Keeping Your Computer System Safe Can Be a Real Power Struggle
by Chris Noyes
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Probably the best reason to live in or visit Florida is the great weather during the months when everyone else in the country is bundled up in winter coats. Unfortunately, the summers can be quite brutal, with heat, humidity, daily thunderstorms and the occasional hurricane. Whether your facilities are less than one year old or have been around for decades, it’s not a question of if, but when, you will experience weather-related electrical power problems. When it comes to your computer infrastructure, you need to protect these valuable business tools from Mother Nature with Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS).
There are several types of problems associated with the electrical power coming into a building or house:
Power surges occur when high-consumption electrical devices in an area go off-line, causing the remaining power to be dispersed throughout the surrounding area via power lines.
Power lags occur when there is not enough electricity flowing in a particular area. This can be caused by a huge sudden demand for electricity, causing the voltage to fall below needed levels.
Electrical spikes are caused by nearby lightning strikes, which are all too familiar in Florida. These spikes can send a high, short-term increase in voltage through a building’s electrical system, sometimes with damaging effects.
When power spikes or surges affect a computer, they usually enter it through the power supply, modem or network card. And if a nearby lightning strike hits some telephone wires, you can pretty much say goodbye to your modem – and possibly your computer’s motherboard and/or hard drive as well.
Any electronic equipment that is plugged in at your home or office needs a constant flow of power to keep it running at tiptop shape. All of the above power problems can be detrimental to sensitive electronics, including phones, computers, printers and networking equipment. These problems might manifest themselves in the form of computers spontaneously rebooting, of electronic data being lost, or of appliances flashing “12:00.”
Electronic circuits are contained in everything these days, and require a constant supply of stable power. Even other power sources can cause noise in the line, disrupting the steady flow of power into an electronic device. UPS helps to protect against these and power-related issues.
Here’s how it works: The UPS has self-contained circuitry, along with a large battery, that separates sensitive equipment from the rest of the building’s power infrastructure. The UPS takes the power from a wall outlet and transforms it into a constant, uninterrupted power supply (hence the name). If there is a lag in power in the area, the battery kicks in and feeds the equipment the necessary amount of power until the situation returns to normal. If there’s a spike, the UPS circuitry usually will save equipment from the devastating effects of too much power.
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If a lightning strike hits your building, a simple six-outlet surge-protector strip may not be able to stop a five-mile-long lightning bolt yielding millions of volts of electricity. In fact, nothing will provide 100-percent protection from a direct lightning strike. The best bet is to have multiple layers of protection. If you cannot afford state-of-the-art lightning protection for your building, you should at least have some protection for individual computers, servers and other electronic equipment.
A decent UPS is available at computer retail stores, with the price starting at around $60 for a typical computer and monitor. Protecting servers requires much-larger-capacity batteries, however, and carries a much larger price tag. You can get them with eight receptacles to hook up all your personal electrical devices, telephone (RJ11), LAN (RJ45), DSL, and other broadband cabling. Most even come with software to closely monitor power fluctuations, all the way up to allowing centralized management of UPS devices across multiple locations.
This type of protection is essential for all mission-critical equipment. Many organizations do in fact have UPS protection in place; however, if the devices are more than three years old, new ones may be needed soon.
There are a couple of options for upgrading an organization’s UPS infrastructure. Some manufacturers provide incentives to upgrade to new units by taking your old unit (even if it’s a competitor’s model), disposing of the battery for you, and even paying for the shipping of the old unit back to the manufacturer’s facility for proper disposal. You cannot just throw the old battery in the trash can for the cleaning people to deal with – it’s against the law! Florida law also states that manufacturers of these types of batteries (sold in Florida) must provide the means for consumers to dispose of them. Contact your manufacturer for more details on its disposal and replacement programs.
There are many vendors out there, so beware! Do some research with different manufacturers for your best solution. This type of protection often is overlooked, and not having them in place costs organizations billions of dollars each year in lost productivity and data. The small investment now on each computer can save you thousands of dollars in lost time and damage to your equipment.
Chris Noyes is a technology services support specialist for the Florida League of Cities. For more information, he can be contacted via e-mail or at (407) 425-9142.
Reprinted from Quality Cities January/February 2004
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