Power outages can create havoc on your devices, network, and more. This is a break down on how to mitigate the damages that can be caused by power surges and outages. After a power event you can have some tricky to diagnose problems with your devices. Did the device fail on its own? Is the device damaged or just what you have it plugged into? Even more devious is when a device takes electrical damage but only loses certain functionality or doesn't even show damage for some time later.
The Difference Between an Outage and a Surge
There really is not much of a difference. Most people do not know that after an outage there is a surge from when the power comes back on. It is a good idea to unplug your vulnerable devices when the power goes out. These can be anything not plugged into a surge protector, not to be confused with just a power strip.
Get Everything That Matters Plugged into a Surge Protector
Computers, monitors, routers, switches, printers, cell phones, and game consoles should all be plugged into a surge protector. A battery back up (UPS - Uninterruptible Power Supply) is also a great idea for things that you need to still run during a power outage. Things like servers, computers with sensitive data, the router and any other networking device is what you should have on a battery back up. APC makes very good and affordable UPS solutions. The battery back up should give you at least 15 minutes of power to safely power down the devices. The more devices you have plugged in, the bigger the battery you will need and the same goes for how long you will need them to have power during the outage. Surge protectors will have a rating in joules for how much surge it can withstand. 1500 joules is average for a PC containing sensitive data. A server or game console should be at least 2200 joules. You will need to monitor these because the surge protector can lose its protection after taking a surge or degrade over time. Batteries will also need to be swapped from time to time. There is usually a screen on the surge protector that gives you this information.
Create a Robust Backup System
We recommend having two different types of back ups. There should be an onsite back up and cloud based back up.
Onsite
An onsite back up can be a server, external drive, NAS (Network Attached Storage), or even just a USB flash drive depending on your needs. This is good to have for quick restoration of files in case of data or device damage. The issue is that if you have a surge or fire it could take out the back up as well.
Cloud
A cloud-based backup can be something like Dropbox or OneDrive. These tend to have a subscription and you can automate the backups of certain files or folders. This is so you can still get your files restored even after a surge or fire.
Be Vigilant
These measures are not set and forget. Every 6 to 10 months you should check on your backup plans and also all the surge protectors. No news is not always good news. Doing these checks you can look to make sure the devices are actually working and see that the files you believe are being backed up actually are. You can also be sure that your cloud storage is not already full and you would need to upgrade your storage space.
Choosing a Good Surge Protector
Surge protectors should have some easy to see indicator that they are still good. This can be a light on them that will change color when it is time to replace them or a screen that details this information. It is a good idea to over buy when it comes to these. Getting a bigger battery or higher joule protection than you may actually need would give you better peace of mind and the ability to install more devices without having to replace a device that is still good.
Communications Issues
There can be some tricky situations that arise after a surge. Ethernet and phone ports on computers, switches, and routers can take a surge and no longer function. Replacing an Ethernet or phone jack on a computer usually means buying a card or USB device to replace it but on a switch or router, that port is just no longer going to cut it. If you have another free port, you can move the cable to the new port in some cases. In others you may have to replace the whole unit.
Conclusion
These steps will help you not have to spend so much time and money after a surge. Nothing can completely protect you from everything. If you would like an inspection from our team, you can schedule an appointment and we will look at what your protection level looks like and recommend a plan to get you where you would like to be. We can even be scheduled to do routine check ups on the set up. Down time is the most expensive part of doing business and replacing damaged equipment is not fun for anyone.
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