Distributed networks
throw up challenges for
infrastructure managers
due to their vulnerability
to service interruptions.
Here, Alan Stewart-
Brown, VP Sales EMEA
at Opengear, discusses
how out-of-band
management reduces
mean time to repair
(MTTR) in distributed
IT environments.
here are my devices located?
The wave of transformation
brought about by digitisation,
the Internet of Things and
increasingly decentralised hardware
landscapes and systems brings new
challenges for IT departments.
W
They have to manage distributed network
environments for branches, production
sites and private clouds in order to maintain
permanent connectivity and avoid the
consequential costs of network downtime.
Today this is almost always handled
centrally from the data centre at company
headquarters. But the problem is – if
the primary network (‘in band’) fails or
Internet connectivity is not ensured by
the service provider, the limits of standard
remote maintenance are quickly reached.
In the legacy world, this would mean
a technician has to go on site. And the
technician on site may find that resolving
the problem, for example, could range
from a simple reboot to having to order a
replacement device.
The modern alternative is ‘out-of-band’
management. Independent of the function
and connectivity of the local network, it
ensures that companies can connect to
their IT hardware at all times, test to see
if the issue can be resolved remotely and
so build resiliency into IT and ultimately
reduce downtime.
But let’s take this from the bottom up:
branches extend the reach of a company
and new sites are normally a sign that
business is going well. It is obvious
that remote IT infrastructures place a
significantly higher burden and bring added
responsibility for network administrators.
The IT department has to ensure that
infrastructures, including network
devices such as routers, switches, WAN
optimisation solutions, firewalls and all
distributed applications and servers, are
installed and maintained correctly.
It has to integrate remote devices in
the central network management,
authentication, authorisation and
accounting systems to ensure quality
management and security.
It is in the nature of things that a
distributed network has more weak points
and so is more susceptible to interruptions
to services. And only very large branches
will have an IT expert on site.
But in times where distributed corporate
networks are connected to mission-critical
data and services via the cloud, the costs
of a network failure can also be huge for a
shop or a small sales office.
Failure of the primary network:
When in-band tools fail
With centralised monitoring and remote
access to distributed resources, today
administrators in many organisations
are capable of managing dozens or even
hundreds of sites efficiently. In-band tools
such as Telnet (teletype network) are
Cultivating
long-distance
relationships
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Issue 02
03
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