs prompted Alert Ambulance to pull the plug on its previous APC units. The company sought to replace the solution with a highly reliable, centralized UPS.

Solution: Eaton 93E, Network Card-MS, Service

Result: The Eaton 93E provides the high availability and seamless management that the company desired—not to mention additional benefits including high efficiency and exceptional service.

Background

Since 1972, Alert Ambulance Service has provided professional, prompt, expert emergency and non-emergency medical transportation throughout the state of New Jersey. With five locations across the state, the company has built its reputation as a leading medical transportation provider to hospital and nursing home communities, municipal 911 agencies and private clients. Whether the patient’s destination is a medical facility, doctor's office, treatment center, airport or family function, Alert Ambulance serves its customers with a dedicated fleet of vehicles, superior staff and reasonable costs.

Challenge

While continuous uptime is essential to many organizations, for Alert Ambulance Service, it’s literally a matter of life or death. If a power outage was to strike unexpectedly and take down the company’s servers, switches and phone system, “the worst case scenario is we couldn’t dispatch ambulances or take emergency phone calls,” acknowledges George Zinser, network administrator. Considering that the company’s office locations are not immune to regular utility blackouts, Alert Ambulance Service sought an uninterruptible power system (UPS) offering the highest level of reliability. While the company’s previous power protection solution consisted of a number of smaller APC units, frequent battery failures— coupled with the solution being extremely hard to manage‚— prompted Alert Ambulance Service to dial 911 in search of a better alternative. In addition to a UPS capable of delivering high availability to approximately 40 servers, a phone system and multiple network switches, the company desired a centralized UPS that would be easy to manage and maintain.

Solution

Answering the call for Alert Ambulance Service was the Eaton 93E UPS, specifically developed to solve some of the greatest challenges faced in today’s most critical environments, including the ability to increase efficiency, reduce energy costs and facilitate remote management. Even more, the Eaton 93E maximizes return on investment (ROI) with its unique combination of energy, space and installation savings. “This is our first Eaton unit and it’s been very good to us,” Zinser says. “It was also very well priced for all that it delivers.” The Eaton 93E not only provides up to 98 percent efficiency for lower operating costs, but even qualifies for local utility rebates and incentives. Even more, unlike similar UPSs in its class, the Eaton 93E is capable of delivering this high level of efficiency while still offering maximum load protection — providing surge suppression, detecting utility or load faults, and switching to doubleconversion operation in less than 4 ms. Most importantly, the 93E keeps all of Alert Ambulance Service’s critical systems up and running at all times. “We’ve had multiple power outages and the unit has picked up right away,” Zinser reports. “We have had zero downtime.” Installed in the company’s electrical room, the 93E’s compact footprint — which occupies up to 35 percent less space than competitive equivalents—offered not only easy installation but also ongoing flexibility.

“I love that it comes on wheels, so I can move it easily if I need to get equipment in or out of the room,” Zinser says. “That was a big plus.” Also factoring in to the company’s selection process was the unit’s internal runtime. “It’s a lot more than what other UPSs had,” Zinser explains. While Alert Ambulance Service is currently relying on the unit’s internal battery to carry it through any unexpected electricity losses until its generators power on, the Eaton 93E gives customers the option of scaling runtime as they grow, thanks to an Extended Battery Cabinet (EBC) that provide up to 138 minutes of backup. The organization also offers high praises for the Eaton Network Card-MS, which enables the 93E to directly connect to the Ethernet network and the Internet, supporting real-time monitoring and control of UPSs across the network enables data and event logging. And with all pertinent data in one central location, Zinser no longer has to look in multiple places to access key information. “With the network card installed, we get an email anytime something happens,” Zinser says, “from the battery remaining in the UPS to the temperature and humidity in the room. I love that I don’t have to do any of those calculations in my head.” With plans to implement virtualization down the road, Alert Ambulance Service is also considering deploying Eaton’s Intelligent Power Manager Software, which allows users to easily monitor and manage their network, even in virtualized environments. The innovative solution combines the most critical applications to ensure system uptime and data integrity with power monitoring and management, as well as graceful shutdown during an extended power outage.

But the best part about having purchased the 93E, according to the network administrator, has been the responsiveness and expertise of the Eaton service department. “Eaton service and support have been top-notch,” Zinser emphasizes. “They are noticeably above what any other manufacturer provides.” When Alert Ambulance Service encountered some initial problems with its network card, an Eaton technician not only resolved the issues but provided a complimentary preventive maintenance assessment. “The service person was very helpful throughout the process as far as keeping me updated, which is essential when you have such a critical business,” Zinser says. “The technician thoroughly tested the card and made special provisions to come during a time that was convenient for our business.” Stressing that Alert Ambulance Service relies very heavily on its phone system and computers in order to respond to emergencies, Zinser reveals, “Eaton went above and beyond any service I’ve ever received. It’s clear that Eaton cares a lot more.” As a result, Alert Ambulance Service is in the process of adding an Eaton Service Plan to its 93E. “Rather than a third party, Eaton techs are trained to know their product and what they’re looking for, which increases the reliability,” Zinser explains.

Results

With the Eaton 9E in place, Alert Ambulance Service is now able to:

• Safeguard servers, switches, and the phone system against power problems
• Ensure critical communications remain operational even in the event of a power outage
• Keep apprised of all parameters with the Eaton Network Card-MS
• Save operating costs through the unit’s high efficiency rating
• Preserve valuable floor space with the 93E’s compact footprint
• Ensure the unit’s ongoing optimal health with Eaton Service