“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
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.
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.
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.
