Preventing Network Outages in Complex Enterprise Environments

Every second matters for your network. A network failure can be catastrophic for large enterprises, significantly affecting revenue, productivity, and reputation. As networks grow increasingly complex with hybrid and multi-cloud environments, robust monitoring and maintenance have never been more critical to help avoid outages.

Today’s networks are vastly different from what they were even five years ago, with hybrid environments making troubleshooting much more complex. So complex, in fact, that most organizations don’t have a current network diagram due to constant changes., Siloed teams with limited communication create additional challenges in keeping networks reliably performing as intended. Without comprehensive network visibility, it's difficult to diagnose the cause of an outage with speed and confidence. This lack of visibility impacts the Mean Time to Identify (MTTI), drastically affecting the Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), which can be costly to an organization.

Network Outage: What’s at Stake?

The financial implications of network outages can be staggering. Information Technology Intelligence Consulting found that downtime costs more than 90% of medium and large enterprises over $300,000 per hour, underscoring the need for effective outage prevention strategies. But there’s much more at stake when a network fails.

Related:Configuration Drift 101: Beat Drift With Precise Change Tracking

Productivity takes a substantial hit. Work stops when employees can’t access the systems they rely on to do their jobs. If CRM systems, customer support services, or financial systems are offline, sales, support, and finance departments are at a standstill. This idle time translates to delays, further compounding the economic impact of an outage.

The disruption of a network outage to employees, customers, and partners can erode their trust in the brand. The widespread outage caused by a defective Crowdstrike update earlier this year shut down 8.5 million Microsoft Windows devices, disrupting air travel, banking, emergency response systems, healthcare, and more, costing corporations billions of dollars. CrowdStrike lost $11 billion in market value overnight, and its stock price dropped 40% within days.

In addition to reputational damage, recovery costs can be astronomical. The CrowdStrike outage cost Fortune 500 companies an estimated $5.4 billion in losses, according to Parametrix, and required organizations to deal with compliance and regulatory reporting requirements. The impact of a network outage can have a ripple effect that lasts many months to years and costs billions.

Protecting the Golden Config

Mitigating these risks requires teams with deep knowledge across vendors, versions, platforms, and protocols, automation, and comprehensive network visibility. A golden configuration, a master template for how network devices should be configured for optimal performance, can also help. Due to the sophistication of cyberattacks, protecting the golden config is crucial for maintaining network integrity.

Organizations should safeguard their golden config in a secure, version-controlled repository, allowing for easy tracking of changes and rollbacks. Organizations should also implement change management processes to ensure that all modifications to the golden config are reviewed, tested, and approved before implementation. Access should be tightly controlled through role-based access control (RBAC) systems, limiting editing privileges to authorized personnel only.

Monitoring and Maintaining Complex Networks

An optimal approach to monitoring and maintaining complex networks combines a golden config with a digital twin, significantly enhancing network visibility and operational efficiency. A network digital twin is a revolutionary way to manage and operate a network. It allows organizations to create a dynamic, scalable representation of their network, encompassing all devices, configurations, connections, and traffic flows. It also provides network operators with unparalleled visibility into their environments, enabling them to monitor connectivity and security posture, troubleshoot issues, and optimize configurations seamlessly.

A network digital twin serves as a centralized repository of network knowledge, constantly updating to reflect changes in real time. This ensures operators always have access to the most current information, eliminating the outdated and often inaccurate inventories that plague traditional network management practices. With this comprehensive view, network teams can quickly identify anomalies, detect unauthorized devices, and understand how changes in one part of the network can affect the entire ecosystem.

The golden config is an integral part of many functions a digital twin offers to optimize network operations. It serves as a baseline for monitoring and auditing changes across the network, allowing for checks of current configurations against the ideal state to detect deviations, misconfigurations, or policy violations. When discrepancies arise, the digital twin can alert operators, allowing them to take corrective actions before issues cause outages or security vulnerabilities. This proactive approach minimizes downtime and ensures that configuration drift is identified and resolved in real-time, maintaining the integrity of the network.

A Final Word on Maintaining Network Reliability

By leveraging advanced technologies like golden configs and digital twins, enterprises can significantly reduce the risk of costly network outages, improve overall network reliability, and maintain a competitive edge. This combination of technologies provides a powerful solution for network operations, enabling organizations to stay ahead of potential issues and continuously optimize their network reliability and performance.