UPS as a Service for Government
Client
A consolidated state government that provides infrastructure, project management and connectivity for all state agencies. The technology division must develop policies and strategies to support the effective application of information technology within state government as a means of improving state services to the public as well as developing, implementing, and maintaining the technology infrastructure of the state.
Challenge
Within the last 5 years the state had consolidated. To clarify, all of the executive branch agencies’ IT operations now fell under one centralized office. This office was now responsible for managing and maintaining IT infrastructure across 100+ counties.
Not only was the state customer plagued by ongoing equipment loss resulting from dirty power, but they were also unable to effectively manage and support a power protection strategy across their expansive, physically distributed environment.
- The equipment was mostly unmonitored. So the state struggled with keeping up with their inventory and where equipment was located.
- Field resources were dispatched to fix what was presumed to be a network outage, only to realize was they had UPS issues.
- Furthermore, the state was submitting PO requisitions on a weekly basis for failed UPS devices.
Solution
- Install UPS devices in over 1,500 state offices to protect state-owned equipment from power events. Send out Volta’s services team to every remote location to complete UPS installations, and to track what equipment exists and where.
- Offload the task of managing and monitoring UPS devices to Volta’s services team. Implement remote monitoring, ensure replacement stock is on hand, and immediately begin proactively supporting the customer’s infrastructure.
- Transform a critical infrastructure component from a capital purchase to an operational spend. Free the customer from the UPS business with an “as-a-service” model to improve infrastructure health and offload time-consuming eld work.
Results
- During the install process, Volta discovered a majority of network closets didn’t have UPSs at all. This issue accounted for a large portion of switch failures. The half that did have UPS housed an amalgam of random manufacturers of varying ages. With the implementation of our UPS as a service solution, engineers from Volta calibrate and monitor the states’ fleet of homogeneous UPSs to ensure optimal performance and uptime.
- Expending valuable network engineer resources on UPS problems is no longer a massive pain point. UPS devices are maintained and the lifecycle of the battery managed proactively. Additionally, the customer doesn’t have to utilize their internal team to work on UPS issues.
- Volta owns the assets, and the state pays a monthly operating expense. If they add or take a UPS off the contract, it’s just a matter of changing the quantity on the monthly billing. They don’t have to consider an asset tax nor enter items into an inventory system. The devices are simply out there, working and being managed by someone else.
