Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening … if you’re a modem

The home of one of our business clients was struck by lightning back in January, causing most of their electrical devices within the house to stop working. They’ve been hanging on to a “mystery bag” for us since then. We picked it up from them late last week, only to find burnt out wires, blown  up plastic, scorch marks, and exploded circuitboards and electrical components. It’s their Netgear modem!!

With lightning striking a tall gum tree about 40 metres away from the house, the electrical current tore through the house and literally blew the modem to smithereens. The AC power pack was blown out of the power board and the two prongs bent by the force of the current, exploded capacitors and other circuitry within the modem, and smashed the modem itself into pieces.

You can imagine what kind of damage this would cause to a PC or server, and why top quality power protection for IT equipment is so essential in any business. Thankfully our clients laptop was not attached to the power grid at the time!

Moral of the story: If you rely on your IT equipment, don’t skimp on power protection. If you do want to skimp on power protection, then don’t skimp on your backup strategy!