Perle Systems Case Study
Cypress Christian School install Perle Surge Protectors to put an end to fried ports
Even power surges are bigger in Texas…
“Everything is bigger in Texas” be it steaks, hats, oil production, boots, summer sizzling temperatures and even power surges. The climate in Texas is extreme. Summers are long and hot and the storms that hit the state throughout the year are fierce.
Every year Texas uses more electricity than any other state. The predicted electricity usage in the summer months is around 73,000 Megawatts. Power surges, caused by grid overload or storms are common and have potentially devastating effects on electrical equipment. Voltage spikes cause an arc of electrical current within devices. The heat generated in the arc causes damage to the circuit boards and other components.
Todd Elgie, Director of Technology at Cypress Christian School in Houston, recently installed Perle Surge Protectors in order to safeguard the school’s phone system and firewall from frequent outages.
Elgie explains, “The requirement came about as lightning and other electrical surges kept frying the ports of some of our equipment. The part of Houston we are in has some pretty old infrastructure. Yesterday for instance we had two brownout surges because everyone is cranking their air-conditioning up as it is about 100 degrees out there.”
The two outward facing lines that were suffering repeated failures were the school’s phone system and firewall router. Phone communication is crucial for the school, and with the firewall down, there is no access to the Internet. With so many services being cloud-based this creates a significant business disruption. To prevent this from happening, Elgie researched what he could do to protect the ports that were being repeatedly outed.
He explains, “Where the phone system goes from our device to the phone T1 handoff, and our firewall to the Internet circuit, the ports were being singed. We installed Perle Surge Protectors just last week. So far so good. We had two surges yesterday and all our stuff stayed up.”
About Cypress Christian School: https://www.cypresschristian.org/
Cypress Christian School is an accredited K-12 independent, non-denominational, college-preparatory, Christian school founded in 1978. The school is located in northwest Houston at 11123 Cypress N. Houston Rd., Houston, TX 77065.