‘We’re moving these 10- and 20-kVA models like we’ve never seen before. So that mix that we’ve been building and putting in place over the last couple of years is coming to fruition, and it feels like it’s at exactly the right time,” CyberPower Vice President of Marketing Tim Madsen tells CRN.
As the data center spending boom rolls into 2025, CyberPower said sales of its largest modular three-phase UPS units to support those modernization efforts doubled last year, representing a massive win for its channel.
Shakopee, Minn.-based CyberPower said these devices are packed with enablement and sold exclusively through channel partners, which is a break from how competitors move units that size, CyberPower channel chief Peter Meisen told CRN.
“Our whole purpose behind this is to empower the reseller that maybe passed on these opportunities in the past because they didn’t have the expertise,” he told CRN. “So we put together a team of application engineers that can help these resellers find the right solution for their customer and determine exactly what’s needed.”
Meisen said the consultative approach has been working well for channel partners that are newer to the big UPS units. Once the product has been selected, the shipment is sent through distribution and CyberPower can provide boots on the ground when it’s ready to be turned on.
“It is highly technical, and that’s why most of our competitors do it directly. But we put together this team so that any reseller should be able to do that,” he told CRN. “We can turn things around pretty quickly.”
Data center technology spending skyrocketed 34 percent in 2024 to $282 billion, according to Synergy Research Group. It soared past a half-trillion dollars in January alone, as technology vendors and investment firms vie to build out massive AI compute.
CyberPower Vice President of Marketing Tim Madsen told CRN the company’s product mix is being adopted throughout the tier-one and tier-two data center markets, which gravitate toward the 10-kVA and 20-kVA units, which provide thousands of watts of power to the data center in a side-by-side, stackable or rack-mounted configuration.
“We’re moving these 10- and 20-kVA models like we’ve never seen before,” he said. “So I think that the mix that we’ve been building and putting in place over the last couple of years is coming to fruition, and it feels like it’s at exactly the right time.”
While a majority of the product growth that CyberPower sees is within the larger units, Madsen said the company recently introduced its newest 1U sine wave UPS lineup, which was a 2024 CRN Product of the Year Finalist in the Power Protection and Management category.
“We have seen a lot of success with these type of small-footprint UPS systems that fit into wall-mount racks. That’s another area of the business that we’re doing really well in. Whether it’s a security application, an audio-visual application or an edge computing situation, folks are looking for a 1U, high-density UPS that’s going to power and protect those applications” he said.
Madsen said there will be new incentives every quarter for channel partners this year. Currently, CyberPower partners can receive an extended warranty on education and government purchases, which adds value for the cost-conscious buyer.
“Overall, it just lowers the total cost of ownership because the product is going to last for five years, and if it doesn’t, you can turn it in and you get a new one, whether that’s a new battery or a new unit or both,” he told CRN. “We have the best warranties in the IT channel. With CyberPower, essentially, you get a bumper-to-bumper warranty for five years. If you are a government or an educational organization, it allows for advanced planning.”
And beginning in April, Madsen said, the smaller 1U unit will be 15 percent off for the channel.
“That’s when the storms start to kick up, and then you realize you either need to replace your UPS or you need a UPS,” he said. “So this is kind of perfect timing for that.”
