Pollen pervades our lives this time of year. For every show I went to over the past several weeks, there were dozens of people battling allergy symptoms. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation for America releases an annual report on what towns or cities are more afflicted by the irritants and then ranks them through a Top 100 (You can find the entire report here). New Orleans cracked the top 10 by rocketing to #7overall with Baton Rouge coming closely behind at #9. Other notable areas are as follows:

• Memphis, TN at #4
• Louisville, KY at #6
• Charleston, SC at #30
• Augusta, GA at #38
• Omaha, NE at #66

Despite the sniffing and sneezing, a lot happened in March. Rural broadband earned a few more wins through Tennessee, Mississippi, Nebraska, and New Hampshire. These initiatives will ensure telemedicine connectivity and support underserved areas in need. Servato earned another patent on Adaptive Charging methodology. You can find more about that below along with an interview with our CEO, Chris Mangum titled Recharging. Engine Policy and Advocacy also interviews yours truly and you can find it here. Additionally,  we dig further into the personnel that make the Servato team tick in an interview at the bottom.

I apologize for the delay to send this latest monthly newsletter. Mardi Gras took place last week so festivities and parades naturally took over some of my time. Did You Know? The average Mardi Gras Krewe spends over $2.6 million each year on their parade and the accompanying ball they host. This figure, plus the approximately $2,450 per member, creates a large budget for plenty of family-friendly beads and other throws. That second figure outpaces the average expenditure for a string of 12V VRLA batteries, the main target for Servato devices... whoa that's a lot!

Rural broadband recently received a boost from the federally-approved, NTIA-backed, National Broadband Map. This data originally pulls from carrier responses, but there are some inconsistencies with the people represented. Movements like this support rural providers where it hurts them the most: funding for projects, social problems afflicting their customers, and affordable technology. A majority of Servato customers reside in these rural swathes of our country. Recent natural disasters and unequal service circumstances additionally make it even more difficult to provide a great customer experience. The media tailors its message to urbanites due to sheer volume, which lends itself to why I like to try to shed light on topics you might find interesting. You can find other content on the big button below and an interview with our VP of Sales,  Eric Hedlund, at the bottom. 

Frost and Sullivan formally recognized Servato as the Global Entrepreneurial Company of the Year in the energy storage space this January. The award garnered the attention of ABC, MarketWatch, and regional news outlets such as The Oklahoman (more on that below). Energy storage and transmission played a significant role several months ago during the California wildfires as PG&E's aged transmission lines and natural gas facilities sparked mass-incineration resulting in several executive firings including CEO Geisha Williams. PG&E personnel also allegedly falsified records in a rush to comply with California regulators.

Conversely, Servato customers afflicted by the polar vortex streamlined portable generator cycles by having insight into their battery backup time. We should expect more stringent regulatory reactions to both of these "natural" disasters, especially as federal infrastructure spending continues to earn more lip service from politicians as it did during the recent State of The Union address.

Federal infrastructure debate contributed to the partial government shutdown that shook the national economy, reverberating through the suburban and rural corridors of our country where many federal workers reside. Read this original content piece that visualizes how significant this actually is.

Lastly, scroll to the bottom to read my interview with our very own CEO, Chris Mangum, about his recent discovery that his grandfather won a Silver Star in WWII.

2018...

This past year has been a time of significant evolution for Servato and our customers. Customer feedback from our SPS line of products has driven us to create the first integrated rectifier with battery management, which we call the SPS-R. Customer impact is at the core of our product design philosophy. The SPS-R embodies this philosophy in a way that makes its development the highlight of our year. In 2019 we look forward to continuing our unrelenting mission of Ensuring The Internet is Always On by strengthening partner relationships, adding new ones, and looking to our customers for feedback and guidance on new functionality and capabilities.

The accolades (and data) continue to pile up at Servato, while the Thanksgiving holiday fades into the winter holiday season. As the giving season approaches, we could not be more honored to let you know that Servato has won the 2018 Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award in the Global Energy Storage category from Frost and Sullivan. This recognition means a lot to our organization and the people that work hard every day to create an amazing product and customer experience. Servato rallied all of those dedicated people together last week for a team meeting in our Boston office, and one takeaway is that data is moving front and center as a top priority for us as we aim to better serve our customers. We believe that optimally designing the SPS-248 last year and the SPS-R™ this year has positioned us to make significant strides on improving technician efficiency and impact. Servato is also featured in the December issue of ISE Magazine with an article titled, Being Powerfully Redundant Matters. Battery management can be de-prioritized in tough scenarios when the cards are stacked against carriers, but it does not have to be that way.

The "Camp Fire" wildfire earned its place among the top 20 of California's wildfires of all time, with its destruction of over 150,000 acres through Butte county and the surrounding area. More importantly, it is already the most deadly California wildfire of all-time with a death toll currently standing at 85. Destruction like this rears its head all across the country in new forms. We pay our respects to the firefighters who have fought bravely to extinguish this tragic wildfire. Network service providers have a responsibility to mitigate downtime as much as possible during times like this. How are you preparing? 

What do Drew Brees, the World Series, and Servato all have in common?... We all broke records in the month of October!

Drew Brees broke the all-time passing yards record, surpassing 50,000 yards and eclipsing Peyton Manning.  The Red Sox and Dodgers engaged in the longest World Series game ever at 18 innings (7 hours and 20 minutes!) in the seven-game series. And last but not least, Servato surpassed the 100 Million operating hour mark for systems in the field and is now gathering more than 250,000 new battery test data points every week into Servato's ActiView® data platform.

October was a busy month for the Servato team. MATSS in Kansas City, MO, KTA-TTA in Bowling Green, KY, and SCTE Cable Tec Expo in Atlanta, GA make up the short list of association shows we participated in. Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida panhandle much as Hurricane Florence did to the Carolinas in September. An historically warm month across the United States created ideal conditions for more storm systems.  But while 2018 has produced severe weather and tremendous damage, it has not yet been as severe as 2017 in terms of total financial impact (recall Harvey and Maria). Do you want to learn more about how we prepare providers backup power for ice storms, tornadoes, and more?