Trade-off tool calculates critical edge costs

Schneider Electric has launched a new TradeOff Tool, the Edge UPS Fleet Management Comparison Calculator, available today on SE.com. Using the TradeOff Tool, IT solutions providers, managed service providers, VARs and end users can model the cost implications of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) monitoring and maintenance across distributed sites and make data driven decisions regarding cost, site criticality and servicing resources. The latest addition to Schneider Electric’s library of free digital TradeOff Tools, the Edge UPS Fleet Management Comparison Calculator helps users simplify and clarify the costs associated with monitoring and maintaining a UPS fleet. The model considers the size (VA rating), quantity, age and distribution of the fleet, as well as cost factors such as the expense of service technicians travelling to remote sites. Furthermore, it provides a financial analysis of the potential operational expenses (OpEx) incurred by using internal staff to service distributed sites, or whether engaging with an external partner or vendor can be more cost effective.

“With greater dependency on digital infrastructure and IT at the edge, ensuring critical power across distributed sites has become a key challenge for today’s IT professionals,” said Marc Garner, VP, Secure Power Division, Schneider Electric UK&I. “UPS systems must be properly maintained, repaired or replaced when nearing end of life, and deploying sufficient technical staff to perform these tasks reliably and at minimum cost often requires the support of Schneider Electric or external service partners. This tool provides customers the capabilities to know when they should leverage additional resources, while optimising budgets to safeguard against outages.”

Calculating the cost of downtime

Schneider Electric TradeOff Tools are web-based, mobile-friendly applications that allow channel partners and end users to experiment with different scenarios, using data and science to estimate outcomes during data centre concept and design work. To facilitate cost comparisons, the Edge UPS Fleet Management Comparison Calculator allows the user to input a number of variables to gain an estimate for the amount of downtime that would be avoided by using a partner, or managed service, for monitoring and maintenance.

It assigns a cost per hour which will vary according to the size of the UPSs. The larger the UPS, for example, the more expensive the outage. The user can also adjust the cost per hour variable if they have a record of the costs specific to their business. Having calculated the total cost of downtime, whether by self-servicing or through utilising proactive monitoring, preventative maintenance or a service level agreement (SLA), the comparison is automatically displayed. Research detailed in Schneider Electric white paper #283, ‘A Quantitative Comparison of UPS Monitoring and Servicing Approaches Across Edge Environments’, found that although internal personnel can manage a fleet of new equipment cost effectively, the savings gained by using partner or service provider resources increase substantially as equipment ages. With a fleet of 100 distributed UPS working with an external service partner can offer savings of up to 59 percent under a typical managed SLA.

Digital services for the edge According to the Uptime Institute global annual data centre survey, 75% of respondents cited that downtime could have been preventable with better management, processes or configuration. For an organisation with the responsibility of operating multiple IT environments, the cost of having trained technical personnel on-site can be significant and often unrealistic. Using the tool, partners and end-users can calculate the cost of ensuring power continuity and resiliency for distributed, mission-critical IT applications, whether through partners or internal teams.

By utilising software systems such as Schneider Electric’s open, vendor-agnostic remote management platform, EcoStruxure™ IT, customers can gain greater insights into the health and status of their UPS and dispatch service teams to minimise downtime. With its recent Public API and Monitoring and Dispatch Services, EcoStruxure also delivers proactive alerts into the status of edge computing environments, enabling IT Solutions Providers, MSPs and VARs to mitigate the fallout from power outages, and transition to digital servicing models.