Many things are currently unthinkable without electricity. Especially in the IT sector, devices need electricity to function properly. Whether switches, servers or routers - they are only intact if they are supplied with electrical power. If only one computer in your network is affected by a power failure, the damage is relatively minor. But if an entire server room fails, the consequences are far greater.
This blog post summarizes how power failures and overvoltages and how you can protect your company against them.
A power outage is an interruption in the supply of electrical energy. Generally speaking, it is a disruption of the balance between electricity consumption and electricity generation.
This can normally be of short duration, i.e. a few seconds, minutes or hours. In extreme cases, however, it can last for several days or weeks. If it also affects many people and entire regions, it is referred to as a "blackout". The latter can have far-reaching consequences for all those affected, be it households, companies or industrial society.
IT security in your company is therefore extremely important and should never be neglected.
You can find out more about IT security in companies in our article “IT Security in Companies: Importance and Solutions”.
An overvoltage is a voltage increase that lasts from a few microseconds to hours. This voltage increase exceeds the tolerance range of the permissible operating voltage.
The connected electronic components of an appliance are damaged or even destroyed. This leads to a failure, in extreme cases even to an explosion or fire of the appliance. If these also occur more frequently, they will damage the device and therefore your IT infrastructure in the long term.
Very high overvoltages are also referred to as a short circuit, in which case the system must be repaired.
Many people often think of overvoltages as direct lightning strikes or a strong electromagnetic field, which is sometimes the case. However, switching operations, i.e. manual or automatic interventions in the power transmission system, also cause disruptions in your network and downtime for your devices. Surges also occur when the load increases due to a power interruption.
There are 3 ways to protect your end devices, installations or equipment from overvoltages, depending on the type of overvoltage. Firstly, lightning current arresters protect against high-energy faults. This prevents lightning from entering your building.
However, there is also the option of using surge arresters. They reduce the interference voltage. For sensitive devices, there are also surge arresters that reduce the interference voltage even further.
An outage can have many causes. In any case, it is important to act quickly to minimize the impact on your network.
Causes include, for example:
Power outages of short duration alone can have serious consequences for your company:
In order to minimize the damage caused by a power outage, careful and early planning is an advantage.
Emergency management ensures safety:
A UPS protects technical devices from faults in the power grid by supplying them with battery power. The UPS is used automatically, especially during short interruptions, more often than you might think.
The UPS is therefore very important to provide additional protection for your IT systems. You can find more information on this under "UPS guide: How to find the right UPS system for your requirements".
