IT impacted by Weather!

It’s wet, cold, and somewhat miserable today with high winds, therefore we are going to be busy.

Inclement weather has a lot to answer for in the Mid North Coast when it comes to IT support and business continuity in our digital world. Below are just a few of the obstacles we must overcome due to basic or severe weather conditions.

• It’s wet, old copper circuits and communications pits in the street fill up with water- internet connectivity impacted as is internet delivered voice.
• It’s windy, anyone on a wireless connection for internet delivery may have issues as alignment of discs on roofs is disrupted, resulting in a poor service until the provider realigns.
• If its storm season, lightning strikes, and power surges take out critical infrastructure, routers, servers, and sensitive equipment can be fried.
• It’s too hot, without air conditioning any on site server infrastructure, not in a data cabinet to assist with airflow, struggles in the heat and humidity. Loud fan noise is experienced as the server tries to cope as the machine heats up, which produces more heat and then can just shut down all together

All the above bullet points can be overcome with careful and considered planning and small investments.

• Fibre connections are far more resilient and provide faster connectivity, they do not corrode.
• 4G failover is available should the main data circuit fail
• UPS installed and maintained to protect against power surges- making sure the critical equipment is connected to them
• Do not think about having the main server that operates your business stuck under a desk, wedged in a small wooden cupboard, or left in reception for all to see and hear – we have seen all of these.

Of course, with all the development that goes on in our region there is also the all too frequent event of builders digging up the wrong cable and taking out data, power or both.

Then there are fires and floods as natural disasters, which we protect our clients as part of hosted data back up, so we have the data offsite if a client needs to evacuate in a hurry. With annual disaster recovery tests as part of the service we can provide data continuity and it looks great when filling in your company insurance forms for the year.

Stay safe, dry and plan your IT for weather impacted events, call us to discuss further: