This was the unfortunate situation facing thousands of people attempting to fly out of Heathrow airport over the late Bank Holiday in May after a ‘significant IT failure’ caused chaos for British Airways' passengers. The trigger, it has since emerged, was a power surge caused by an accidentally disconnected power supply being reconnected. According to the airline’s chairman and chief executive, Alex Cruz, the power surge was strong enough to even render back-up systems ineffective. The ensuing disorder was well documented, including flight cancellations, lost luggage and a lot of very disgruntled and displaced customers.
Power surges are unexpected spikes in an electrical current. They usually last less than a thousandth of a second, but are nevertheless capable of causing lasting damage to equipment and networks. So, while BA counts the cost of the compensation it will need to pay, with reports suggesting the bill will be at least £80m, what better time to consider your own company’s protection against power surges?
At Dynamic, our network surge protection solutions can help your business minimise the impact of such incidents. As part of their site survey recommendations, our team will advise on the most effective means of protecting your network from power surges. From there, if necessary we can look to make use of Power Distribution Units (PDUs), which work to redirect power surges away from your network to earth safely. We can also supply Intelligent Power Distribution Units (IPDUs), which are able to operate over the internet, meaning remote support can be delivered to individual devices on your network.
For more information about how we can help protect your business, contact us.