Not about the bug

You’ve probably heard many of us talk about this many times.  There’s a sensor for this, there’s a sensor for that, we can monitor this, we can monitor that . . . blah blah.  At the end of the day, there are a lot of sensors out there that can be utilized and monitored by SARA.  Whether it’s a mobile panic button or water sensor, SARA can monitor, alert and report.  That’s what she does.  However, that’s not what this is all about.  Situational Awareness is about outcomes . . . not a water bug.  It’s about preventing loss.

Now, with that off my chest . . . I want to talk about something real.  According to the US Census Bureau, there are over 6 million small businesses that have payroll.  What this tells me is that there are a LOT of small businesses out there that maintain an office.  What does it take to maintain and run a business?  Servers, phone systems, computers, people, etc.  Many small businesses rely on technology for their survival.  Anyone that cares about their business will take preventive measures to protect themselves like buying insurance, data backup, security monitoring, etc. 

Shouldn’t these preventative measures also include Situational Awareness technology?  For example, I’ve been in several small businesses where I’ve seen server rooms that are unmonitored.  Server rooms that have water pipes running right above them.  Server rooms that have no temperature regulation  What if one of those pipes were to burst on a Saturday night or what if the heat damaged one of the machines?  Without monitoring they more than likely wouldn’t know it until Monday morning.  By that time it may be too late.  If a server in a small business goes down it can jeopardize their entire existence.  Imagine your email, orders, customer contact information, etc. being unavailable for a prolonged period of time.  This means no cash flow.  This means possibly going out of business.

To me it’s a no brainer.  We buy insurance to protect ourselves . . . yet insurance can’t prevent loss.  Why not utilize SARA to help prevent loss?  Why not utilize SARA to help alert us of high temperature or water leaks that help to prevent the loss of business?  That’s an outcome (and it’s just one small example of the many applications a single system can accomplish).