The UPS Is Uninterruptible by Design. Its Future Is Not.
Data Center Knowledge, Tuesday, October 6th, 2026
Rack batteries, BESS and solid-state transformers are reshaping data center power, raising doubts about where the UPS still belongs.
Data Center Knowledge examines how AI-driven densification on the load side and renewables, microgrids and on-site generation on the grid side are questioning the UPS's central place in the power train.
The Uptime Institute's 2026 outage analysis found power issues caused more than one in five IT outages over three years, with UPS failures the leading cause at 39%, and lithium-ion UPS batteries have also contributed to more data center fires.
New architectures such as rack-level batteries, battery energy storage systems and solid-state transformers may disrupt the UPS further.