Capacity demands on telecom service providers have continued to increase in scale and scope as growing amounts of rich content is being transferred between devices, apps and users. As the combination of complex distributed networks and traffic levels continues to increase, driven by mobility, machine to machine (M2M) interactions, and the Internet of Things (IoT), service providers are finding themselves responsible for some of the largest, most complex networks, servicing geographically dispersed facilities. IT and network staff must support these business-critical infrastructures remotely, under any condition and during network outages.
Network reliability remains the critical success factor for communications service providers. However, downtime in the telecom industry is nothing new. In 2016, phone service on Level 3’s network was blocked for more than one hour across the United States due to an employee’s administrative error. The cost of downtime is massive and can damage a company’s reputation. As the IT team races to restore the network, employees and customers must sit back and wait until the outage is resolved, which halts employees’ production. Customers who depend on a telecom’s service cannot access certain features or services, and there is a risk of their data being exposed.
Today’s network devices also continue to grow in complexity, resulting in the devices needing more frequent updates. However, these updates make the devices more susceptible to bugs, exploits and cyberattacks, all of which contribute to costly outages. Aberdeen Research reports that the average cost of network downtime is $260,000 per hour for many organizations.
To protect their reputations and bottom lines, telecom companies require a network that is robust, secure and resilient to ensure lines of business are able to operate even when the network is down.
The solution: network resilience
Traditional out-of-band management solutions aren’t enough to support companies’ critical needs; they need a solution that can manage their complex infrastructure. Rather than consider just the narrow issue of console servers and remote access, they should step back and take a more holistic view - the overall resilience of the network. Network resilience is an organization’s ability to bear and recuperate from a disruption of service, helping them prevent data losses, minimize damage and enable employees to continue working.
Many companies don’t consider resilience when designing or building their networks, in part because of high costs. Designing a resilient network can be expensive and time consuming and must also include short- and long-term resilience requirements. This forces companies to think through both their immediate and ongoing needs. There is also a notion that many people in the company that don’t work in the IT department don’t understand the value. Chief financial officers and other executives may not realize how important resilience is and not allot funds to build a resilient network. In the long run, though, a resilient network has the potential to save telecom companies millions of dollars when the network goes down, making the upfront cost worth the price.
IT departments within a telecom organization must stress the importance that network resilience is an organizational issue, not just a problem for the IT team. To help achieve true resiliency, IT teams must get buy-in from senior leaders in departments throughout the organization. It’s important that executives in all departments can answer the following questions about the reliability of the organization’s network:
What network vulnerabilities can we prevent?
What can we not control?
What is the potential cost of a network outage?
What can we do to manage and mitigate the risk we decide to accept?
When executives can answer these questions, IT teams will have an easier time getting the support they need to implement a resilient network.
The seven steps to network resilience
Adding a level of resilience to an existing network can be challenging. As organizations look to implement these new layers, they should start by evaluating how resilient their current network is. One key metric is measuring how long it takes to resume normal business operations after a failure is resolved.
Once telecom companies understand the current status of their network, they are ready to follow the seven steps to achieve full network resilience, which are as follows:
Identify weaknesses: Telecom providers should recognize weaknesses and points of failure in the network. Companies should start at a basic assumption that the network is currently vulnerable, and that work needs to be done to achieve resilience.
Determine costs: Organizations need to understand the average cost of a network outage to justify additional financial resources. Information Technology Consulting (ITIC) reports that a single hour of downtime can cost between $1-5 million.
Champion network resilience efforts: By continually reminding those outside of the IT department how much money network resilience can save the organization, IT teams within telecom organizations will have greater luck implementing resilience into their networks.
Create a network roadmap: Telecom IT teams must identify potential weaknesses and update their network roadmaps consistently to understand where issues may arise, and how resilience can help organizations overcome them.
Protect the network: Instead of focusing on the hardware, telecom organizations should build resilience from core to edge. This way, the network is protected at all stages, rather than only a few.
Deploy resilience features: Features such as strategic redundancy, alternative routes and segmentation can help organizations implement a resilient network in small steps, rather than all at once.
Foster support: IT teams should create awareness of network resilience from all organizational levels to grow cooperation throughout the company.
As telecom companies continue to provide service for edge applications, and leverage technology like IoT, the potential for downtime and its costs will only increase. Achieving true network resilience allows telecom organizations to focus on providing services, eliminating points of failure and trusting that their network is able to withstand outages - before they must pay the price.
