The best-laid plans for protecting your data in a power failure

Computerworld - The old saw "hope for the best, but expect the worst" is easily applied to disaster planning.
Case in point, on Aug. 14, 2003, at about 4:20 p.m. EST, the power went out across much of the Northeastern U.S., affecting an estimated 50 million people. Since the outage occurred on a weekday afternoon, businesses were in the midst of conducting their routine activities and transactions, with most using computers.
For those of us using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), an orderly shutdown of our computers was immediately set in motion, minimizing the chance of data loss or hardware failure resulting from the sudden loss of power. The right UPS can save you money when the power goes out or when voltage spikes and dips occur. Even though the Northeast's hurricane season's official start was June 1, it's not too late to ensure that workstations and servers are protected from both power and subsequent data losses.
Use a UPS
We're all aware of the dangers posed to our computer systems by worms, Trojan horses and viruses. That's why most of us rely on some sort of firewall and/or antivirus software to protect our servers and workstations. Are we as knowledgeable about the menaces that can be inflicted by power disturbances? Those in the know can protect their workstations from electrical disturbances by installing a UPS. An efficient UPS will keep your computer up and running long enough after a power outage so that you can save data and shut down your computer properly. Most UPSs even feature sophisticated software that enables automated data backups and system shutdowns during power failures that happen when you're not present. In addition to preventing data loss, a UPS prevents power anomalies (voltage spikes, power sags or surges, and electrical line noise) from reaching your system. In fact, a UPS will do the same for most any hardware device.
The indispensability of a UPS is underscored when we take note that power disturbances are a leading cause of hardware damage, data corruption and loss, and system freezes. You must determine your backup needs before choosing a UPS. When a sudden power outage and subsequent data loss would be more of an inconvenience than a major problem, then either standby or line-interactive UPSs are adequate. If your power supply suffers frequent fluctuations, then a line-interactive UPS (which runs constantly) is best suited to the task. The higher cost of these units is acceptable because they offer the highest degree of protection when any shutdown time is detrimental.