Is your business prepared for power cuts?
As an internet service provider looking after businesses across the UK, keeping our customers online and working is always a priority. Below, we have put together a simple guide to preparing your business for powercuts.
So what are the considerations and precautions to keep your business operating throughout interruptions?
Will your systems be accessible during a power cut?
Whether you can retain access to critical business applications and systems can determine whether your business will remain operational, productive and therefore profitable.
Consider:
How will you ensure employees and customers can access your systems and services when your servers are offline or inaccessible?
- Can your employees work remotely if your main business site has gone down or can’t be reached?
Precaution:
Colocation, moving your servers to an off-site data centre, is an option worth considering. This can improve your network’s reliability, as data centres have redundancy power supplies, and could even bring lower energy costs for your business. For more information on whether you should move your office servers to a data centre, read our recent article.
Consider:
- How much data would you lose if there is a sudden power cut?
Precaution:
Regular backups of systems and databases can also mitigate the worst impacts of power outages.
Will you still be contactable during a power cut or if you can’t work from your site?
Losing access to your phone systems can leave your business isolated. If your ability to make calls is critical, other ways to keep those lines of communication open are worth considering.
Consider:
- Will customers still be able to contact your business during an outage?
- Is it key that your teams can communicate effectively while working remotely?
Precaution:
Cloud-hosted phone systems can keep communications intact. VoIP systems like Beaming’s integrate with mobile devices, providing a failsafe if the power goes down. Your phone system should be hosted somewhere with resilient power, such as a data centre; that way – providing you can get an internet connection or mobile signal – you can make calls from anywhere.
Read our full guide on how to make calls if your site goes down
Will your equipment still work straight after a powercut?
Blackouts can damage any electrical hardware, usually at the moment when power comes back on and the network voltage can be too high or too low.
Consider:
- If you don’t already have them, think about installing an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) or surge protector to defend critical infrastructure such as on-premise servers or remote desktops.
Learn more about what a UPS is and whether you need one by clicking here.
- Are there specific devices you can turn off at the end of the day to protect against overnight outages?
Precaution:
It can be worth employing a third party to monitor your network proactively and have a plan to manage infrastructure that needs to be constantly online.
- BeamRing
- Manufacturing
- Telephony
Plastipack
Plastipack, world leading manufacturers of energy and resource saving products, weren’t satisfied with their current VoIP system. They wanted a solution that could do more.
Winter is coming, and Beaming can help you prepare for the challenges it brings.
If you want to find out how Beaming can keep your business connected, online and operational, please contact us on the form below or call 0800 082 2868