HOW FORTRESS MINIMIZES BUSINESS INTERRUPTION RISK & OFFERS CONSISTENT CRITICAL EQUIPMENT PROTECTION
While FORTRESS Building was designed for an effective efficient and protected work space for personnel, it also can be used protect critical equipment and key infrastructure.
Every business hopes for smooth operations and minimal disruptions. But as the saying goes, it’s wise to “hope for the best and plan for the worst.” For many facilities and organizations, a single business interruption event, such as an accident or targeted attack, can lead to long-term ramifications.
Such disruptions are often made worse by damaged or destroyed critical equipment. Protecting key equipment, assets, and infrastructure is vital to reduce the risk of business interruptions and ensure the continuation of services or production for clients and customers.
Every business has critical equipment or key infrastructure. For example, a telecommunications company may have data centers or server networks that service its operations for most (or all) local users or entire regions. A manufacturing plant may have a central equipment hub where safety systems or unit controls are housed or where critical equipment is stored.
But centralizing key assets and equipment means they are uniquely vulnerable to a single hazardous incident. A fire, debris/impact, explosion, or debris/impact may damage or destroy critical equipment for an organization, crippling its ability to continue operations or recover efficiently.
Alternatively, a control center for an industrial facility may be damaged during an accident. Damage to core controls or systems may cause further hazards to spiral out of control if their mitigation is affected by those systems.
Overall, critical equipment protection is vital so that:
- Businesses don’t lose most or all of their most valuable assets/infrastructure in on event
- Organizations can recover from accidents more quickly
- Accidents don’t become more dangerous due to containment/control problems
Failure to protect critical equipment usually means major business interruptions, including unfilled orders, voided contracts, and more in addition to operational impacts. According to the Allianz Risk Barometer Report, business interruptions are projected to be one of the most important global business risks for 2022. Other major projected business risks include cyber risks, natural disasters, and climate change.
LONG-TERM RAMIFICATIONS OF ON-SITE INDUSTRIAL DAMAGE
Critical equipment protection in an industrial setting isn’t just important for short-term safety and recovery. It’s also vital for long-term organizational health and financial stability. For instance, if a single accident takes a company’s primary facility off-line for months, it could have negative financial implications for months or even years after the event.
It takes time to recover from any industrial incident. But protecting key equipment and infrastructure means that recovery time is often significantly truncated, and organizations can more easily recover financially and logistically.
The number one way to protect critical equipment and infrastructure is through choosing a FORTRESS. Each FORTRESS is more than a durable protective building. FORTRESS Protective Buildings are:
- Resistant to major industrial site hazards, including blast loads, thermal loads from fires and explosions, toxic offgas, fragmentation damage, and extreme weather hazards. Each FORTRESS building has 8-inch reinforced concrete walls, roofs, and built-in foundation.
- Fully customizable through flexible interior design options. These options allow organizations to select FORTRESSES that fit their critical equipment storage and worker comfort needs.
- Installed quickly and efficiently. Most FORTRESS Protective Buildings are ready for use in as few as six months.
These safety benefits not only assist with operational security. They may also improve facility property insurance. By taking proactive steps to prevent property damage, additional business interruption, and property casualties, you can set your company up for success and minimize disruptions from future hazard events.
EQUIPMENT PROTECTION
FORTRESS Protective Buildings are ideal choices for critical equipment protection. Their concrete walls offer excellent resistance to most major hazards and because of the minimal wall displacement (i.e., walls don’t “flex” and cause impact damage to equipment), a FORTRESS may prevent vital equipment from being damaged or destroyed, even in the event of a targeted attack or major accident.
BUSINESS INTERRUPTION RISK EXAMPLE
A Dec 25, 2020 bombing outside an AT&T regional network hub in downtown Nashville offers a sobering example of the importance of critical equipment protection. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, communications throughout the Nashville region and beyond were severely disrupted.
Not only were commercial operations interrupted or halted, but communications for emergency services were hampered. The damage was characterized first by an explosion, followed by fire and flood hazards that damaged backup generators and prevented secondary batteries from maintaining AT&T’s networks.
AT&T's critical infrastructure and equipment were not protected by a building like a FORTRESS. In conjunction with the lack of redundant infrastructure, this flaw resulted in significant outages and service issues for weeks following the attack.
But this kind of equipment vulnerability is not unique to AT&T or the above incident. The modern world is more interconnected and dependent on telecommunications services, data centers, 5G network centers, and similar infrastructure than ever before.
Therefore, organizations need to implement durable and reliable protective buildings, such as FORTRESSES, for their critical equipment. Given that one incident can leave as large an entity as AT&T reeling across several states, it’s clear that no company can afford to leave its equipment vulnerable.
