Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Last week, a severe windstorm struck the small town of Red Deer in Canada. The storm was accompanied by heavy rain, thunder and lightning, with wind gusts whipping hard enough to bend and even down trees and power lines, as well as litter many of the roads with debris. A number of roads were closed due to blockage from falling trees. These trees also had another detrimental effect: many of them took down power lines on their fall, cutting off power to many homes and local businesses. These outages will unfortunately last until all of the fallen trees and debris are able to be cleared from the roads and the power lines can be reconnected.

Over the past few years, many utility providers have been attempting to strengthen the integrity of their electrical grid. Some measures that have been taken include moving power lines underground and diverting them away from areas that are thickly packed with trees. The lines themselves have also been given more durable casings, allowing them to withstand higher speed winds.

However, all of these precautions still really are only effective in common weather occurrences. In more extreme cases, like the recent windstorm in Red Deer, they are still susceptible to failure and the resulting power outage. These sudden outages provide a real danger to businesses that rely on technology. Power failures can corrupt data files, rendering entire servers completely useless as their data becomes no longer usable. The sudden surge and loss of power associated with outages can also damage hardware which is not rated for such high voltage.

For this reason, businesses should look to invest in a power protection and UPS system. These systems protect and harden equipment against power surges. They also allow devices to operate for a brief amount of time following an outage, meaning that, even if there is a loss of power, the machines will have the power and time necessary to slowly power down, rather than having to do so immediately. This protects both data and hardware, and is thus a necessary investment for businesses to consider in the 21st Century.