“Remember, selecting the right plan helps us to protection and support your IT assets.“
UPS devices play a crucial role in protecting your valuable IT systems and the APC UPS devices we’ve supplied since 1997 have a great track record for reliability.
This article discusses the enhanced monitoring services that help us to support your system. Though the free SmartConnect Basic might be suitable for a UPS which is connected to non mission critical infrastructure, SmartConnect Standard offers enhanced features that are recommend for UPS that support servers and other mission critical systems while SmartConnect Advanced is best for customers that also want the fastest recovery time when things go wrong.
SmartConnect Basic
If you choose not to pay for or renew SmartConnect then SmartConnect Basic is the version you’ll get. While it offers some features, it’s quite limited compared to the paid plans, and can leave us “in the dark” about your UPS. Although this software will give us some remote oversight on the UPS and will download firmware updates to your UPS, such updates cannot be installed remotely, so an on site visit would be required. In addition to this limitation, we’ll be unable to receive alerts or notifications from this device (e.g. a power cut is in progress), events will no longer be recorded in the Event Log, and we’ll be unable to perform UPS diagnostic tests.
SmartConnect Standard
This plan provides a comprehensive set of features which we consider are essential for UPS that support mission critical hardware like servers and network cabinets. In addition to the remote oversight, SmartConnect Standard allows us to install firmware updates without a site visit, perform remote self tests and diagnostics, automate email alerts and notifications and also adjust input voltage sensitivity for sites that may need to run off fuel-powered generators.
SmartConnect Advanced
Building upon the capabilities of SmartConnect Standard, Smart Connect Advanced gives us the ability remotely power cycle or reset equipment attached to the UPS, a feature that is used rarely but can reduce the need for site visits and at the same time reduce the time to fix for certain faults.
Remember….
Your APC UPS is a critical component in protecting your IT infrastructure. While SmartConnect Basic offers minimal monitoring, we strongly recommend SmartConnect Standard or SmartConnect Advanced. Remember, selecting the right plan helps us to protection and support your IT assets.
If you have any questions about which plan best suits your needs, please don’t hesitate to contact us.