California residents have been experiencing August 2020’s record heatwave, causing rotating power outages from PG&E.
According to PG&E, “Rotating outages (Stage 3 Emergencies) become necessary when the ISO is unable to meet minimum contingency reserve requirements and load interruption is imminent or in progress. These emergencies are declared by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO).”
What Does This Mean for Businesses?
Some businesses may lose hours of power, preventing them from continuing their daily operations; others may even lose days of power depending on their location.
Any facility that runs its own servers on-site may be at risk of hardware damage due to the abrupt shutdowns caused by rotating power outages.
Also, Uninterruptible Power Supplies (“UPS’s”) are at risk during outages. UPS’s don’t last more than 30 to 45 minutes and are designed to send a message to the server in an IT room to begin a safe shut down. However, when servers are shut down suddenly, equipment will likely suffer from corruption.
Anyone running servers on-site while impacted by the rotating power outage will likely need IT intervention to fix or replace damaged equipment in order to bring services back up.
Users can experience surges and voltage spikes when power is abruptly turned off and on. These spikes typically last less than a second and can cause massive amounts of damage to equipment.
How to Prevent Losing Data
The best way to prevent losing important data that’s stored in on-site equipment is by utilizing cloud storage.
Cloud storage allows data to be stored digitally across multiple servers. This allows for data to be stored in multiple locations so if one building is affected by a rotating power outage, a server in another location will still safely secure important data.
Businesses can utilize cloud storage in a few different ways:
- Managed IT Services can perform 24/7 System Monitoring and can improve efficiency on servers and software
- Data Centers offer servers that are monitored by a third service with remote hands amongst other features
- Web-based cloud storage to store general files to be accessible from anywhere
To keep your data protected, contact Utility Telecom at 1.877.377.7177 to find out which solution will work best for your needs.