Patent ID: 8347139

Claim:
A power supply control device comprising: a power supply control unit configured to control electric power supplied from a first power supply device to a disk array device which is accessible from a plurality of host devices through a network device and from the power supply control device, at least two of the plurality of host devices operate with different power supply control specifications, and a second power supply device configured to supply electric power to the disk array device and the power supply control device when the electric power supply from the first power supply device is disconnected, wherein the power supply control unit comprises: a collecting unit configured to collect power supply fault information indicating a power supply failure of at least one of the plurality of host devices and the network device, wherein the power supply fault information is transferred according to a management control protocol which controls both the plurality of host devices and the network device; a starting unit configured to start the supply of the electric power from the second power supply device when the electric power supplied from the first power supply device is disconnected; and a transmitting unit configured to transmit a notification to the disk array device in response to the collection of the power supply fault information according to the management control protocol after starting the electric power supply from the second power supply device, wherein the notification indicates that the electric power supplied from the first power supply device is disconnected, wherein, if the power supply control unit does not receive the power supply fault information from said at least one of the plurality of host devices and the network device within a predetermined time elapsing, the transmitting unit transmits the notification to the disk array unit, and wherein the predetermined time is determined based on at least one of: a power consumption of the disk array unit, a capacity of the second power supply device, a capacity of a cache memory of the disk array unit, and a transfer rate at which data in the cache memory is saved to a predetermined storage area in the disk array unit.