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The Power to Survive |
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What would the effects be after a sudden loss of power? Business would nearly grind to a halt depending on how well company had planned for such an eventuality. |
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| Author: Bryan Ramona |
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Then I began to think about the world of business and what the effects would be after a sudden loss of power. It would be a far greater cry than just a temporary loss of joy for sure. Business would nearly grind to a halt depending on how well companies had planned for such an eventuality. In many cases I’ve gone to consult with businesses that had little to no disaster recovery plan in place to seamlessly work through such a situation. In some cases it’s been partially done, but while some critical systems would stay running others would be affected rendering the critical ones unusable. There are too many options for there not to be a comprehensive solution on standby.
This is especially true of small and mid-sized business. Most often when there is a power outage the procedure is to wait it out, and in some cases the business is shut down for the day. Not a great scenario in this economy, is it? Who can afford to blow off any productivity? Worse yet, if the business is not properly protected sensitive IT infrastructures can be damaged by the sudden power elimination, and programs and key systems can become corrupted.
Do you remember where you were on August 13th 2003? That was the date of the largest power outage in North American history, when an overgrown tree in Ohio triggered a domino effect of human error and technological failure that left 50 million people in the Northeastern United States and Canada in the dark for several days.
A Small Business Power Poll six months later in 2004 commissioned by Emerson Power found that while 75% of small businesses saw power outages as a significant threat to their business, only one in five actually felt prepared for such an event. Small business is not exempt from this fear as the SMB sector is responsible for around 40% of the US gross domestic product. In many cases these entities are tightly integrated with large businesses, so a failure at a company that is feeding goods and/or services to large corporations could stunt or cripple that organization’s production as well.
With so much at stake small companies are feeding voraciously at the power protection trough, right? Well, not according to the statistics in that Emerson poll with a 20% rate of addressing the issue. If businesses don’t address their power needs, how might they be affected? The most obvious point is without power nothing runs. No network, computers, or email. Without these critical systems running there would be no orders coming in. That puts a dent in the productivity, revenue, and morale of businesses maybe more so in a small company that lives and dies by the volume of transactions. Complicating matters further is the fact that power outages are not the only threat to a business network and other critical equipment. Power spikes and “brownouts” (temporary reductions in power flow) can damage sensitive electronics and severely lessen their life. Again, the net result is lost productivity and increased expenditures on capital equipment which negatively affect the P & L statement at the end of the day.
So what to do to keep this from happening? There are tons of options for the acquisition of gear to help prevent the disaster. You can start with a simple Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) from several reputable manufacturers, led by American Power Conversion (APC). They have a long history of providing these solutions for small to mid-sized businesses. Many of them are designed to provide additional time to work in the event of a power outage depending on the size and power load on the unit. Most businesses will look at the larger and more robust items that combine power continuity with power “conditioning.” That is similar to what you would do with regular water for drinking, where often tap water has issues of taste or residue that a filter can remove from the supply. The “conditioning” of power is similar, taking power from the utility company that can fluctuate in waveforms.
The UPS takes that and delivers consistent flow of power to keep damage from occurring. Additionally, if an outage does occur many devices have associated software that can initiate an organized shutdown of critical systems to avoid corruption or destruction of data. The addition of a generator for the organization is the most chosen option for loss of power. The generator is configured to automatically kick on when the power goes off or the UPS array is near the full battery drain. What would be that critical? Imagine yourself on the operating table undergoing a heart procedure. Would you want to be there when the OR lost its juice? I don’t think so.
If you take it a step further than generator backups you start to consider more enterprise-sized options like multiple power feeds to the building from different utilities. What small business can afford that kind of redundancy and security? With the hot topic of cloud computing on everyone’s lips these days an SMB firm could leverage a shared data center from a hosting provider. For a monthly fee their entire infrastructure can be housed and protected in a hardened facility. With the advent of Microsoft’s Windows 2008 Server R2 and Windows 7, the Direct Access feature can make that connection between user and network almost invisible, where VPN tunnels and clients have been the norm up until how.
So now you have options for the critical in-house infrastructure, but don’t forget that employees and business owners are more and more mobile with the prevalence of so many options for smart phones, laptops and other portable network technologies. The key is the batteries in the device. Many laptop manufacturers give you options for type and number of batteries. I know for my part I would never recommend a laptop that had a 6 volt battery – I always use a 9 volt. If keeping the thing up and running is beyond critical then add the second battery that many of them are able to accept. If you have an older laptop by all means look to see if the second battery compartment is available and go get a spare! Get the best and longest lasting battery you can for phones and other handheld devices and always get the car charger. It’s bailed me out on many occasions! The bottom line is that power is a commodity that should not be taken for granted. Go check for yourself to see just how well your organization is prepared.
About Author
SecurElement delivers a comprehensive blend of essential hardware, software, technical personnel, support and maintenance through the innovative Managed Environment program. Offering unparalleled value at a controlled cost, businesses of any size are able to leverage leading-edge technologies and services that maximize productivity, drive bottom line success and solve critical business issues.
For more information regarding SecurElement solutions, interested parties can contact the sales department at 484.323.1629 or via email at sales@securelement.com. Here’s a website that can help: https://www.apcc.com/tools/risk/index.cfm.
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