Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Back on June 30, that which was unthinkable for many became a darker reality. A set of high-capacity fiber optic cables in Northern California were cut — reports suggest the fibers were indeed cut, and cut deliberately — sending a large chunk of the region into the dark ages of 1992, with no Internet. The impact was felt across the area, reaching even places like Rocklin and state capital Sacramento. XRoads (News - Alert) Networks, meanwhile, was recently spotted in Newswire.net, shedding some light on this situation, and even providing some possible protection methods in the process.

XRoads Networks (News - Alert) is already well known in the field for its breed of bandwidth management tools, and in turn presented a grim note: how would businesses handle being off the Internet for a week? This may sound like the kind of sentence that's just a disaster for a computer-savvy high school student, but these days, a week with no Internet access means huge amounts of lost opportunity.

XRoads Networks carried on, noting that the recent attack seemed to be only the latest in a string of about a dozen seen in the last year, with a focus on cutting Internet service in areas throughout California, including the San Francisco Bay area. Thus, the question “what will you do when the Internet goes down?” becomes one that's crucial to ask. With the Internet so vital to operations — consider how many companies have gone to voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) for voice calling, as well as how much business is done via cloud-based systems — what kind of backup can be established against such a disaster? XRoads may have just the solution with its lineup of products.

What XRoads offers is, essentially, a backup Internet connection, a system that can step up in the event of an Internet outage and provide at least some flexibility. Sedona recently saw the value of this firsthand when its main ISP lost function for just one day; thanks to XRoads' systems, Sedona's customers could still access key facets of the operation and continue on, if in a somewhat reduced capacity, through the outage until it came back.

That's a great service—just ask anyone who works remotely how important backup Internet access can be—but it's not the only one that can keep an operation up and running. Network outages can be a major problem, but power outages can cause the same level of chaos for a business. That's why having a set of power protection systems like those offered by Minuteman can be such a valuable thing to have on hand. With power protection systems, users have the ability to save data and shut down a system properly in the midst of a power outage, the kind of thing that can represent a much faster recovery process when the power does come back on.

Backup systems always have value. Whether it's the value of putting such systems to use or the value of peace of mind knowing that such systems are in place and operating, there's always value involved. Minuteman systems, XRoads Networks solutions, and a variety of others can all play a role, providing value in the worst of times with that little extra service.