How to run a business while Eskom keeps doing load shedding

We, like any other small/medium business have been struggling for the past few weeks with Eskom's constant load shedding and area faults. We've tried our best to split the work load between Cape Town and Centurion, whoever has power actually, until the leader of The Computer Guyz decided he'd had enough. We've had to adapt how we work, so that the business can keep going. He wrote a very enlightening article on how we've changed our way of working. I've shared it below

Life after Eskom 

After weathering the storm for as long as possible it became necessary as with all business owners to weigh up the alternatives to Eskom dependence.

Obviously our support center and workshop can't work without power - and of course we can't do design work without power either. Bearing in mind we have a staff count nearing 20 and some pretty power hungry systems and servers in the office our options needed exploring.

First on the list, I investigated Solar as a preferred route to resolve Eskom Dependence. Rough costing of around R180k would see us able to continue working for 7-8 hours without Eskom providing power. A good solution, however one that would require Body Corporate permission, a fair install process and a bit of space for the batteries etc. as well as the challenge of not owning our building - makes it less attractive as an option of course.

Generator I hear you say? Well yes, Generators are an option, but storing them and petrol in the warehouse when not in use isn't an option for us - we can hardly store clients backups on site and then place petrol right next to them. That aside, there's a cost factor to generators too - especially when you're trying to prop up 20 computers, 30 monitors and a few servers.

Where to next?

Let's break the problem down. Without Eskom, we have no lights, no e-mail and no access to or ability to work with our files. Resolving the challenge wasn't as hard as I first envisaged.

Enter the recharging LED lightbulb. A pretty simple led lighbulb that has an internal battery that can carry on going for around 6-7 hours without Eskom and just recharges itself when the lights come back on. A handful of those will cast enough light around the office for us to be able to at least see what we're doing and walk about safely.

Next up - the ability to work. On a cost basis, laptops just make the most sense for our business. We're able to work for 3-4 hours off of battery power which isn't perfect but it's ample for average loadshedding periods. Easy solution there, sell off our desktops as 2nd hand units and grab a pile of laptops that are up to the task. Not bank breaking, I can claim the vat and amortise them.

Now for the tricky part - we need our mail and files! Again, far from difficult. We virtualised our servers. What that means is that the TCG servers no longer reside in our offices. Instead they're in a datacentre and we attach to them via the internet. We run off of the latest hardware, so no upgrade costs and as long as we have internet access it's all good. We can reach our files and documents and our e-mail (exchange of course) sits on the Data Centre server with hugely reduced licencing costs and simpler scalability. In all that exercise costs us R2500 a month - much cheaper than actually buying a server every year or two and having it on site - in fact I know that the draw from our server is around R300 a month in electricity usage alone. So there's a saving there as well. We use a rather large UPS for Wifi Connection and switch and we can all carrying on working. Our staff can even work from Home.

That's it really. Virtualisation has indeed got its merits and it's cost savings - provided of course you have a strong and stable internet connection to reach it. The plus side of course is that because the server is now "in the cloud" I can work from anywhere I need to just as if I were at my desk with no interruption at all. The data space (aka hard drive space) is your biggest cost. So we keep our everyday files on the server and in the office we have a file server with other documents we need here and there or have to keep for whatever reason.

Yes, I'll still get a little hot under the collar at Eskom and the stupidity of it all - but that's a whole different matter.

 - Craig Pedersen

To add my 2c worth, when I moved our offices over to the VPS (Virtual Private Server), it took me 2 hours to setup with users and get it ready. Mail was moved to the VPS in another hour and by the next day we were running our files etc off of the server. So your setup time is a fraction of the time compared to implementing a new server (which can take days or months).

The costs mentioned are for our size business, it obviously varies. If you need any help or have questions, drop me an email tasch@tcgjhb.co.za.