Pangea Consulting Joins APC Reliability Provider Program
San Jose, California, August 18, 2000 - Pangea Consulting, an organization specializing in fault-tolerant IT infrastructure consulting, data center design, and system administration today announced that they have formally joined the APC Reliability Provider program.
"Until recently, most California companies were not overly concerned about power failures and surges since lightning is rare out here. However, with recent rolling blackouts and the threat of even less reliable power this winter, many of our clients are taking immediate steps to build out their battery backup systems," stated Michael Tharenos, President and CEO of Pangea Consulting. "We have audited our clients networks and deployed Web/SNMP capabilities in all of their UPS's to ensure immediate alerts and notifications when power issues arise and servers must be shutdown."
There are two unfortunate realities of the electronics age; the utility simply cannot provide the clean, consistent power demanded by sensitive electronics, and the customer is ultimately responsible for the health and safe operation of his equipment.
A study by IBM has showed that a typical computer is subject to more than 120 power problems per month. The effects of power problems range from the subtleÑkeyboard lockups, hardware degradationÑto the dramaticÑcomplete data loss or burnt motherboards. According to a survey by the Yankee Group, almost half of the corporations researched put their downtime costs at upwards of $1,000 per hour, with nine percent estimating costs up to or more than $50,000 per hour.
Clearly, businesses are becoming more and more reliant on a utility power supply that is pushed beyond its capacity. Despite advances in the capabilities of modern personal computers, a momentary power outage is still all it takes to lose your data. More dangerous is the loss of previously written files, or even an entire hard disk, which can occur should a power problem strike while your computer is saving a file. Network fileservers constantly writing to disk are particularly susceptible.
Unfortunately the situation won't be getting better anytime soon. It takes approximately a decade to get a new power plant on-line, and concerns about nuclear power and fossil fuels have stifled the construction of new generating facilities. In the United States, for instance, spending on utilities has dropped from 2.3% of the Gross National Product in the 1960's to less than 1% today.
According to APC, "It's been said that there are two types of computer users: those who have lost data because of a power problem, and those who are going to. Over the past few years, we've helped create a new class... those who have recognized the need for protection and taken steps to ensure that they're prepared for the inevitable."
Founded in 1990, Pangea Consulting is an organization specializing in IT consulting, support and system administration.
Media Contact:
Joe Peterson
Pangea Consulting
408-578-5130
