Baby, when the lights go out…will your data be safe?

When the power goes out, an Uninterruptable Power Supply, better known as a UPS, may be the difference between having a fully functioning office and one at a standstill; it can also save you and your employees time trying to clean up your data once the power is back.

Typically, a UPS is used to protect hardware (computers, servers, and communication devices) when a power disruption occurs. A UPS is unassuming – a small box with a light or two flashing that sits in the corner of your server room – cheerfully chugging along, minding its own business, until duty calls.

When a blackout (full power outage) or brownout (drop in voltage) happens, if you don’t have a UPS or the correct UPS with enough power, then your server and workstations will shut down along with your office lights.

The consequences? You’ve lost everything on your workstation that you haven’t saved. But it can even go deeper – even saved data may end up being corrupted and potentially unusable by a sudden, surprise shutdown.

An unexpected shutdown can cause data saved on your workstations and server to become corrupt and unusable. Which means that a short brownout can not only turn off your computers, but also cost you hours getting everything back to where you were.

A good UPS can protect you during a brownout to keep your server and workstations up and running without any slowdown. During a longer blackout, a UPS enables you to save your active files properly with no data corruption. This equals peace of mind, so you can get back to work right away.

It’s also important to note, that a UPS differs from an auxiliary, emergency power system or standby generator in that a UPS provides instant protection during an outage, but for a limited amount of time. If you need to stay up always without fail, you may also want to look at a backup generator, which can take a few minutes to kick in, but keep you going indefinitely.

If you want to learn more about UPS or your IT network, you can send us a message at sales@365tech.ca or call 204-488-3655 and we’ll be happy to chat.