Among those factors, a lightning strike is far and away the most damaging, but also dangerous are things like accidental contact with power lines by repair trucks and other vehicles or even by animals. When power to a computer is disrupted, there frequently is a surge of current that can, in a nanosecond, completely destroy a database.



Long ago, the successful sale of whatever widgets a company offered wasn't much affected one way or another by weather. In today's electronic business world, though, violent weather can wreak havoc with threats to the data that make possible the successful marketing of a service or product.

Florida is the undisputed Lightning Capitol of the U.S., with hundreds of thousands of strikes recorded each year; Texas ranks #2, but Pennsylvania leads the nation in total lightning damage. In fact, the only places on earth relatively safe from lightning are Arctic, Antarctic and the middle of the oceans.

If a business happens to be located in a state with a high incidence of lightning, one of the first things the business owner learns is the importance of protecting customer and other business data from the mayhem created by a sudden surge in power. Even if you're not located in a high-risk state, the United States records millions of serious strikes every year ... coast to coast to coast to coast. No business, anywhere in the country, is immune to them.

When a lightning strike - or any other form of violent weather - abruptly severs power distribution, there usually is a surge of current that can, in a nanosecond, completely destroy a database and the hardware containing it. The surge might occur during the disturbance, during operation of the equipment, and/or when power is restored. Destructive power surges can occur on any line running into your office - including AC power lines, telephone lines, and coaxial cable lines. One way or another, that means your servers - and all data backed up on them - are at risk.

A simple "surge protector" strip affords only the most minimal protection. For one thing, their effectiveness depends upon human oversight and maintenance - and human beings mean human errors. (Accidentally clicked it off? Whoops!) For another, if the surge protector has been hit once, its efficacy is immediately cut dramatically, affording hardly any protection at all from any subsequent strikes - yet many companies simply hit the re-set switch and continue using the same "protection."

The safe way to protect your invaluable business data - customer background, ordering and contact information, organizational files, etc. - is to have your data backed up by an online data storage and retrieval service. An online data backup system means that no matter what happens to your physical plant or the tapes, CDs and servers housed therein, your data is safe and you can retrieve it at any time.

Today, a company's electronic business data is most likely to be its more important, most valuable asset. Protecting it with an online data backup and storage services ensures that come what may - hurricanes, floods, tornados, storms - that data is safe, secure, and the business will go on as usual.