An article in The San Bernadino Sun reports that police in the California town arrested two men they believe to have stolen more than $50,000 worth of cell tower batteries over the course of a year. Outages aren't the only threat to backup power and service interruptions.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

This article by Richard Martin for MIT Technology Review addresses one of the most frustrating fields of research in modern technology - batteries. Batteries are essential to all 21st Century technologies from smart phones, to electric cars, to infrastructure and so are naturally a focus for research dollars and energy. Yet for all their ubiquity in the world, innovation has moved at a depressingly slow pace. The promises of game-changing technology leaps have not materialized.

Next week at ISE Expo (9/21-9/22) in San Antonio, Servato will host a panel of leading telecom power experts discussing backup power. ISE (formerly known as OSP Expo) is the annual expo curated by ISE Magazine, a leading publication in telecom. It's a tremendous honor for Servato to have the opportunity to host a panel at this event, particularly on such an important topic. In addition to the session on Wednesday morning, Servato will be exhibiting at booth 1034. 

In this month's The New Yorker, Raffi Katchadourian takes readers into the world of Verizon's iconic art deco skyscraper in southern Manhattan via the photography of Chris Payne. The article and photos capture what anyone in telecom already knows: the infrastructure of decades past is fading into history books, often colossal and incredibly complex architectures replaced by computers. 

CASE INTRODUCTION:

In this case study we take a look at how Servato's ability to monitor temperature and detect issues such as failed fans or heat exchangers can deliver critical insight about site equipment and help extend battery life. This particular example of a failed fan illustrates how manual maintenance may have failed this site. Only a monitoring solution with constant awareness could have alerted the customer about this heat issue. Greater site insight means greater network reliability. The case walks through:

• Servato's Temperature Monitoring: How it Works 
• The Site: General Overview of the Case and Site
• The Temperature Data: How ActiView was Quickly Able to Reveal Unusual Temperature Data 

Last week Servato attended Battery Power 2016 where Business Development Manager Alex Rawitz presented on Servato's Adaptive Charging. The presentation described:

• Shortcomings with continuously float charging standby batteries including premature battery failure
• Failures of intermittent and periodic charging to improve on continuous float charging
• Adaptive Charging - Servato's unique charging regimen for extending battery life, reducing maintenance costs, and improving reliability
• Case studies in which Servato appliances and software have extended battery life, detected deteriorating batteries and found other equipment issues.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Servato’s Alex Rawitz to Present Active Battery Management Solutions at Battery Power 2016

Discussion to Highlight Best Practices for Power Reliability

NEW ORLEANS and DENVER – August 3, 2016 – Servato Corp., a leading provider of energy management solutions announced today that Business Development Manager, Alex Rawitz, will present a session on Adaptive Charging at Battery Power 2016. The talk promises to shed light on the need for active battery management to better support the demands of mission critical services, particularly in telecommunications networks. 

The session, Adaptive Charging, a Further Development of Intermittent Float for Charge Maintenance of VRLA Batteries in Telecommunications Standby Systems, will detail the ongoing development of Servato’s unique adaptive charging solution and the benefits associated with the method compared to conventional float charging. Mr. Rawitz will also highlight case studies whereby Servato’s unique procedure for testing and charging batteries has detected battery and other equipment issues.

Servato Business Development Manager Alex Rawitz wrote for Disaster Recovery Journal on how infrastructure based companies can prepare for disasters by aiming to minimize service downtime caused by power outages. Of course protecting backup power, particularly batteries, through proactive maintenance is essential to avoiding power-related service interruptions. 

Disasters can be difficult for any business, but they are especially challenging for infrastructure based companies. These companies must protect physical assets that are often widely distributed geographically and technically complex. The manpower to cover the distance and the scope of technology is difficult to summon for routine maintenance, much less during emergencies.

As Alex goes on to write, "Given these exacerbating factors, infrastrucutre-based companies need to consider precautions that can speed recovery time and hopefully limit service outages in the first place by mitigating risk factors." The first proactive step is backup power. Few companies have the ability to devote the necessary manpower to maintaining adequate backup power, which is where automation comes into play.

Proactive battery management offers not just more reliable power during disaster scenarios but also cost-savings through automation. Alerts offer more information that helps technicians prioritize everything from routine maintenance to emergency response. Insight into the site's true state can improve response time by hours. 

"Taking the full view of monitoring, automation, and management, I envision sites that combine monitoring alerts with constant site awareness, predictive analytics...and the ability to complement automated site management with remote technician capabilities." 

This blog post was originally published in Battery Power Magazine. To see the original article, click here. Chris Mangum, CEO and Chairman • Servato

Marching towards the world is the Internet of Things (IoT), the technological trend of connecting everything to the Internet. It seems every industry is busily preparing for the rush of updated products and services that will capitalize on IoT. This puts growing pressure and expectations on telecommunications companies, the companies that provide the connectivity that will actually enable an IoT future. The Internet of Things will only be as useful as networks are expansive, fast and reliable.