How long could you survive without connectivity?
Graham McLean MD of fully managed wide area networks, hosting and Internet solutions company CI-Net asks what would be the consequences, if your organisation were to lose Internet access or network connectivity between key locations?
With disrupted access to email and other key computer applications, many enterprises would suffer reduced productivity, diminished customer service and even lost sales. In the public sector, information and services that are increasingly provided via the web would be temporarily unavailable as illustrated in the following quote from Mark Gawley, ICT services manager for Worthing Borough Council.
"We've seen a sharp rise in the number of council services delivered via the web – from council tax and housing benefit, to a variety of leisure offerings. Many of our staff are heavily reliant on Internet and email. So it's essential to have a resilient and secure environment to keep public services online and employees productive."
Accidents or Natural Disasters
It is possible to lose connectivity in a number of ways – including mechanical faults, accidents, natural disasters or even terror tactics. Some of these incidents like cables being damaged by building works, power failures and flooding of underground conduits are more common than many people think.
Without built-in resilience incorporated into the way an organisation accesses the Internet or supports inter-site connectivity, its whole infrastructure, dependent applications and business operations are at risk from multiple 'single points of failure'.
If your Virtual Private Network (VPN) is dependent on a reliable Internet connection, then an outage means remote workers and secondary sites will lose access to software and applications. And the increasing number of firms that are replacing landline telecommunications with Internet telephony - which requires real-time data communications - would be left without a telephone system.
The Risks of a Single Point of Failure
Most organisations understand the risks of relying on a single point of failure. But this knowledge is not widely put to use when it comes to connectivity.
In theory, introducing resilience into your Internet or Wide Area Network (WAN) architecture is very straightforward: you must ensure you have secondary links that can come into play should primary connections fail.
There are network appliances available to automate this process by enabling multiple links to automatically failover to one another to maintain continuity if one connection 'goes down'. Almost any type of link can be supported and made more resilient in this way, from ADSL business broadband, to dedicated high bandwidth, private leased lines.
Diverse Routing
Obviously, when implementing a solution such as this, it helps if the different links come from distinct service providers. Diverse routing means if one provider has a problem on its infrastructure, the other(s) will hopefully not be affected by the same issues.
One way to maximize the investment in multiple links is to install an appliance that allows the various connections to continuously operate in parallel. Traffic is load balanced across all the lines to ensure it moves optimally, so the organisation no longer has expensive 'dormant' links which are only used when there is a failure. And because secondary connections are constantly in use, you know they are in full working order in the event of a disaster.
This is the type of approach that is being adopted by Worthing Borough Council to protect the connectivity required to deliver services to the local community. The council is incorporating dual, load-balanced clustered Internet connections which automatically failover in the event of disaster. The solution will be configured to load balance and failover between a primary 10 MB/s Ethernet line and a secondary 2 MB/sec connection.
Some forward looking organisations are taking diverse routing to the next level by using fixed link wireless connectivity services, now available regionally through a growing number of UK ISPs, as the failover connections to their primary, cable based links. With a mix of cable running under the ground and wireless bandwidth beamed through the air to antennae outside your buildings – two completely separate channels - you build in even greater resilience.
Fixed link wireless
One example of a business making use of fixed link wireless services for business continuity is leading south west legal practice Michelmores. The firm has implemented a VPN that uses WiMAX-ready fixed wireless connectivity to support its growing demand for mobile working and to provide a contingency for emergency situations.
The VPN, which lets staff remotely access Microsoft Office applications, email and time recording and other software, is configured so that it can easily be modified to support additional users in the event of an emergency via a RedKite 5MB fixed-wireless connection delivered to a wireless base unit in the firm's Exeter office.
"In an emergency, if we unexpectedly need to have a bigger connection to support more staff working remotely, one phone call can instruct the ISP to scale our wireless link at the touch of a button to 10 or even 20 MB. With fibre or copper links we'd have a 40 day lead time to do this," said Simon Clarke, IT Manager for Michelmores.
Resilient connectivity
Most organisations are realizing that they cannot survive long without connectivity. New Internet applications such as Internet telephony and increases in remote working are forcing the issue. Thankfully the IT industry is starting to wake up to the opportunities and there are a variety or technology solutions becoming available to support resilient connectivity.
