Today’s business environment is unpredictable, which means businesses need to build robust and resilient IT infrastructure strategies. Resilience has become a critical success factor for the survival and growth of any business.
Core network infrastructure including servers, internet links, and network equipment must be fortified to withstand and rapidly recover from any disruptions. This article explores the importance of embedding resilience into core network infrastructure and provides tips on how businesses can build resilience into their IT infrastructure.
Understanding IT infrastructure resilience
Resilience in a core network infrastructure refers to the ability of these systems to endure disruptions caused by issues such as cyberattacks, hardware failures or general connectivity issues, ensuring a continual IT service for your business. It’s more than just bouncing back; it’s about maintaining core operations during a crisis and emerging stronger post-disruption.
Downtime and business disruption can be incredibly costly to any business, and also impact reputation and customer confidence.
Why resilience matters
Where uncertainty lurks around every corner and disruption and change are constant, the concept of business resilience emerges as a business need, more than ever. Here are three compelling reasons to make IT infrastructure resilience top-of-mind.
1. Mitigating risks and minimising downtime
A single point of failure in core network infrastructure can have cascading effects throughout a business. For instance, a server failure or an internet outage can halt business operations, leading to significant revenue loss and customer dissatisfaction. Resilient networks are designed to anticipate, absorb, and adapt to such shocks, ensuring that downtime is minimised, and operations remain running.
2. Enhancing customer trust and loyalty
Customers expect reliable and consistent service – whatever your business. Frequent disruptions due to network failures can erode trust and drive customers to competitors. By investing in a resilient core network infrastructure, businesses can assure their customers that they are dependable, even in challenging times. This commitment to reliability fosters stronger customer loyalty and enhances your brand reputation.
3. Maintaining your competitive advantage
Whatever industry sector your operate in, having a competitive edge over your competition is key to success and a thriving business and resilience can be a key differentiator. Businesses that can maintain network operations during a crisis can capitalise on opportunities that arise when competitors are struggling. This advantage can translate into increased market share, customer retention and long-term growth.
Key strategies for building resilience
Organisations should ideally be driven to ensure reliable, secure and efficient operations within their IT infrastructure. A resilient information technology system helps companies enhance operational efficiency while minimising financial and reputational loss risks.
Implementing redundant systems
Redundancy involves having backup systems and processes in place. For core network infrastructure, this could mean having duplicate servers in different locations, alternate internet links, and spare network equipment. Redundancy ensures that if one component fails, another can take its place without interrupting operations.
Investing in High-Availability servers
High-availability (HA) servers are designed to operate continuously without failure for a long time. Implementing HA solutions can significantly reduce the risk of downtime. These systems automatically manage load balancing and failover processes, ensuring seamless operation even when individual servers go down.
Utilising multiple Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
Relying on a single ISP can be risky. By utilising multiple ISPs, businesses can ensure continuous internet connectivity even if one provider experiences an outage. This multi-homing strategy allows traffic to be rerouted through alternate connections, maintaining network availability and performance.
Deploying advanced network monitoring tools
Continuous monitoring of network infrastructure is essential for detecting potential issues before they escalate into major disruptions. Advanced network monitoring tools provide real-time insights into the performance and health of network components, allowing for proactive maintenance and rapid response to incidents.
Regularly test disaster recovery plans
A comprehensive disaster recovery plan (DRP) is crucial for ensuring that network infrastructure can be quickly restored following a disruption. Regularly testing and updating the DRP helps identify weaknesses and ensures that all stakeholders are prepared to act swiftly and effectively in a crisis.
Conclusion – tips for success for your business
Although we have discussed all the areas of IT resilience that is available, we fully understand that every business is different. With financial restraints a business needs balance the risks and costs to ensure they achieve the right protection for their business as well as the ROI from these investments.
It’s very common to focus on a small number of key areas where the risk of failure is high and in-turn where the cost of implementing is low. Mitigating risk is a long-term strategy and doesn’t need to be a costly overhead. Understanding the risks and knowing what to do if they happen is a great starting point.