Montclair State University's Vital Communications Protected by Eaton Power Solutions

Customer

Founded in 1908, Montclair State University (MSU) is located just 14 miles from New York City in Montclair, New Jersey on a 252-acre campus. The University serves over 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students with more than 300 doctoral, master's and baccalaureate level programs.

Challenge

MSU leased space on a third floor office building near the campus for use by university staff. The new office required a new telecommunications room to be outfitted with both networking and telecommunications switches. Communications are a vital component of campus safety and phone systems need to be operational at all times. MSU had experienced power problems in the past, resulting in system downtime and lost equipment. While a new campus sub-station mostly resolved power issues, equipment was still lost during each power event. They needed reliable UPS systems to provide backup power and protection for valuable equipment, including Cisco® switches, Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) and Avaya media gateways. The university also wanted remote power management options, including unattended system shutdown and remote rebooting of unresponsive equipment.

Brian Kelly, a Network Engineer in the MSU Information Technology department, was assigned the task of finding UPS systems. When searching for the UPS systems and other equipment, Eaton rose to the top of his list. He had worked with Eaton before on a previous project and was pleased with the results. "Eaton strike a good balance between features and price." he said.

Eaton products strike a good balance between features and price.

Brian Kelly
Network Engineer–Information Technology
Montclair State University

Solution

SmartOnline^® 208/240V 6kVA 5.4kW Double-Conversion UPS

SU6000RT4UHV

• Protects rackmount servers, telecom systems and other networking equipment with true on-line operation, pure sine wave output and zero transfer time
• Included maintenance bypass switch enables live replacement of UPS with no downtime
• High efficiency ECONOMY MODE operation significantly reduces BTU heat output and operating energy costs

SNMP/Web Management Accessories

WEBCARDLX

• Enables a UPS to be remotely controlled as a managed device on the network
• Provides remote viewing of site electrical data, UPS self-test and alert logs, electrical problems and more
• Permits remote reboots of locked devices without interrupting power to other loads

5.8kW Single-Phase Switched Power Distribution Unit

PDUMH30HVNET

• Provides safe, reliable power distribution
• Enables remote reboot of locked equipment, custom power-on/power-off sequences, load-shedding of optional loads and disabling unused outlets
• Reports voltage, frequency and load level via Ethernet interface
• Digital display continuously reports output load in amps

Results

MSU's Cisco switches, Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA), Avaya media gateways and other devices, including Eaton console/terminal servers, are now protected by Eaton SmartOnline UPS systems. SNMP/Web Management Accessory Cards installed in the UPS systems give IT staff a range of remote power management and control options. Switched PDUs provide reliable power distribution plus the added benefit of individual outlet control to remotely reboot unresponsive equipment. The PDUs also allow the use of 208/240V power instead of 120V, resulting in higher energy efficiency. Planned outages have resulted in zero equipment loss where Eaton UPS systems are installed. Staff at MSU's new office can now expect uninterrupted communications, thanks to Eaton power solutions.