I wouldn't worry about it then. It's something we deal with every summer here, so if it doesn't happen on a regular basis for you, you're probably OK.

It might sound sort of basic, but I just use stand-alone PoE injectors for the stuff that goes outside, like gate operator/phone stations, as opposed to a PoE switch that's powering a bunch of other stuff. My thought was to let the injector take the hit - it's cheap to replace. I can't say I've had it put it to the test yet, but that's the idea (never had to replace a switch, either!)

The house I used these Veracity pieces at has taken some *radical* lightning strikes over the years. In fact, I was there just yesterday because the secondary gate wouldn't open after a lightning storm. I was able to log into the cameras and try to open the gate from off-site, but it wouldn't work, so I rolled out there and the breaker for the actual gate operator was tripped. We reset it, and it popped again after about 5 seconds. So the gate seemed to be toast, but our stuff was OK.

And I don't think surge suppression is a requirement - I think he's referring to grounding or something like that. If I'm wrong, please correct me as I'd like to know more.