Resilience is why PoE renewable energy support should be part of an organization’s business continuity plan. It is essential for maintaining business operations during a crisis. Without the ability to respond to unexpected disruptions, companies lack the resources to return to normal business operations quickly. PoE renewable energy can fill this resource gap to facilitate a flexible response to disruption and ensure business continuity.
What is Business Resilience?
Business courses, consultants, and experts extoll the importance of business resilience concepts like risk management, supply chain visibility, and leadership in successful continuity planning. While these are valuable concepts, companies are only as resilient as their infrastructure.
Examinations of infrastructure include asking questions like, can remaining plants increase production when an organization loses a manufacturing facility in a natural disaster? Can the equipment scale up production without failure? Can the local power grid support an increase in consumption? How quickly can a manufacturer pivot to return to its pre-crisis production levels? Without a resilient infrastructure, businesses could spend weeks, if not months, re-establishing operations.
Building a Resilient Infrastructure
Digital operations are fundamental to every business sector. Companies rely on digital technology for connectivity, data exchange, and security. Disaster recovery plans may include failover processes should primary sites lose power or connectivity. Backup sites for computer room operations may keep core systems running, but this will do little to keep remote endpoints online. PoE technology can provide infrastructure resiliency for mission-critical surveillance and remote systems.
Power
Part of business continuity planning is identifying critical capabilities that need to operate during a power outage and determining how to keep them functional. Hospitals use backup generators to keep surgical operating rooms functioning. They dim lights and shut down non-essential systems to conserve energy. Manufacturers may have generators in place to ensure production continues on schedule. Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) are attached to specific systems to allow them to function until an orderly shutdown can occur. New technologies such as PoE can increase resilience when combined with renewable energy.
Renewable Energy Sources
Alternative energy is another option for maintaining business continuity. Organizations can incorporate wind farms or solar panels into their networked facilities to provide power during an outage. These renewable energy sources can provide power during peak operating periods to reduce the impact on local power grids. Diversifying power sources minimizes the risk of operational failures.
PoE Renewable Energy
PoE technology sends power and data simultaneously over a single Ethernet cable. Power lines are no longer required to support remote devices such as surveillance cameras, access control systems, or voice-over IP (VoIP) telephones. Instead, a PoE-enabled switch, such as the BSP-360, can operate as the power source for connected devices.
The BSP-360, Renewable Energy Industrial 802.3at PoE Managed Ethernet Switch, uses renewable energy as its power source for charging batteries in remote locations. Its tracking feature optimizes electrical current conversion between solar panels and battery banks and allows excess energy to feed back into the power grid.
Connectivity
Business operations require data, so infrastructures must ensure crucial information is available during unexpected disruptions. Organizations can improve continuity by segmenting their physical and digital infrastructures. IT departments separate networks into subnets for better control.
For example, removing the targeted subnet from the network can help contain potential security incidents. Companies can continue operating outside the compromised segment instead of suffering through a cascading set of network failures. While subnets provide some protection from disruptive events, the increased use of edge computing presents challenges for business continuity. Assuming that data from the edge is less critical to operations can weaken business resilience.
Placing PoE devices at the edge can keep data flowing even during power failures. Crucial information won’t be lost or delayed, allowing organizations to make data-driven decisions during a crisis. The BPS-360 managed switch supports five 10/1000/1000TX LAN ports and one 10/100/1000TX WAN port to ensure rapid transfer of gigabits of data.
With built-in monitoring features, the BPS-360 pings connected devices to ensure connectivity and can perform scheduled recycles to keep endpoints operational. If a device drops offline, the industrial switch can bring it back online to restore reliable operations. These capabilities ensure priority data continues to move even during power disruptions.
Security
Business disruptions create chaos that bad actors can exploit. Just as cybercriminals lie in wait, ready to take advantage of weakened defenses, so too would they jump at the chance to capitalize on the confusion caused by a power outage. Bad actors can bypass powerless access control and surveillance systems to steal physical assets with impunity.
Business continuity plans must protect digital and physical assets. A PoE-powered security system can reduce the threat to people and property by continuing to operate during a power failure. In remote locations, a PoE surveillance system connected to a BPS-360 renewable energy switch can operate 24/7 because it stores solar-powered energy for use at night. The same functionality prevents unauthorized access to control systems powered by renewable energy.
Business Resilience with a BSP-360 Industrial PoE Renewable Energy Switch
Business continuity requires a resilient infrastructure that can address the loss of power and connectivity while securing an organization’s assets. With its support for renewable energy, the BSP-360 PoE industrial switch can operate in a stand-alone implementation or as part of a wider network. Its support for the latest IEEE 802.3at standards gives the switch the resources necessary to support volumes of data, even when traditional power sources are unavailable.
Enhanced management features provide network administrators with detailed information on power usage. Its keep-alives, scheduled reboots, and automatic recycling increase the reliability of connected devices. Built-in functionality means network staff can focus on mission-critical areas during business disruptions.
Planet Technology USA maintains a large inventory of PoE switches, extenders, and injectors to help organizations build resilient infrastructure to ensure business continuity during unexpected disruptions. Adding renewable energy sources to a PoE switch further enhances its ability to sustain operations during a crisis.
