Cisco Power Over EtherNet (POE) – What’s the Benefit to Your Business?

An introduction to how Cisco Industrial POE can simplify electrical wiring, increase device portability, and lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). This is available on the Cisco IE3000 and IE2000 Series products now.

IP devices are becoming Ubiquitous, and the Internet of things is upon us, and predictions are for billions of devices connected over the Internet of Everything. So, what does this mean in terms of connectivity? Will everything be wireless? Clearly not for several reasons, including up-stream and downstream high speed connectivity with data centers and storage, and issues of reliability in harsh environments. However, many devices such as sensors will be wireless, and they’ll need to be back-hauled back to the data center or control areas.

So those sensors and devices, which may or not be battery powered, will need to connect to a wired infrastructure of some sort. Many will need a wire-line, especially in the world of manufacturing, energy and utilities.  That’s where Power over Ethernet, or PoE, is proving invaluable. Laying one cable instead of two or more is only part of the reason, with qualified electricians required to plan and install each device. Then you’ll need more circuit breakers, surge filters and other components.

What happens when you need to move devices? Or add more? Well, with ruggedized Cisco Switching products such as the IE2000 or IE3000, the power is provided via the switch. Up to four ports per switch, (or eight per system for the IE3000), plus other non-POE ports.

So what? Well, using these kinds of products can eliminate the need for extra wiring and outlets. That means you can more easily add IP-enabled devices such as Video cameras for surveillance, badge readers for added security, IP phones for communications, and, wireless access points or other networking devices, and do moves-adds-changes without disruption of the electrical systems.

All this makes it easier to consolidate networks and converge office and business networks with plant-wide networking, providing a lower cost, more secure single managed network providing collaboration and communications functionality to the plant floor, and real-time information back to the business systems so they can act on it., With higher availability and improved quality of service, the PoE features help lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and complexity. For more information, click on the links

More info here on this link for a data-sheet.

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