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Our new office in the Domain got hit with a power surge that fried half our dev workstations | Austin Tech Business - Thought Shares

hannah400•7mo ago

Our new office in the Domain got hit with a power surge that fried half our dev workstations

It was a Tuesday morning last month, and we were in the middle of a sprint review. A storm rolled through, and even with a surge protector, a spike took out 8 of our 15 machines. We lost about two days of local work because our backup sync to the cloud had a 24-hour delay we didn't know about. I had to scramble to rent machines from a place on Burnet Road while we filed insurance claims. It set our project timeline back by a full week and cost us close to $15k in hardware and lost time. Has anyone else in Austin had a similar issue with the local power grid, and what's your backup plan now?

4 comments

4 Comments

kelly.charlie6mo ago

Oh man, that backup delay is the real kicker, isn't it? It's like the universe pointing out the one thing you didn't double-check. After a scare at my old job, we started doing a full "power drill" every six months. We'd test the UPS units and actually pull the plug on a non-critical machine to make sure the cloud sync was truly live. It feels silly until it saves you.

piperbailey7mo ago

Heard a few folks over in the Crestview area complain about dirty power after storms. That's rough about the backup delay, makes you check those settings right away. We ended up putting everything critical on a UPS with proper battery backup, not just a basic surge strip.

brookebaker7mo ago

Tell me about it. Watched my old router basically have a seizure during a storm last year. The lights did that weird dimming thing and it just gave up. Learned that day a surge strip is just a fancy extension cord with an attitude. Now my important stuff hums along on battery backup like it's no big deal. Best peace of mind purchase ever.

michaeltorres7mo ago

My old apartment in Millersburg had the worst brownouts after any thunderstorm. Lost a modem and a gaming console before I wised up. A decent UPS was a total game changer, lets everything shut down right or ride out a quick flicker. I tell everyone to skip the cheap strips and get something with real battery backup, it's worth the extra cash.