UPS. UPSs are, arguably, the least "sexy" but perhaps most necessary piece of data-protection equipment in your IT shop. Your users probably aren't thinking about the UPS when the lights flicker during a power surge or when a clap of thunder reverberates, but you know that power protection can mean the difference between hours of work saved and lost. With few exceptions, Windows IT Pro readers voted overwhelmingly for American Power Conversion's (APC's) InfraStruXure product for Best UPS. Not merely a traditional UPS, InfraStruXure is an "on-demand architecture" for ensuring network availability, consisting of a modular architecture that can include UPSs, power distribution capabilities, racks, cooling, cabling, cable distribution, and management tools, among other features. The product can fit in environments of all sizes, from wiring closets all the way up to server rooms and small-, medium-, or large-sized data centers.