Achieve Zero-Touch operation with zero problems

Feb 6, 2024

As a frequent traveler passing through airport security, I often catch sight of a highly visible – yet lonely – UPS. Although it inevitably attracts passengers’ attention with its constantly blinking LEDs, only people-in-the-know (like me) recognize the tell-tale signal that the unit’s batteries are due for replacement. Unfortunately, it appears that TSA officers have not been trained to recognize this condition, which means that the UPS will be dying soon or will fail to kick on when a power outage occurs – likely sparking passenger delays from scenarios such as jetway gates failing to operate or TSA scanning equipment shutting down. And because the UPS is not connected to a network, it is unable to notify remote personnel that action is needed; most likely, this was deemed too expensive or difficult to set up by the original system integrator. Yet what if we could turn this constant headache into a lightbulb moment?

Affordable remote management has arrived

Eaton’s soon-to-be-released Tripp Lite series cloud-connected UPS systems aim to do just that, enabling you to manage your customers’ remote power assets seamlessly, securely and cost-efficiently. Not to mention, more profitably. Especially ideal for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), the new offering not only simplifies UPS deployment and maintenance for remote sites, but generates valuable recurring revenue opportunities for channel partners.

While remote management has been possible for decades, several key stumbling blocks have remained around enabling Zero-Touch operation, especially for UPS designed for endpoint solutions where price is always a critical decision element.

Strong headwinds

As enterprise customers increasingly deploy UPS fleets across nationwide branch offices or stores, the challenges have magnified – from lack of trained personnel to manage equipment on site, to shipment costs for batteries or replacement units, to the process of collecting and recycling old units. Meanwhile, ensuring power infrastructure uptime in these remote sites is absolutely vital amid the declining stability of utility power due to ever-increasing power requirements of both EV charging infrastructure and large data centers optimized for Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Cleared for takeoff

Eaton considered all of these challenges as we developed our new offering of affordable UPSs optimized for the remote management of point-of-sale devices and other endpoints in IoT applications. Providing extensive benefits in a channel-friendly package, the new line was designed to address the unique needs of remote sites, including:

• A full line of UPSs in multiple power ratings, form factors, battery types and communication capabilities.
• The ability to deploy inexpensive UPSs at scale with peace of mind, as their Li-Ion batteries will last 8 to 10 years.
• The ability to remotely control connected equipment to cycle power of faulty devices for easy reset, removing the need to dispatch personnel on site.
• A new cloud-based platform to provide notification and perform remote management tasks without the need to install any software locally, reducing the risk of downtime due to improper software installation.
• Fully certified cybersecurity to ensure that cloud-connected assets do not become a potential vulnerability to your customers’ networks.

Soaring to new heights of efficiency

By enabling UPS status and battery levels to be monitored in real time via a mobile app or web browser – with the ability to make changes from anywhere – the new offering will save the time, hassle and expense of frequent truck rolls, whether a customer has deployed a single UPS or an entire fleet. Even more, the new UPSs will notify channel partners of any lifecycle management opportunity, such as the end of the warranty period or the need to replace batteries. And ultimately – bonus for me! – this will hopefully lead to one less thing to think about when I’m passing through the TSA check!

Remote monitoring simplified

Learn more about how cloud-connected UPS systems power and protect a wide range of devices

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