A Power specialist to the fore

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INFOSEC UPS SYSTEM is a leading French power safety solutions manufacturer and is showing this year again its recent product releases at INTERSEC 2017. Tristan de Kerros – Regional Director Asia & Eastern Africa discusses the focus of the company on securing critical infrastructure and trends in the region

Discuss your focus at Intersec? What are the solutions being showcased?
All of the best security systems on the market today have one thing in common – they all need an uninterrupted power source to function.
Whether you require cover for a simple, single-camera analogue recording system, an IP system which requires multiple points of power to be protected, or one of the largest of monitoring systems using multiple servers and POE, a reliable backup power supply solution is a must.
In the same way, increasing developments in both access control, CCTV and security system integration often result in multiple points of power requiring protection. INFOSEC UPS SYSTEM protects critical points of failure within systems and provide either stand-alone or IT-integrated solutions to our customers’ power insurance needs.
At INTERSEC 2017, we will showcase solutions from INFOSEC’s recent releases which offer opportunities to reduce both cost and complexity by securing mission-critical applications.
GCC’s security players usually show great interest in rack-mountable solutions up to 20kW supplied with flexible battery pack options. Our monitoring, tracking and alarm tools have received wide acclaim in the regional engineering community – also receiving very positive feedback for addressing the market’s increasing expectations for ‘smart solutions’.
Our E3 Pro and E6 Evolution series are the ideal approach to custom-built power safety solutions.
The growing demand for Modular architecture in data protection solutions has been a key focus since our release of the new Mod5T series last year.

Discuss your growth outlook for the region? How was the year 2016 for the company in the region from growth perspective?
INFOSEC UPS SYSTEM is today positioned as a high-end UPS vendor that provides solutions to major accounts clients in the global corporate marketplace. Over the last 25 years, our teams of engineers in France have designed and produced complete turn-key protection systems with software applications. This expertise has allowed INFOSEC solutions to gain the confidence of the market across more than 100 countries. We first opened our regional office here in the GCC region back in 2002. Even with the difficult market challenges of 2016, we still experienced significant growth and won key projects in countries like Qatar, Jordan, UAE, Iraq and KSA. Due to constant investments in security infrastructure, high-end data protection solutions, and recent local legislation on power protection, we expect this trend to continue in 2017.

Elaborate on your distribution strategy and partner strategy?
Our market channels play a central role in educating and informing SI and end-users. In the security industry, SI’s play a major role in providing fully integrated solutions that involve multiple vendor offerings. Every day, numerous estimation engineers refer back to us seeking effective support to qualify, design and optimize power systems that cover these complex architectures. One of INFOSEC’s key roles is as an active presence in Technical and Sales support training for partners. Being close to our channels has always been priority. This success has also been fueled by key investments we made in local service centers, as well as a significant local availability of physical stock of INFOSEC UPS products (in our Jebel Ali operation).

Which are the key customer segments for you in the region? Is the SMB/ enterprise datacenter a significant focus?
Our client list includes a “Who’s Who” of anything from some of the top retail banks in KSA to major GCC airports. In short, our customers are everywhere. Oil industry, hospitality, healthcare, they are all covered! We’ve even provided solutions to make sure race camels’ treadmills in the UAE are covered! (I leave it to your imagination to figure out why these athletes need power protection for their training equipment!) Servers, IP and network protection remains a key market for small capacity systems when larger capacities (up to 300kVA) are increasingly switching to modular architecture (mainly for Data Centers).

Are power protection solutions including UPS required for all customers using computers – individuals and Businesses- irrespective of the fact that they maybe residents of or located in countries where power outages are a rare exception?
Keep in mind that a UPS has two main roles – First is to provide a backup in case of power failures. The second one (sometimes less obvious) is to protect against power fluctuations. These fluctuations can have huge impact on the lifespan of a connected device. This can also affect the function of the device. A great example is in the healthcare field: medical equipment can provide distorted results if they don’t have a stable power source.
Generally speaking, the stability and continuity of any given country’s power supply is a deciding factor in the range of UPS solutions needed. Many applications cannot afford failure. In some fields these standards are set by the local legislator.
In some remote locations continuing pressure on the local main power system means that power failures are becoming more common as are fluctuations in power quality such as surges, spikes, harmonics and brown-outs.

You offer line-interactive as well as online network UPS systems- how do you and partners help customers choose the right solutions from your extensive range?
Making sure our channel plays a pivotal role in guiding and explaining is a key point of emphasis for us. The type of application connected, the environment and autonomy expectation (back-up time) are just examples of criteria to qualify carefully to get the most optimized solution and the best ROI.

Do you also target remote worksites as major targets for your power protection range of solutions?
Remote worksites give specific challenges to engineers. Long electric power shortages, mix of electrical sources (utility, generators or solar panels) as well as loads and sometimes high temperature risks, are just some of the challenges. Many of them have found answers with our range of inverter/chargers C series. These devices combine AC (utility and genset) and DC (solar) inputs, they are flexible and can be monitored. In the same way, our engineers are developing a range of outdoor small capacity UPS. Video surveillance of remote industrial sites remains a priority for us.