A UPS, or uninterruptible power supply, is a battery backup power source for computers, servers and network equipment. When the power goes out, a UPS will keep your equipment going long enough to save any documents and shut down the machine properly. Why should you care?
Because, if you are actively working on a document when
the power goes out, 1 of 3 things could happen.
- Your document could be gone forever. The auto-save feature in Windows often stops working when the computer is unexpectedly shut off. Unless you manually saved the document multiple times while working on it, it’s not likely to be there after a power outage.
- The file is there, but it’s useless. A power outage can corrupt any open files, even if you’ve saved them. The document opens back up on start-up, but its garbled characters make it look like a really long ransom note. To get it back, you have to re-create it all over again.
- You get really, really, lucky. The average business will experience 15 power outages a year. If you are fortunate enough to recover your document after a power outage, count your lucky stars; you probably won’t be so lucky next time.
While many home PCs or non-critical workstations can live without a UPS, a server cannot. Servers run 24-7 providing files and services to a number of other machines. A sudden shutdown can corrupt files on the server causing more widespread damage.
We recommend all our clients get a UPS device for the servers in their office at a minimum and, for additional protection, for all the workstations.
