Big storm vs. business

Any power interruption whigs-out our network. Small-scale disaster, but significant. Maybe remote users lose connections. Maybe the office loses contact with the Internet. Maybe our email is just backed up somewhere ...

Every time, ultimately the solutions are simple, but there are so many components involved that coming up with all the right solutions is cumbersome (and costly if we, especially if we have to call our hired-geeks).

Generally, all that's necessary is a re-boot somewhere or another, but some re-boots originate in-house at a power switch, some are cords to unplug, and some are best handled remotely by our hired-geeks. Of course, we don't want to push any buttons that are best left alone!

This time I am writing up a Trouble-shooting sheet and putting idiot-proof labels on the components. (Which box is the VPN? Which box is the fax modem? Which box is the telephone server?) I am including phone numbers for our hired geeks, WITH their mobile numbers.

We lose power at least once or twice a year. You?d think we?d have this dialed in by now :-)

By some miracle we were one of the few that didnt lose power....we are about a block away from a transfer(?) station so Im not sure if that has anything to do with it or not...but I am very grateful that we were not directly effected.

Worst thing for us on the rare occasions when power does go down is the loss of our phone and internet. Without those we cannot take orders.

Since we did have forwarning this was coming by the news I posted it on our blog just in case!

It's been nuts for us. We get orders from all accross the nation - and these folks want their books by Christmas! We didn't have power back at our office until late Friday night - so we are 2 days behind in processing orders and it's very stressful. People don't really care - they just want their stuff by Christmas - yikes.

As a company we just shrug and laugh it off though. What else can we do but our best? We are offering 10% off everyone's next purchase for the inconvenience. How do we stop a storm though?

Grateful I never lost power at home - but I am out on the cable front - which is my interent connection - which means I have to drag my butt to the office everyday - where usually I can do some work from home.

From a technology perspective it can be tough, fortunately my clients don't have a major xmas sales season so I didn't have to worry. But here's a few thoughts:

1) Cable and DSL have no SLA (service line agreement - an uptime and performance agreement). Though more expensive, a T1 can be be worth it.

2) If you run an in-house mail server, a backup mx record is a must to ensure no mail gets lost.

3) Knowing where each network device is located is important as previously mentioned. I fixed many networks today just helping people reboot the right device.

4) Battery backups (UPS) can help for a while but ultimately a generator is needed if you want to stay up a long time.

5) Have an alternate location to work from. I went to the Columbia Tower Club to recharge batteries and get online the two days I was out.

Not all small businesses of course need to go this far, most are acceptable to be down in these kinds of circumstances.

It's interesting to read about the storm's effects...

In Oklahoma we lose power at least twice a month in the spring and summer...and even in the fall. Snow storms here shut everything down for a few days after. Not to mention, we have straight line winds, floods and tornadoes to worry about! I guess disaster preparation is just part of life here...and everyone understands that when disaster hits, businesses are down. Our preparation includes making sure there's a storm shelter or a cellar nearby!!

There were no personal issues, fortunately (except for some serious raking to be done). At the office the phones were funky until yesterday: incoming calls went to the phone companies message machine instead of mine. I assume anyone getting such messages could make the connection. The good part is that if there was someone able to answer, the phone worked fine.

Whether it's snow or blow, I get here and if necessary clear a path to my door. It's easy enough for me since in a pinch I can walk it in 40 minutes or bike it in 20. I discourage patients from making any risky trips but if getting here is their priority, fine.

The trickiest for us is power outage. Not because we need all the technology run by the power to do our job (part of the reason I don't have electric tables), but because it is a little harder to see to adjust. We have windows so usually we can see well enough to write.

Overall, we've been fortunate all around.

The Biznik servers are located at a colocation facility where they have backup generators, so it would generally take a much larger event such as a massive earthquake to disrupt us (although a couple of repairmen on the roof accidentally severed a fiber optic cable into the building last summer, which resulted in Biznik being unavailable for about 45 minutes).

Our power remained on throughout the storm here in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood, but we have family in Bellevue who still don't have power. They've been staying with us, so we've had a full house, which is kind of a nice way to start the holidays early, but it does make it tough because both Lara and I work from home and it's hard to get any work done with all the extra people in the house.

What caught my attention was how the power outage caused the Seattle Times to miss a day of publishing the newspaper for the first time in 53 years because they couldn't run their presses. Seems like a bit of an oversight not to have backup power for something so core to your business.

i can operate to some level, depending on the stage of design.

early stages, i am in sketch mode so no problem. after then, i am on computer so larger issue involved.

note to self: get a backup battery for the laptop.

far as interior decor goes, most of that would be put off with a power outage...aside from some assemblies and such. some things are just better done with good lighting.