Technology needs electricity to operate, I just blew your mind, right? Here is another profound statement, electricity is dangerous and can cause harm to people or objects. I remember building a PC for my dad back in the early 2000s I put it all together and was super confident that it was done right but when I hit the power button, nothing. Turns out I didn’t think of something, static electricity. At some point I touched the motherboard with my finger and a small charge destroyed the board, safe to say my dad wasn’t pleased with this and that he had to buy a new board. The smallest amount of shock can cause great destruction to an IT infrastructure.
Electricity is technologies friend if we put in the proper precautions. Electricity can have spikes and interruptions in the service. These need to be regulated by equipment between the expensive technology and the wall outlet. The most basic form of this protection is a surge protector. Now this is different than just a power strip, some power strips are also surge protectors. Surge protectors also need to be replaced at regular intervals depending on the quality of surge protector and the quality of your building’s electricity. The surge protection doesn’t last forever and eventually the device will no longer offer protection.
Don’t be “shocked” when I tell you an uninterruptible power supply is the best option for critical infrastructure. A UPS should be between your PCs and servers. Not only does a UPS have surge protection it also has a battery that will allow for safe shutdown, and most can perform this without user intervention. The safe shutdown of a PC or server is important so that all processes and services can properly stop. A UPS is an expense and like a surge protector need maintained with new batteries every few years, but that relatively small expense is much better than a new server and potential data loss.On the next episode let’s talk about the benefits of backup internet.