Columbus Regional Airport Authority
“Reliable power is critical to everything we do to support the airport authority. You can’t
possibly know what your UPS capacity is or how your backup batteries will perform if
you are not monitoring the batteries on a daily basis…”
Ryan Steele, Senior Network Engineer, Technology Services—CRAA
Situation
The Columbus Regional Airport Authority (CRAA) operates three airports in Central
Ohio: the Port Columbus International Airport which offers nearly 150 daily flights to over
30 destinations and serves more than 6 million passengers annually; the Rickenbacker
International Airport, a cargo-focused airport that also offers chartered flights by Allegiant
Air, and Bolton Field, which offers general aviation services including flight training,
aircraft charters, recreational flying and more. Electronic functionality is a crucial
element of daily operations at CRAA’s three airport facilities and is vital to maintaining
both schedules and safety.
Strategy
Supporting security and surveillance systems, gate and flight information
systems, the CRAA data center is critical to the daily operational processes of all
three airports and the businesses that operate within them. In 2013, the airport
authority installed two new UPSs and a Cellwatch battery monitoring system to
ensure availability of systems and long-term power reliability for the entire airport
infrastructure. Data center engineers knew with the increasing growth of the
airport, UPS testing alone was not going to be sufficient to ensure uptime. Cell
level monitoring and alerts with Cellwatch would provide the assurance they
needed.
Results
When the new UPSs went online, Cellwatch immediately triggered an
alarm indicating a bad battery. Without Cellwatch, engineers would not
have known their new backup power supply had faulty batteries until
another scheduled preventative maintenance occurred. Cellwatch gained
instant credibility, proving how valuable it is in preventing outages, and
ultimately paying for itself on day one by averting what could have been
an operational disaster.
Comments
“Reliable power is critical to everything we do to support the airport authority. You can’t
possibly know what your UPS capacity is or how your backup batteries will perform if
you are not monitoring the batteries on a daily basis. Many organizations hope their
UPS will function as intended, but in this data center, we operate with certainty. We rely
on Cellwatch to alert us to any potential issues with our batteries.”
Ryan Steele, Senior Network Engineer, Technology Services—CRAA
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