Five Steps To Maximum Network Resiliency

High network resilience minimizes downtime and ensures smooth IT operations. Companies should therefore make them part of their DNA if they want to be successful. However, they often do not know how and where to start. What are the most important stages on the way to a resilient network?

What do work models such as home office, a widely ramified location structure and modern production facilities have in common? They all depend on stable networks. Nevertheless, failures still occur far too often: companies must ensure greater network resilience. Opengear has defined the five steps required for this and shows the positive side effects of out-of-band solutions.

Take An Inventory

Before companies can increase their network resilience, they first need to know how their network is doing in the first place. An inventory of which appliances – i.e. devices such as switches, routers or firewalls with the appropriate firmware – are in use should therefore be the first step on the agenda. In this context, particular attention must be paid to ensuring that the security patches and authentication systems are up-to-date.

Check The Network Solution For Suitability

In the second step, companies have to find out whether the network can cope with current and future demands. Due to the advance of modern work models such as home office, remote work, increasingly centralized IT administration and outsourced data centers, a network may be exposed to suddenly heavier loads. New management or production sites and other growth in network endpoints can add to the demands. After taking stock, companies should therefore check how stable their network is in the current configuration and what capacities are still available. If there is data on failures, i.e. logs on problems, downtimes and their causes, experts can take them into account in their assessment for the future.

Evaluate Requirements

With the information from the first two steps, companies can then create a concrete plan to increase the performance, resilience and security of their network. The answer to the question of what future requirements the network will face and how companies should meet them concludes the theoretical part – thus setting the course for actual modernization.

Modernize The Network

The modernization of the network begins with the implementation of new hardware and software and, if necessary, the updating of components that are still in use. Particular attention should be paid to securing the network with current firewalls and security patches. A redundant network design further increases resilience: In this case, each component is duplicated so that a replacement is automatically available in the event of a failure. Even better are out-of-band solutions (OOB), which allow access via the mobile network even if the network fails completely. In this way, error analysis can be carried out quickly, even in the worst possible case of emergency.

Use The Advantages Of OOB Solutions In Operation

However, out-of-band solutions have other advantages. For example, administrators can use it to distribute security patches and software updates automatically via the mobile network: this procedure does not affect operation in the regular network. Access management to the individual network components can also be finely configured using an OOB solution. The employees responsible for operating the individual devices cannot access the entire network at once, which increases security. And the connection of new locations or network endpoints can also take place almost automatically with an out-of-band solution: employees on site only have to connect and switch on the hardware preconfigured in the head office. As soon as the devices are online, they are commissioned automatically.

Also Read: Seven Essential Skills For Modern Network Engineering