The Ekaru Technology Advisor Vol 5-5 July 2005
Welcome to this month's issue! Ekaru's mission is to provide technology advice and on-site technical support to help you manage and grow your business!
Summertime - Battery Backup and Surge Protection:
It's that time of year - hot summer days, thunderstorms, power surges, and power outages. It's a good time of year to check your computer and network systems to make sure you're providing adequate protection against power surges, lightening strikes, and other power anomalies. Consider this scenario: A lightning strike hits the area. All your workstations are protected by a UPS device but there is a non-protected phone line connection to your new VoIP box. A spike through your phone line could damage your equipment. Unfortunately, we've seen this type of damage many times! With the increasing number of small business and home office networks, with ever-increasing complexity, it's no longer sufficient to think about simply protecting a single computer system - you'll need to look at all the network components and connections.
There are two basic levels of protection:
Surge Protection: Protects against power surges typically caused by lightening strikes and other power anomalies. Any of your expensive office technology items - computer, fax, modems, printers, etc, should be plugged into one of these units. Many of the units offer phone line splitters, data line protection, and coax protection (to protect your cable data and video lines). Also, if you bring a laptop into the office, remember that it also needs protection!
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS): Provides surge protection AND battery backup in the event of a power outage or brown out. You will be able to operate your computer through short outages, and most models come equipped with software to automatically enable a safe shut down of the operating system and open files. This feature is especially important for protecting servers. The run time varies depending on the battery size and the load, but you can expect minutes worth of coverage for the lower-end units up to around 30-min for typical small business units.
The prices for vary based on the level of protection, but you can expect to pay between $20-$40 for surge protectors, $40-$100 for UPS devices for workstations, and $200-$1000 for UPS devices to protect servers. Of course, there are many more sophisticated (and expensive) solutions available for bigger networks, but this is really all you need for a small business. Considering the total cost of all your network components, this is a very smart investment, and we are recommending this to all clients.
Your UPS system will also protect against the less-dramatic kinds of power anomalies that you may not even notice, but your network equipment will! Last year a distressed small business called us after experiencing un-explained network connectivity losses over a period of several months sometimes requiring full system reboots three or four times a week. After installation of a UPS system, the network has run very stable for a year.
One last point to remember - although the batteries in a UPS are rechargeable, they don't last forever and need to be replaced. Lifetimes vary based on the model and usage, but a typical rule of thumb is that they'll need replacement every 2-4 years. The APC web site (www.apc.com) is full of great information if you want to learn more, or call one of our engineers.
Ekaru in the News!
Main Street USA Gets the VoIP Picture
Retail Evolution Technology Tip:
On-line Training from Microsoft - Check it out!
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Sincerely, Introductory Technology Assessment Over 170 local
small businesses have chosen Ekaru to manage their computers and
networks. We offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation to get
started. We'll visit your office, review your network, and make
recommendations. Call us toll-free at 866-463-5278 x1 or email us to schedule a
no-obligation assessment.
Enterprise App Choices Overwhelm SMBs
eWeek - June 23, 2005
IT Business Edge - June 8, 2005
SMB retailers can use today's network technology to increase their competitiveness.
Cisco Systems - iQ Magazine - Second Quarter, 2005
The Microsoft Office web site: http://office.microsoft.com is loaded with useful information if you know where to look. In the past, we have recommended clip art and templates. Another great resource on the site is training. For example, many people have asked us about how to make simple web site changes. One option, is to use Microsoft Front Page. The web site guides you to 14 training programs (all free) that will guide you through the basics of Front Page, and you can see if you like it. There are also training modules on all the other popular applications: Excel, Outlook, Visio, Publisher, Access, PowerPoint, Project, and Word.
Enjoy Summer!
Team Ekaru
©2004 Ekaru, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
