Scaling the power capacity of legacy UPS systems leads to hidden costs that may outweigh the very benefit that scalability intends to provide. A scalable UPS system provides a significant benefit to the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of data center and network room physical infrastructure.

This paper describes the drawbacks of scaling legacy UPS systems and how scalable rack-based systems address these drawbacks. The cost factors of both methods are described, quantified and compared.