A Plan B for Those Who Work From Home

With many businesses are now operating from residential properties, it's essential that such businesses have a plan B when it comes to power. For my own business, I bought a diesel generator to ensure my business could keep our communication lines open 24/7. We host a LAN server which can be connected from the outside via a VPN link...and my business has a number of remote workers who absolutely need to ensure that this server remains available 24/7.

I can anticipate the response already : "why not host the server in a data centre?" - actually, it's not that simple. The server requires physical access for particular security reasons that I will not disclose in this article, so weighing up everything, housing it in a locked down room local to the business was the least risky, given all the variables. Not only that, I have experience of having dedicated servers in a data centre. There's been perhaps a dozen times over the course of a decade where the server went down because of one thing or another - and each time, power was lost immediately meaning that the files on the server were at risk of being corrupted/lost.

And so, with that decision made to house the server locally, it was critical that the property had a back-up source of power if the grid failed. We've tested and re-tested disaster scenarios, and our back-up generator can supply 24 hours of power should the grid fail. Not only that, but our setup is such that the server will transition smoothly from grid to battery to back-up generator within minutes, ensuring the server never goes down during the switch to back-up power.

Our business runs at a minimal cost thanks to our brave decision to create a telecommuting network of employees - we offer far more competitive rates to our customers than our competition can.