Business Continuity and Environment Monitoring in Extreme Weather

Different regions around the world have seen some extreme weather recently, which can severely impact businesses. When extreme weather hits, it’s important to have a business continuity plan in place in the event your organization needs to close for any amount of time. Environment monitoring should be a key part of that plan, as weather factors such as temperature, humidity, flood, power, and more will all have a major impact during extreme weather events.

Record heat

We mentioned in a previous article that Australia has had a record setting heat wave this February, which has led to power failures and prolonged periods of extremely high heat.

In addition to the hotter than average temperatures, Australia is also being forecast to have less rainfall than usual. Higher temperatures with less rainfall may lead to conditions conducive to fires, unfortunately.

It’s times like these that organizations already need to have a solid (and tested) business continuity plan in place that includes environment monitoring. Knowing the exact temperature of your organization’s data center, server room, attic storage space, or any other area that holds critical assets is vitally important. If your hard drives or critical systems fail due to extreme heat or humidity, your business could be in the position to be shut down for days or weeks.

Monitoring those environment factors with Room Alert can notify you immediately if environment factors reach a critical stage that may lead to service failure or damage. Logging and reporting with RoomAlert.com and Device ManageR can even provide insight to other factors, such as the health of your HVAC unit. Gradually rising temperatures may indicate potential failure, or at the very least the need for proactive maintenance to avoid such a failure.

Speaking of HVAC units, the drain on local power grids during heat waves from overworked air conditioning helps lead to power loss and blackout conditions. If you have a backup power generator, you can use our Power Sensor to notify you if your generator needs to turn on. Be sure it is fully gassed up, and consider using our Fuel Level Sensor to monitor for low fuel levels that could impact your backup generator power. Also make sure your sensitive equipment such as servers, switches, and PBX hardware are plugged into UPS units to protect them against power fluctuation.

Record rainfall

At the other end of the weather spectrum, California has seen amounts of rainfall so high that flooding has become the concern rather than the typical drought conditions that state normally faces. Rivers and streams have overflowed, leading to potential damage for homes and businesses.

We’ve pointed out before that businesses are ten times more likely to suffer from water or flood damage than they are from fire or smoke damage. Extreme weather is just one of many situations where flood damage can have long lasting impact on your organization. Lost stock due to damage, lost hardware, and physical damage to the building will all impact your bottom line.

Far too often, we hear from organizations after they’ve experienced a loss due to flood damage. The damage has been done, revenue has been lost, and costs to repair have already been incurred. This is why it’s so important to have environment monitoring in place as part of your business continuity plan. Set up the monitoring before extreme weather strikes, and you’ll be able to minimize your downtime.

As the seasons turn to spring, more rainfall can be expected in many other locations, along with melting snow which will add to the possibility for water damage. If your organization isn’t monitoring environment factors to stay protected, now is the time to put that into place. With six different Room Alert monitors starting at just $145, and a wide range of sensors, any organization can easily set up an environment monitoring solution.

We like to use the phrase “Proactive Monitoring is better than Disaster Recovery” because it’s very true – the costs to implement an environment monitoring solution well in advance of extreme weather or an emergency are far, far less than the costs to recover from damages. Don’t hesitate to contact us today to learn more about how we can put together a fully customized environment monitoring solution for your organization. Room Alert is environment monitoring made easy… don’t wait until it’s too late.

Note: The former GoToMyDevices online monitoring and management platform was migrated into RoomAlert.com in December 2017. For more information, please see our announcement article and FAQ.