Battery in TAPs
Copper Network Solutions
Challenge: Should I use a battery backup for my TAP?
Out-of-band monitoring and security tools analyze packet data from the production network to provide insights or alerts for SecOps and NetOps teams to properly respond.
Utilizing network TAPs are industry best practice for accessing this data. We are deploying gigabit copper TAPs across our network, and someone recommended we get TAPs with battery back up, but I can't find them.
Solution
Battery Backup Is Not an Industry Best Practice
There are some active TAPs that include battery back up. We do not recommend using these.
Not having a battery backup within a network TAP, has long been an industry best practice. Even a well-produced battery can cause explosions when paired with poor charging circuits.
Batteries in Your Network:
• Can introduce static electrical events that can damage safety devices and charging circuits, leading to eventual catastrophic failure.
• External damage causes dangerous leaks even in well-made batteries.
• Operating the battery outside of its specified temperature range can cause dangerous accidents.
Garland Technology's R&D team is focused on delivering the highest quality network TAPs on the market. If including a battery within our TAPs was a good idea, we could easily include them.
Instead, much more reliable and safe ways to keep monitoring your network in times of power failure are:
• Redundant or Dual power supplies• Network failsafe
• High availability (HA) designs
