One lightning strike can ruin your whole day...
If you live here in the Upstate of South Carolina, you probably enjoyed nature’s light show last night, but you might not have enjoyed it if your computer, server, network components or other sensitive electronics fell victim to one of the many strikes that occurred.
While it is very difficult to protect yourself from a direct lightning strike, a modest investment can prevent the most common threats from destroying your equipment. Power events such as blackouts, where power is totally lost, or brownouts where the voltage drops to less than 120 volts AC, and the worst culprits of power surges and power spikes, which occur along with the blackouts, brownouts and nearby lightning strikes can usually be stopped before they cause damage.
The cheapest form of insurance is a surge protector, but we suggest you go one step further, and use an UPS, which is an Un-interruptable Power Supply. This type of device goes in-line between your power outlet, and your computer, and can protect the computer, printer, monitor and other devices that are plugged into it.
BONUS: If there is a power event that causes a brownout or blackout condition, an UPS will continue to power your computer until it can be shutdown safely, after saving your documents! With a cheap surge protector, the computer would go down immediately and everything you were working on could be lost.
There is an UPS for every application. UPS large enough to power your servers, network equipment and VoIP or analog/digital phone system are available, and small enough to protect a surveillance camera system and keep it online. Most feature the ability to protect a network too, so you can stop a surge from coming in on a DSL line and possibly save that expensive Cisco router or firewall!
Homeland Secure IT offers a full line of outstanding power protection products from surge protection, full-house surge protection, to UPS and power isolators. We are partners with two of the biggest manufacturers of these products, APC by Schneider Electric and EATON. Whether you need protection for just one computer, or an entire data center, please email info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864-990-4748 and select option 1 to speak with me and arrange for a free consultation for Greenville and Upstate SC businesses and individuals.
Computer network security and support is about more than a quick fix or repair on your PC, it is about preventing devastating damage through planning…
Comments 1
I received a phone call from a client this morning who told me that their Columbia office had a DSL modem which had been struck by lightning and was down… I have suggested that once the modem is replaced they put an UPS in place to protect the new one on both the power AND the DSL line. Downtime over the weekend, and starting the day off with a dead modem possibly could have been prevented. What is it they say about an ounce of prevention?