Now THIS is a Blackout – On 28th September 2016 the ENTIRE state of South Australia was without power for several hours, some parts for much longer …
Which should make all businesses question their ability to weather a similar event. (pardon the pun!)
No doubt you have UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) protecting your computers – preferably all of them, if not, at least those holding vital data … but what is the battery operated run time?
And do you have shutdown scripts in place for when time is running out? If not, then the computer losing power may cause data damage as well.
All of the equipment you value should have surge-protection (built in to most UPS) at a minimum via the power-board.
And most importantly – data backed-up.
And if you are not following THE BACKUP RULE OF THREE then you don’t have a back up!
THE BACKUP RULE OF THREE
(Also called the Backup 3-2-1 rule)
- 3 Copies of anything that is important – If you only have two copies then you don’t value it!
- 2 Different Formats i.e.Cloud & DVD Copy, USB Disk & Dropbox
- 1 Copy stored off-site If your office/home burns are you covered
If you really want to be covered you should ensure that you use different MEDIA for your backups
i.e.
Magnetic (Hard Drive, USB Stick, Raid Array),
Optical (Blu-Ray, DVD or CD) &
Cloud (Drive, DropBox, AmazonS3 – and be sure to have copies of your access codes!)
Why?
Because a storm of this magnitude could cause water & electrical damage – but your Optical & Cloud back-ups should survive.
It may seem paranoid, but the extra effort to make sure that your data, schoolwork, photos, music collection – anything that is important to you could pay off … Equipment is replaceable but the data that is important to you may not be.