Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
[ColonelCassad] A blog reader from Ukraine about the impact of strikes on the energy structure of Ukraine on the IT sector.
Mobile communications and the Internet in some form are present without interruption. A massive power outage leads to a decrease in the number of base stations in the network - standby generators, according to the standards, are only on every fourth or fifth (here I can be wrong), so that essentially remains voice communication and messages. After the transition to blackouts according to the plan (four hours electrically on - four to eight hours off), the entire grid comes to life because there are batteries everywhere.
Stationary "Internet works stably, generators are installed in all data centers. The problem is in the "last mile" - where there are switches and routers without uninterruptibles. In principle, this is corrected by installing the appropriate equipment.
Let's sum it up - problems arise immediately after impacts, when there are uncontrollable power outages. With planned shutdowns (usually after a couple of days), the Internet returns to normal.
Well, do not forget that at home there is equipment that also needs to be powered - you can hold out for 4 hours relatively easily, but then problems with powering the equipment begin.
And all this applies to the IT industry, where it is not a problem to invest and purchase (albeit exorbitantly) the appropriate equipment.
I read the comments to the Telegram - let's try to answer those that are essentially:
- "You can't stock up on generators / you also need to bring fuel" - I was talking about relatively large cities. There, as I understand it, the design of the network was carried out accordingly. With the supply of fuel there, obviously, there are also no problems (despite the fact that the generators are on a relatively small number of towers).
- "UPS is not for long" Speaking in numbers, an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) worth about $350 (these are now real prices there - i.e. twice the market) will give you the opportunity to fully charge your laptop and power your "home" router and even a wireless point for half a day. If you need more - then yes, problems. And, of course, if there is something at the entrance to the house, then an uninterruptible power supply is also needed there. We are still talking about the IT industry working "to the west."
- Uninterruptibles do not have time to recharge - yes, there is such a thing. But again, in our experience, this is critical in the first days after the strikes, and again, you can recharge from a running car (expensive, but this is about IT).
- In small towns, everything is getting worse and better (as I already wrote - I have no statistics). Better because no one bothers with the planned shutdown of a village of 100 people. Worse, because recovery takes much longer. Many people buy a backup generator + Starlink (cost with installation somewhere around 1000+)
- Offices of IT companies are usually equipped with generators + Starlink. Those. key people can always move to the office.
If we ignore the technical side of the issue, then the main problem is that many (Western) customers have not really wanted to work with Ukraine lately (or require additional resources in other regions "for safety net".
That is why it is difficult to get "honest" information even At the same time, objectively, according to statistics, Ukraine "works" at about 80% of productivity.