Insufficient and Power Protection

A problem that many small-to-medium sized businesses have is insufficient power protection. Keep reading to learn what this means exactly and how you can mitigate it. 

A single power outage, surge, or spike can damage your company's essential electronic components that could result in critical data loss. Or there could be consistent surges and brownouts, which will shorten the lifespan of computers, printers, network components, and other equipment. This can ultimately end up being costly for the business and necessary steps should be taken in order to make sure that there's enough power protection. 

Some businesses choose to deploy simple power strips. While other companies depend on surge suppressors deployed 5-10 years earlier. 

When there are thunderstorms, electrical outages, or other disasters, the damaged systems, corrupted or lost data, and downtime are a result of insufficient power protection. Which means high additional costs for the business.

You should take steps to install back-up battery devices (with built-in surge suppression) and ensure that a technology professional checks the efficiency on a regular basis. Back-up battery devices should be purchased from vendors you trust and replaced when needed/regularly. 

These battery back-up devices should be purchased for all critical desktop PCs. Also, professionals should connect all servers and network equipment (ex, routers, switches, WAPs) to a UPS; while monitoring/testing them regularly to make sure that there is enough protection in place. 

When these devices are being deployed, companies should take care to make sure they are installed and configured correctly. Protections for the network should also be leveraged when possible. This is in attempts to remediate the modem, DSL, and other surge sources that could wreck computing equipment. 

Managed IT services can be very beneficial when determining if you need these back-up battery devices replaced. 

Overall power recommendations:

• Deploy high-quality battery back-ups on all critical PCs
• Make sure that all servers are connected to uninterruptible power supplies
  • Confirm with IT staff that they properly install and configure communications cables and software and leverage network protections. 
  • Use high-quality surge suppressors on other PCs.
  • Regularly replace surge suppressors and UPS batteries.
  • Avoid using simple power strips.

Sources:

servicemybusiness.com. (2016) Technology Mistake #3: Insufficient Power Protection. Retrieved May 2, 2019 from, https://servicemybusiness.com/technology-mistake-3-insufficient-power/

Studebaker. (2017). The 5 Most Common IT Problems Your Company Faces. Retrieved May 2, 2019 from, https://www.coordinated.com/blog/5-common-it-problems