The Ins and Outs of APC Hardware
As your company’s trusted IT administrator, it is ultimately your responsibility to build and maintain an IT infrastructure that is 100% reliable. Everyone is looking to you to recommend high-quality hardware and components to keep day-to-day operations running smoothly in both the short and long term.
For most small to mid-sized businesses, a power outage or system failure means loss of productivity and is a direct hit to the bottom line. When it comes to server hardware and accessories to power your server closet or datacenter, choosing top-tier infrastructure products with a good reputation is key to ensuring unscheduled downtimes don’t stop your business in its tracks.
APC by Schneider Electric, formerly known as American Power Conversion Corporation, has been the leading manufacturer of power supplies and physical IT infrastructure products for more than 30 years. Though APC is widely recognized as an industry leader, understanding its product lines and choosing what will work best for your company’s infrastructure can be complicated.
Which APC hardware is right for your business? Our IT experts weigh in on what you need to know about APC hardware accessories and peripherals.
APC Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS)
An uninterruptible power supply, also called an uninterruptible power source or UPS, provides emergency power to your critical systems and hardware when the main power fails. Unlike an auxiliary power system or generator, a UPS has energy stored in batteries that can instantly protect from power interruptions. This gives you and your employees time to move to another power source, save your work and safely shut down your equipment.
The most reliable and popular UPS on the market today, APC Uninterruptible Power Supplies, are ideal for any small to mid-sized business or datacenter that needs a dependable source of power. These power supplies provide instant battery power to your business, creating additional redundancy in case there’s a main power failure.
There are several power supply options based on your specific needs. APC Back-UPS are ideal for small tower servers, personal computing and mobile devices around the office and are available in simple desktop and tower designs to save space. APC Smart-UPS — the top tier of power protection for servers, storage, networking and data centers — are available in a variety of sizes and voltages to accommodate a wide range of power demands.
APC AC Adapters are available for both Dell and HP laptops and devices, ensuring that you always have power without requiring a brand-specific charger.
If and when the power goes out, with APC uninterruptible power supplies, you’ll always stay connected. Benefits include more runtime, more battery backup outlets, surge and lightning protection and USB ports to make charging even easier. You can keep your systems up and running, avoid the loss of valuable data and maintain productivity with APC uninterruptible power supplies. Software is included that provides safe system shutdown, as well as energy monitoring, to prevent data corruption.
APC Specialty Enclosures and Cooling Cabinets
APC server room products are scalable and easy to configure. The specialty enclosures are designed to fit any environment from data centers to server rooms and network closets.
Enclosures protect your critical hardware and equipment from contaminants and humidity, and fully insulated cooling cabinets provide the necessary temperature control to protect equipment and keep it operating at maximum efficiency. Enclosures and cabinets also extend the life of your hardware, which will save you big bucks in the long run.
The right configuration of enclosures and cabinets also provides you with more design flexibility, enabling you to build and house your datacenter or server closet wherever you want within the available office space.
APC enclosures make it easy to rack your IT infrastructure in cool, easily powered cabinets, and APC’s specialty enclosures are customized specifically with small businesses in mind.
The APC NetShelter SX series is ideal for customers that need to maximize air flow, power distribution and cable management in their rackmount enclosure, while the APC NetShelter WX series has a more compact 6–12U design specifically made for wall mounting in compact environments.The APC NetShelter CX series with its soundproof “server in a box” is designed for small businesses that don’t have a lot of physical space for IT, while the APC NetShelter SV series provides basic functionality at a reasonable price.
Because APC server room solutions are pre-engineered, you always get a customized solution that delivers high availability at a lower total cost of ownership.
KVM Switches and Consoles
A KVM switch (short for keyboard, video and mouse switch) allows users to control multiple computers from one location.
APC Rack KVM switches provide local and remote POST and BIOS-level access and network control, seamlessly connecting your servers to a single keyboard, mouse and monitor. This enables you to save money, space and energy by using just one keyboard, monitor and mouse to manage multiple servers.
APC LCD Rack Consoles are ideal for connecting to your KVM switch, with keyboard, video display and mouse all built into a simple 1U design. APC KVM Bundles have everything you need to get connected with switch, video monitor and mouse, providing a simple plug-and-play solution for server control and monitoring.
You get all this functionality without losing any flexibility. APC KVM switches and consoles provide enterprise-level scalability with centralized network power control.
Aventis Systems is proud to offer all our APC hardware products complete with a one-year standard Essentials Warranty and the option to upgrade to Aventis Systems Express Warranty, which includes next-business-day parts replacement. Other extended-term warranties are also available.
For help finding the best-in-class APC physical infrastructure support products for your company, contact our team of expert technicians today at 1-855-AVENTIS.
