DC got a wake up call yesterday as a piece of PEPCO equipment broke loose in Mechanicsville, Md and knocked out electricity to the White House, State Department, a large chunk of the nation’s capital and Maryland suburbs early yesterday afternoon. The outage wasn’t caused by a natural disaster or terrorism and served as reminder to many of the importance of having a backup plan.
RT Photo/Gayane Chichakyan
The impact was minimized at the White House and many of the large federal buildings as the backup generators kicked in instantly, but not everyone has the robust backup of the federal government. A dozen people were rescued from stalled elevators, Metro stations were dim, spring break visitors at Smithsonian museums were forced to leave, and the main campus of the University of Maryland closed their doors. For many, it took most of the afternoon to fully restore electricity.
What is your back up plan in case of a power outage? Does your building have the robust backup required to keep your business running without interruption? Where will your calls ring? Will you be able to access your email and customer information remotely or from your smartphone?
Backup, DR (disaster recovery), and recovery as a service are all terms that most of us in the DC metro area should be intimately familiar with. If you don’t have a robust building environment, you should explore putting your valuable data somewhere that does.ARG can help you explore options and find the best fit to ensure that you weather any storm – regardless of the cause.
