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Your system's environment consists of all those factors that are not actually part of the server itself, but nevertheless play a crucial role in the reliability and quality that can be expected from the system. Electrical supplies, room temperature and humidity, sources of interference, and security are all factors that should be contemplated.
When selecting the power sources for your system, consideration should be given not only to the amount of power the system will use, but also to the manner in which that power is delivered.
Power is not as simple as voltage coming from the outlet in the wall, and you should never just plug a production system into whatever electrical source is near at hand.[23]Giving some consideration to the supply of power to your system can provide a far more stable power environment, leading to a far more stable system.
One of the benefits of clean power is a reduction in heat, which means less stress on components, leading to a longer life-expectancy.
Properly grounded, conditioned power feeding a premium-quality power supply will ensure a clean logic ground (a.k.a. 0-volt) reference[24] for the system and keep electrical noise on the motherboard to a minimum. These are industry-standard best practices for this type of equipment, which should not be neglected. A relatively simple way to achieve this is through the use of a power-conditioned UPS.[25]
The UPS is well known for its role as a battery backup, but the power-conditioning benefits that high-end UPS units also provide are less well understood.
Power conditioning can provide a valuable level of protection from the electrical environment by regenerating clean power through an isolation transformer. A quality power conditioner in your UPS will eliminate most electrical noise from the power feed and help to ensure a rock-steady supply of power to your system.
Unfortunately, not all UPS units are created equal; many of the less expensive units do not provide clean power. What's worse, manufacturers of these devices will often promise all kinds of protection from surges, spikes, overvoltages, and transients. While such devices may protect your system from getting fried in an electrical storm, they will not clean up the power being fed to your system, and thus will do nothing to contribute to stability.
Make sure your UPS is power conditioned. If it doesn't say exactly that, it isn't.
[23] Okay, look, you can plug it in wherever you'd like, and it'll probably work, but if your system has strange stability problems, please give this section another read. Deal?
[24] In electronic devices, a binary zero (0) is generally related to a 0-volt signal, while a binary one (1) can be represented by many different voltages (commonly between 2.5 and 5 volts). The grounding reference that the system will consider 0 volts is often referred to as the "logic ground." A poorly grounded system might have electrical potential on the logic ground to such a degree that the electronics mistake a binary zero for a binary one. This can wreak havoc with the system's ability to process instructions.
[25] It is a comm mis-perception belief that all UPSs provide clean power. This is not at all true.
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