That will teach me to just skim the article (and to instead Ctrl-F Google :)<p>Apparently Microsoft did do some significant innovation compared to Google&#x27;s 2009 design at least:<p>&quot;The innovation that Microsoft did on this idea was to hack into the switched mode power supply used in its Open Cloud Server machines and put the battery right into the existing circuits. So the battery is not hanging off to one side, as they did in the Google servers from 2009, but is embedded in the power supply without any extra circuit costs. And importantly, the batteries are not in the power path between the electrical source and the server motherboards and components. Rather, they extend the life of the bulk capacitors in the power supply in the event of a power failure in the main feeds.&quot;