Maintaining continuous connectivity is invaluable - particularly today, as many businesses rely on remote and hybrid work models. As such, the chief priority of every telecommunications service provider (telco) is to ensure their customers’ networks remain up and running even during disruptions to normal operations.
The heightened frequency and intensity of natural disasters, which result in prolonged power outages, threaten the always-on status of networks. In fact, research shows that long outages are ten times more common on days with multiple severe weather events. Simultaneously, climate change continues to place an enormous strain on the country’s aging electrical infrastructure. Already overburdened by high electricity, the stress on the grid will lead to additional power outages.
Power outages are unavoidable, and it is paramount that telcos implement network remediation and management solutions, like Out of Band technology, to safeguard their customers’ networks from prolonged downtime.
The consequences of prolonged network downtime
When natural disasters cause power outages that disrupt network connectivity, the telco experiences the most significant fallout. Of course, the telco’s customers will face suspended operations, compromised data (due to inaccurate reporting caused by the network outage), and compromised transactions, resulting in substantial financial loss from lost revenue, unmet deadlines, and inevitable recovery fees. These monetary consequences get amplified for telcos, which will spend more money than most other industries trying to fix the outage.
An IBM study conducted by Forrester Consulting surveyed 100 IT directors from large US enterprises and found that, on average, unplanned downtime caused by power outages or other systemwide failures costs 35% more per minute than planned downtime. The study also discovered that the average revenue cost of unplanned application outages was over $400,000 per hour. Outside of lost revenue, 47% of surveyed IT leaders said that lost productivity was the costliest aspect of downtime. While devastating for the individual business, these costs escalate when multiple telco customers encounter network trouble. In fact, service-level agreements with customers require repayment from the telco if not met.
Additionally, there are intangible costs associated with network downtime, such as tarnished brand reputation, eroded customer trust, and employee well-being; while harder to calculate, these can be just as damaging to a telco’s ability to win new customers. For example, customer service employees must pacify thousands of frustrated or angry customers. Network engineers must also endure the stressful task of attempting to remediate systems quickly. Plus, network engineers usually travel on-site to fix network issues, which could be perilous during harsh weather events. In extreme scenarios, network downtime could negatively impact critical services like hospitals and first responders, resulting in terrible press for the telco.
Establishing a resilient network
By creating a more resilient network that can maintain connectivity during challenges to normal operations (such as power outages) and recover quickly from such disruptions, telcos can protect their customers' networks and ensure they stay operational. Notably, telcos must ascertain if their network engineers can make repairs remotely to the network without having to travel on-site – if they cannot, then it is not truly resilient. Also, they should note if resiliency extends to all equipment rather than just one core switch or router; likewise, they’ll need to examine the network setup concerning automation, cellular connectivity, and scalability.
Telcos can implement an Out of Band network, which can operate independently from the primary in-band network. An Out of Band network is an alternative pathway that allows for remediation of physical and virtually connected network devices, even if the in-band network becomes inaccessible. This technology empowers telco customers to continue their business-critical processes during a power outage while enhancing other network operations, such as initial deployment and everyday management.
Regrettably, many companies, telcos included, rely purely on this in-band network, using the network as a media to manage devices through common protocols, like telnet or SSH. Consequently, when a telco or its customer experiences a power outage that causes the primary in-band network to go down, both parties’ engineers cannot access their respective networks to determine the problem and make repairs. However, with an Out of Band network, these engineers can securely remediate issues.
Recall that during downtime, network engineers must travel on-site to remediate issues. These journeys can take days, costing a telco or their customer significant resources while placing a weighty burden on engineers – especially if an extreme weather event precipitates network downtime. However, with an Out of Band network, engineers can access and manage critical assets remotely, saving time and ensuring their safety and mental well-being.
An out of band solution for every day of the year
Power outages aren’t the only thing that can lead to network downtime. Human error, misconfiguration, and cyberattacks can all cause issues for a telco’s network. Likewise, networks continue to increase in complexity, necessitating more updates that expose them to bugs, exploits, and cyberattacks, contributing to outages. To that end, telcos need an Out of Band solution that is not only capable of providing network engineers emergency access for the worst days of the year but also support for day-one provisioning and daily maintenance.
