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MasterSwitch™
Boosts Mountaintop Wireless Application Uptime
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"With the APC
MasterSwitch™, we are able to improve our availability from
two 9s to four or even five 9s and I no longer have to worry
about the weather breaking to fly up to reset my
equipment."
Shane Bennett
President
WhistlerWEBsites.com
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"Whistler
Mountain, located near Whistler, British Columbia, on the West
Coast of Canada, is a world renown destination for tourists from
North America, Europe and Asia. The resort, which is nestled in
and around Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain, is
recognized as a four-star, year-round resort.
"My company,
WhistlerWEBsites.com, is a small six year old ISP servicing the
Whistler area with Web site hosting, 56K dial up service, ISDN
service and high speed wireless IP/Ethernet-based access
services. Currently on my network I have four APC PowerCells, an
APC Smart-UPS® 2200, an APC Smart-UPS 700, an APC
Smart-UPS1400, four T1 SurgeArrest® surge protectors, and 30
Ethernet APC surge protectors (ProtectNets). This equipment
protects my Web servers, E-mail servers, modems, routers,
wireless microwave radios, L4 switches, cache servers, DNS
servers and hubs.
Maintaining Operations at
6,000 Feet
"A wireless tower is
located on top of Sproatt Mountain across the valley from
Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. The tower is perched 6,000
feet above sea level and is accessed mainly by helicopter. This
tower supplies Whistler Valley with high speed Internet access
and IP/Ethernet based Metropolitan area network, plus two TV
stations. We use the APC MasterSwitch™ to remotely start or
reboot equipment in the tower. At $600 per helicopter trip up
the mountain, the MasterSwitch pays for itself immediately upon
installation.
"With the APC MasterSwitch,
we are able to improve our availability from two 9s to four or
even five 9s and I no longer have to worry about the weather
breaking to fly up to reset my equipment or knock rime ice off
of the wind generators and solar cells."
"At the Whistler resort we
also manage the uptime of a solar/wind and battery powered,
wirelessly linked, live Webcam overlooking both the Whistler and
Blackcomb Mountains (http://www.whistlerlivewebcams.com).
The camera gives spectacular views of the mountains and slopes.
Our clients can look back in time at the weather as we save one
image from each day. At night the cameras show the village in
the valley lit up by creekside lights and full moons. In all,
nine Webcams are set up throughout the valley and include live
views of mountains and slopes, lift lines, and weather above and
below the cloud line.
Meeting High Expectations
Requires Constant Availability
"In the past, when the
wireless network went down our customers would switch to our
backup dial up service. But once they became reliant on the high
speed of wireless, having a back up analog system did not cut it
for them any more. We needed to maintain the uptime of the
wireless system despite the sometimes very harsh weather
conditions.
"We now offer our customers
a cashed firewall protected, premium, IP/Ethernet-based,
Metropolitan area-capable service. This means that if our
systems go down, we are highly likely to lose a substantial
portion of our customer base. These people would be very
difficult to win back. Clients only remember the time the
service is down and expect their systems to be constantly
available. APC helps my business to live up to my customer's
expectations." |
--10/19/2001
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