Mother Nature causes significant damage all year round, but the severity of the destruction has a much higher ceiling during storm season. The first priority—when it comes to severe weather like thunderstorms and hurricanes—is safety. The second priority is to keep the power on. If power is lost, the goal then becomes to minimize the downtime. The number of power outages in the United States more than doubled from 2016 to 2017. There are around 100,000 thunderstorms each year in the United States. How many storms does it take for your company to experience downtime? Losing power for only a couple hours is detrimental to your financial well-being. According to IDC, the average midsize company suffers 16 to 20 hours of network, system, or application downtime per year, at an average loss of $70,000 per downtime hour. Can your organization afford to lose thousands of dollars for each hour of downtime?
“Every month of the year poses threats to power events, but the height of the summer is certainly peak risk,” said James Pellegrino, National Account Manager at APC. If you don’t make your power infrastructure a priority, you could end up in a situation where you’re relying on a UPS with an outdated battery to protect your equipment in the midst of a disaster. Pellegrino advises proactively monitoring your UPS batteries and ensuring they’re changed every 3–5 years. “With new SmartConnect UPS monitoring features from APC you can manage these milestones to ensure your battery backup is 100% available to protect your critical IT assets all year long.” The American Power Conversion Corporation™ was started in a garage in 1981. It has since grown into a flagship brand of Schneider Electric™. APC delivers solutions that help your business become more efficient, reliable, and connected with 
products like the Smart-UPS C with SmartConnect which offers intelligent and efficient network power protection ideal for servers, point of sale, routers, switches, hubs, and other network devices.
“Sadly, it is not a matter of if it will happen, but when. Downtime, even brief periods, can be disastrous and carries a high price tag,” said Amy Tomlin, National Account Manager at Eaton. “What you may not be considering is the cost of a damaged reputation when your customer service mechanisms like online ordering, phone systems, and POS systems are unavailable and cause your customers to seek out your competitors. There is very little lag time between system downtime and financial disaster.” Eaton and its 96,000 employees solve power management challenges for companies in more than 175 countries. They help you avoid downtime with products like the 5S UPS 
that delivers backup power for desktops and workstations. The Eaton 5S displays critical UPS information through a user-friendly LCD interface.
CyberPower has met the growing power needs of businesses with uninterruptible power supplies and other products since 1997. “While you can’t stop storm season from coming, you can mitigate its effects on your business by having a power plan backup. The best way to prevent outages and power inconsistencies is to use an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) system,” said Steve Johnson, National Sales Executive at CyberPower Systems. If you equip your business with the right UPS system, you can avoid power problems that come with storm season. CyberPower helps you meet your power needs with products like the Smart App Rackmount LCD Series UPS. 
It is designed to protect home-office servers, computers, and commercial electronics while providing real-time information on the Intelligent Crystal-Blue LCD diagnostic panel.
Blackouts aren’t the only power failure to worry about during storm season. “87% of all power problems are caused by brownouts, not blackouts,” said Carolyn Brady, Tripp Lite UPS Product Manager. “Tripp Lite’s line-interactive UPS systems provide secure power protection without switching to battery, which maximizes battery life and ensures connected loads remain protected during severe weather.” For over 95 years, Tripp Lite has manufactured products that power and connect the technology that forms the foundation of our connected world. Achieve secure power protection with the Tripp Lite 1500VA Line-Interactive Digital UPS. 
This UPS offers voltage regulation, surge suppression, and long-lasting battery support. The Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR) circuits regulate brownouts while the internal circuits prevent data loss.
Storm season is a subject matter your company must take seriously. “With Summer in full swing, now is the time to make sure all your IT applications are protected from a power standpoint. Summer months bring additional burdens on power grids; thunderstorms and other events cause downtime. Take steps to ensure your UPS systems are in good standing to avoid damage to your IT environment,” said Michael Cyr, Senior Product Manager of Converged Data Center at Connection. You can’t control Mother Nature, but you can control your IT infrastructure.
Sam Harrington
Samuel Harrington is a Digital Marketing Manager at Connection. In his free time, Sam enjoys keeping up with New England’s sports teams, golf, playing cards, and listening to music.
One thought on “Storm Season Is Here… Are You Prepared?”
This is really helpful, thanks.
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