Hurricane Season 2022 is underway, and with it comes the looming threat of outages and downtime for retailers. Forecasters are projecting an above-average storm season for the sixth consecutive year, with the first tropical storms forming and Hurricane Agatha already making landfall in May. As we head into the peak of the season, retailers should review their disaster avoidance strategies as they seek to protect critical equipment and prevent downtime.
Natural disasters are a threat to any retailer’s bottom line as downtime can severely hinder a store’s ability to drive revenue. According to the Uptime Institute’s 2022 Outage Analysis, more than 60% of outages reported in the time covered resulted in at least $100,000 in total losses, up from 39% in 2019. This will likely come as no surprise to many, as the COVID-19 pandemic led many retailers to adopt new digital strategies that made them heavily reliant on digital infrastructure and ecommerce.
Thankfully, as retailers have shifted to more digital strategies, the hardware and software tools to protect equipment have evolved to keep pace.
Prevention and visibility are essential factors in achieving the always-on power retailers demand, especially with many retailers pushing data to distributed infrastructure at multiple locations. While both big box chains and small businesses face the same size and scope of natural disasters, each retailer should take a unique approach that fits their individual needs.
A disaster avoidance strategy that incorporates integrated power management technology should serve as retailers’ first line of defense against outages stemming from hurricanes and other disasters. Depending on the size of the retailer and number of stores it operates, such a system should include the following:
To avoid compromising customer data and privacy, retailers should make sure to incorporate cybersecurity safeguards as part of any decisions around procuring power management equipment, especially as ransomware has grown in prominence and impact. It is important to seek out technologies certified to meet cybersecurity standards (such as UL 2900-1 and IEC 62443-4-2) to help protect UPSs against potential attacks that could propagate into IT networks.
Reliable surge protectors and power strips are also important components of a well-rounded strategy to safeguard equipment. Additionally, combining power management equipment with a wall mount rack enclosure can help retailers save valuable space in their stores while simplifying and streamlining future hardware upgrades.
As hurricane season enters its peak months, retailers can use a robust power protection strategy to bolster their disaster avoidance capabilities. Just as hurricane forecasters consider each named storm unique, retail IT departments should deploy power management equipment in a way that fits their unique needs. This can help retailers create resiliency in their infrastructure and enable them to continue driving revenue while meeting the needs of the customers they serve.
Ed Spears is a Technical Marketing Manager in Eaton’s Critical Power & Digital Infrastructure Division in Raleigh, N.C. A 40-year veteran of the power-systems industry, he has experience in UPS systems testing, sales, applications engineering and training — as well as working in power-quality engineering and marketing for telecommunications, data centers, cable television and broadband public networks. He can be reached at EdSpears@Eaton.com.
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