08/29/2026
Being prepared for a client emergency starts long before the phone rings.
This week, a strong thunderstorm rolled through the Mobile area, and one of our Managed IT clients took a lightning hit.
Their operations manager texted us:
“Hey, we just got hit by lightning. Internet is down. Phones are down. Can you help?”
When the internet, phones, and network go down, business can come to a stop pretty quickly.
Based on what they were experiencing, we immediately suspected the lightning strike had damaged their firewall/router.
We dispatched a technician, had him stop by our shop and pick up a brand-new replacement firewall/router that we keep on the shelf specifically for emergencies like this, and sent him straight to the client.
Sure enough, the firewall had been damaged by the lightning strike.
The equipment was replaced, the network configuration restored, and within about two hours of that first emergency text, the client had internet, phones, and network services back online.
That kind of response doesn’t happen by accident. It comes from being prepared.
Keeping spare equipment on the shelf costs money. Maintaining current network documentation and configuration backups takes time. Having technicians ready to respond requires planning.
But when your client’s business is down, that’s not the time to say, “We’ll order the part and hopefully have you back up later this week.”
At Matthew Miller & Associates, our job isn’t simply to fix technology when it breaks. It’s to think ahead, prepare for what could go wrong, and be ready to respond when our clients need us most.
We hope that spare firewall sits on the shelf collecting dust.
But Tuesday afternoon, it became one of the most valuable pieces of equipment we had.
When storms hit, we’re ready.
Prepared today. Protected tomorrow.
