Toronto Electricians and Electrical Contractors

Security Education in Uncertain Times: 2017 in Review From the time Donald Trump became president-elect in November 2016 and through 2017, EFF was flooded by requests for digital security workshops. They poured in from all over the country: educational nonprofits, legal groups, libraries, activist networks, newsrooms, scientist groups, religious organizations. There are a few reasons for this rise in digital security training requests. Certainly, the 2016 election made a lot of communities rethink their relationships with the U.S. government. At the same time, a rise in high-profile stories of groups being hacked, often using increasingly sophisticated methods, left many of those groups feeling vulnerable. It doesn’t work to drop into a roomful of people you’ve never met before and have no connection to, spend a day teaching them security basics, and then leave, never to interact with them again. We’ve also seen a marked increase in technologists hungry for opportunities to share...

Uninterruptible Power Supplies ( UPSs ) are designed to provide power protection in the event of a utility power disruption or failure. But some applications are so sensitive to downtime that they require redundancy in the UPSs and associated components. In this post, we’ll look at two of the five basic UPS configuration options that offer the greatest protection. The five UPS design configurations, listed in order of increasing levels of redundancy, are: Capacity or N design Isolated redundant Parallel redundant (N+1) Distributed redundant System plus system (2N, 2N+1) While the capacity or N configuration is by far the most common, it won’t pass muster for large data centers or financial organizations that simply can’t afford downtime. For them, it’s typically either distributed redundant or system plus system. Distributed redundant Distributed redundant designs were developed in the late 1990s to provide the capabilities of complete redundancy at a lower cost as compared...

At Schneider Electric, it’s our mission to make our customers’ homes safer, more reliable, efficient, comfortable and sustainable. Australasia’s PDL Iconic electrical accessories range is a clear proof-point of this mission statement. As part of the Schneider Electric Group, PDL launched its Iconic range in October 2016 in a bid to establish itself as the new residential ‘standard’ in the wiring device market.  Packed with innovative features, this stylish electrical accessories range is based on a clean new design platform that is incredibly easy to customize and install, and blends in perfectly with a wide range of residential environments. But don’t just take our word for it…. Almost exactly a year since its launch, PDL Iconic has scooped its first industry award, at the Best Design Awards. Conceived in 1988 by The Designers Institute of New Zealand, The Best Design Awards is Australasia’s largest annual showcase of excellence across graphic, spatial, product, interactive ...

Perhaps you’ve heard this stat before, or something like it: 70% of data center outages are directly attributable to human error. It’s a scary stat to be sure, especially when you consider that it comes from an Uptime Institute analysis of its “abnormal incident” database, meaning it’s based on actual data center outages, not some statistical derivation. For anyone charged with operating data centers, the stat should raise the question, “OK, so how do we improve data center operations?” That is the basic question addressed in a new e-book, “12 Essential Elements of Data Center Facility Operations.” The e-book describes the management principles and operational program elements that it takes to run a mission critical data center efficiently and reliably throughout its life cycle. It also looks at emerging cloud-based data center monitoring services and explains how they are transforming data center operations. The guide presents a balanced approach to a facility management program ...