Q&A: Discover The Untapped UPS Market

By Ramesh Menon, director of global IT channel marketing, Power Quality Division, Eaton Corp.

What’s the value proposition surrounding power protection?

According to Price Waterhouse research, only three percent of data loss incidents are caused by site disasters. Computer viruses only account for seven percent of data loss incidents. The most destructive influences on data centers actually come from much more mundane causes: software error (14 percent), human error (32 percent) and hardware failure (44 percent), frequently triggered by power problems, including power failure, power sags, power surges, brownouts, line noise, high voltage, frequency variation, switching transients and harmonic distortion. That means that your greatest risks of data loss or system damage are preventable — or at least can be greatly mitigated with a proper power protection system.

For any reseller who wants to develop a power practice, the untapped market potential is huge. According to Info-Tech Research Group, the UPS market is expected to  reach $10 Billion USD by 2015. This comes as little surprise, because without clean, continuous power, networks and telecommunication systems can come to an abrupt halt. From spikes and surges to total blackouts, power disturbances can result in shutdowns, equipment damage, and data loss. When they affect critical infrastructure, the result is lost revenue. According to IT Performance Engineering & Measurement Strategies, IT organizations can lose more than $1 million per hour in lost revenue.