Many people take these units for granted, and they can protect you from a range of things.
First of all, what is an uninterruptible power supply, in simple terms is a box that has a battery inside and most of them have surge protection. It will practically keep your computer running when power source is down and voltage spikes.
So do i really need a UPS and what can i get out of it?
For a home user it will be good to have.
Lets play a scenario: you are a student with a PC and you are typing an essay, half way through your work power cuts out in your street and you lost all your work. A UPS is a backup power solution and will keep your PC and everything else you have plugged into this UPS running.
A UPS isn’t much good to you if you are working from a laptop as they have their own battery source.
Make sure you have that laptop plugged into a surge protector . This Surge protector will help prevent damage to your laptop or any other electrical equipment in your house from voltage spikes.
Another home user scenario: you are playing a game and power cuts out, you can have your internet modem and your PC/Laptop plugged into the UPS.
In a business it is a MUST have! Especially if you have a server, if the power cuts off at anytime the risk of having problems is extremely high.
Lets play another scenario: You have a small server that has some files, and you have cloud based services. Now being a business it all comes to the cost running it and profits.
Lets cut the power off on this particular business, now your workers don’t have any access to the internet and cant access any of the cloud based services. Your server turned off unexpectedly and corrupted some system files.
if UPS(s) are located correctly the business can still operate to some extent.
things to take into consideration are how much you paying your employees for the down time of electricity? how much more behind you getting back on work? how much is going to cost to fix the server?
all this compared to a simple unit that can be installed in your premises.
Just a few things you might want to know before purchasing a UPS for example:
How much power do all my devices take?
How long i would like to have them running after the power failure?
What brand should i get?
Whats is the warranty on the unit?
Do i need a rack mounted UPS or standalone?
Does it come with software, so it can automatically shut down my server, computer or laptop safely?
Does it have power surge protection?
Hope this helps, understand the value of this units and how can they help on your digital life.
regards.
Gian.