Last week at the Open Compute Summit, Microsoft proposed a radical idea – replace lead acid UPS batteries found in every data center with small lithium ion cells, and place them directly in the server rack to eliminate the need for a separate Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).

According to Kushagra Vaid, general manager for Server Engineering at Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise division, this approach can deliver 5X cost reduction over traditional UPS, 24 percent reduction in facility footprint and a 15 percent improvement in Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).