How long can your people keep working if a power outage occurs either at the office, or wherever they’re working?
Worse, what if power loss corrupts your data or damages your computer equipment? How long could that put your business out of action?
The UK power grid is very stable and Sevenoaks business-owners may think they don’t need to worry too much about power failures. However, the 2025 Iberian black-out saw the whole of Spain and Portugal without power for a whole day with no warning.
As recently as 2022, UK electricity companies were warning about rolling black-outs (periods of 3 hours without power, rotated around different locations in the country). This was part of the UK government’s disaster recovery planning in response to the escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Last, but not least, you can never tell what could happen with the weather. Floods or storms can still knock out power in a specific area, like Sevenoaks.
How could this affect my business?
Put simply, a power outage means downtime and that means lost revenue.
Beyond that immediate downtime, there’s the possibility of damage to you computer equipment. In a power outage, your computers and (premises-based servers, if you have them) don’t shut down properly and any data that’s currently being accessed can become corrupted and lost.
When the power comes back on, an electrical surge could cause damage to computer equipment, which can also lead to data loss.
If you have a poor back-up system, that data could take days or weeks to retrieve, if it’s recoverable at all. This will delay getting back to normal operations, leading to even greater losses.
How to check for power cuts in Sevenoaks
If you think you have a power cut, you can use the UK Power Networks webpage for tracking and reporting power cuts to check:
https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/power-cut/sevenoaks
If there is any information on how long the power cut is expected to last, you will also find it here.
8 tips for Sevenoaks businesses on protecting their data
There are broadly three different areas to consider:
- Technical solutions to prevent damage to your data in the event of a power cut.
- Using back-up systems to allow quick access to data during an outage.
- Full disaster recovery strategy: a robust, longer term plan to minimise data loss and downtime.
Technical solutions to prevent damage to computer systems in Sevenoaks
1. Uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
A UPS (uninterruptible power supply) is a piece of equipment that holds enough power to keep computers and servers running for long enough to safely shut down in the event of a power outage.
This reduces the risk of hardware damage and enables the machines to save data propely, to avoid it being corrupted.
2. Surge protector
Another piece of technical equipment that will absorb any surges in electricity supply when the power returns, preventing damage. We recommend having surge protectors installed on all your key IT equipment.
3. Shutdown procedures
We help clients to implement robust shutdown procedures, ensuring there is enough time to properly shut down PCs and servers in the event of a power failure.
Quickly recover data during/after an outage
4. Automatic back up
Have a system set up that runs an automatic back up of your data. This should save data to the cloud or a separate physical location. Services like Microsoft 365 offer cloud storage and the back-ups happen in near real-time, so even if you ever do need to restore from a back up you’ll have nearly everything up to the point of the power failure.
We’ve come on a long way from the days of a back up each evening, where if the power failed at 4pm the next day you could lose a whole day’s data.
5. Cloud based email and file systems
Using cloud based email and files systems means employees can easily access them from home (or any other location with an internet connection) if the power fails at the office.
Disaster recovery for local Sevenoaks businesses
6. Redundant power sources
Every business needs the right level of redundancy and this is different for every business. This can include UPS (mentioned above); back up power sources; cloud file storage solutions and more.
At Heliocentrix, we take into account our clients’ needs and goals, and offer advice on what’s needed and what the right level of investment is for you.
7. Regular maintenance and testing
How would you know there’s a problem with your back up system or your technical equipment (like UPS or surge protectors?) Like a fire alarm system, they need a regular maintenance and testing schedule. Again, what’s needed is different for each client and a reliable IT expert can advise on what’s appropriate for your needs.
8. Expert disaster recovery planning
Your disaster recovery plan is a procedure detailing the right mix of everything above, and more, to provide a robust plan that’s expertly tailored to your businesses requirements.
It will support you to minimise downtime and keep you in business if there’s a power outage, and also for other disasters (internet failure; failure of telephone lines and so on).
The right disaster recovery plan for your business
Your approach to IT needs to follow the Goldilocks principle (and no, we didn’t make that up, you can check it on Wikipedia – it is used in mathematics and engineering circles!)
Your business doesn’t need too much and it doesn’t need to little: you need your disaster recovery planning to be just right. That’s where we come in: we help you jump straight to ‘just right’.
Want to talk to us about IT support in Sevenoaks including ‘just right’ disaster recovery? Contact us here.