This question has just landed in my inbox, with flash flooding hitting the city and surrounds here in Melbourne over the weekend.
I love a good storm, and when I found myself stuck in the middle of Vic Markets with my two young boys with hail crashing on the roof so loudly that we had to block our ears, it was very exciting.
When the lights in the market went out due to a wet circuit, it was no big deal – although I’m sure a lot of the vendors were panicking about their fridges that keep thousands of dollars of produce fresh. In the chaos of the moment, even I neglected to think about all the servers that had just gone down due to poor power protection.
But protecting your IT assets against flooding is critical.
We all know that water and computers do not mix and I have heard of local companies whose ground floor was flooded, and their floor-dwelling computers got a soaking. This is unfortunate, and only preventable through better desk design that includes a desk position for the PCs.
On the other hand, the totally preventable issue that we have been inundated with this week is computers and servers that were not surge or power protected by an uninterruptable power-supply (UPS).
This means that when the power to a region or building fails, the server stops instantly – losing any data in its memory, write cache, or disk controllers. This can lead to serious problems on server start-up.
Even worse is when the power surges before disconnecting and causes physical damage to computer equipment.
Today it is possible to place surge protection at the power board in the office, so the entire power outlet system is protected. I strongly recommend an additional step of placing a surge cube or power board with surge protection at each PC station.
For your servers, a good UPS is essential to filter the incoming power and to run the server for 15 to 20 minutes after a power outage so that the server can shut down properly.
A UPS for a server will typically cost less than 1 hour worth of salaries for the number of staff connected to the server. So, it really only takes one power-related outage over the three years or so you will have the UPS to cost justify the expense.
While I’m on the three years topic, make sure you test your UPS regularly as the batteries can fail. Most UPSs will have replaceable batteries, and it is necessary to replace them as they age.
If you are not sure how best to protect your computers against flooding, get advice and make sure you have the right solutions in place to protect your IT assets.
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