What Happened in Amazon’s Northern Virginia Data Center
By Molly Gross, Principal, Power Solutions, LLC On Thursday May 7, 2026, Amazon Web Services reported what it described as a thermal event at a single Availability Zone in its US-EAST-1 region in Northern Virginia. According to Amazon’s status updates, rising temperatures inside one data center caused loss of power to affected hardware racks. Amazon’s compute and […]
The R410A Refrigerant Transition in Data Center Cooling
A 2026 Planning Guide: What’s Changing, the Affected InRow Equipment, and the Replacement Path By Margaret Gross, principal, Power Solutions LLC For most data center operators, refrigerant has been a quiet specification. It sits inside the cooling system, doesn’t affect day-to-day operations, and gets touched only during installation, scheduled maintenance, or service. That changes in […]
Modular UPS: Built to Grow With You
By Margaret Gross, Principal, Power Solutions, LLC Most UPS Systems Are Designed to Protect a Fixed Load. IT Loads Are Not Fixed. Servers get added. Infrastructure gets consolidated. AI tools arrive and draw more power than anyone planned for when the UPS was originally specified. The IT load in a typical data center or server […]
Schneider Electric’s Easy Modular Data Center All-in-One: A Complete Data Center in 12 Weeks
By Margaret Gross, Power Solutions, LLC, Principal Data center capacity requirements don’t wait for construction schedules. The organizations we work with need more capacity, they need it quickly, and they need to know what it’s going to cost before they commit. Those three things are hard to get from a conventional buildout. Schneider Electric’s Easy […]
Which Galaxy UPS Do You Actually Need? A Practical Guide for IT Directors and Facilities Managers
By Margaret Gross, Principal, Power Solutions, LLC If you’re responsible for three-phase power protection, you’ve probably heard the Galaxy VS, VL, and VX discussed as though they’re versions of the same thing. They’re not. They’re distinct platforms designed for different environments, and specifying the wrong one creates problems that compound over time — either you’ve […]
AI Workloads Require a Different Infrastructure Model
By Margaret Gross, Principal, Power Solutions, LLC GPU-dense AI compute racks present design parameters that fall outside the assumptions built into most existing data center infrastructure. Specifying power and cooling for an AI retrofit — or designing new capacity to support AI from the ground up — requires understanding how these loads differ from conventional […]
Schneider Electric Galaxy VS, VL & VX at a Glance
By Molly Gross, Principal, Power Solutions, LLC Schneider Electric’s Galaxy series covers the full range of three-phase power protection, from 10 kVA deployments to 1,500 kVA hyperscale installations. All three models operate in double-conversion (VFI) mode, support both VRLA and lithium-ion battery configurations, and integrate with Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure IT platform for remote monitoring. Here’s a quick […]
Where Is the Best Place to Get Unbiased Advice about the Right UPS for My Facility
A Practical Guide, by Molly Gross, Principal, Power Solutions, LLC If you’ve ever searched for UPS system recommendations online, you’ve likely run into the same problem: most sources have a stake in what you buy. Manufacturer websites promote their own products. Online retailers push whatever earns the highest margin. Even some “comparison” sites are funded […]
All Your Power Needs – One Phone Call
By Molly Gross, Principal, Power Solutions, LLC They say you can’t be all things to all people, but at Power Solutions, LLC, we certainly try. As a channel partner with over 20 different manufacturers and service providers, we have one of the most comprehensive power product and service offerings available in the industry today. Add […]
Engineering Challenges of UPS Systems with Extended Runtimes
By Guy Lacerte, Principal, Power Solutions, LLC Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems play a vital role in ensuring operational continuity in settings where power disruptions could result in substantial financial setbacks, data loss, or safety hazards. Typical UPS designs emphasize short-term backups, usually lasting 5 to 15 minutes to allow time for generators to engage. […]
APC by Schneider Electric End of Life Announcements and Updates
Several popular models of APC and Schneider Electric power and cooling equipment are end of life. Some models have already or are about to reach their end of service life or obsolescence date, meaning spare parts, comprehensive service plans, and maintenance services are no longer available. For some models, modernization services designed to prolong the useful life […]
BAA Compliant UPS Products from Schneider Electric
BAA Compliant UPS Products from Schneider Electric: Ensuring Reliability, Compliance, and Cost Savings in Critical Power Protection The Buy American Act (BAA), enacted in 1933, mandates that products purchased by the U.S. federal government must be manufactured domestically to the greatest extent possible, fostering economic growth and national security. In the realm of uninterruptible power […]