How to Build Redundancy Into Your Network: A Comprehensive Guide

In today's digital era, network downtime is not just inconvenient; it can be a blow to productivity and profitability. With businesses increasingly depending on cloud applications, ensuring internet uptime has become mission-critical. This article delves into various techniques for building network redundancy, ensuring high availability, and minimizing the impact of failures.

Why Internet Uptime is Mission-Critical

As organizations transition to cloud-based solutions for everything from data storage to real-time collaboration, the cost of internet downtime skyrockets. According to a report from Gartner, the average cost of network downtime is around $5,600 per minute. For businesses that rely on cloud apps for core operations, even a few minutes of downtime can result in significant losses.

Circuit Management: Embracing SD-WAN

Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) is a modern solution that simplifies the management of multiple internet circuits. Unlike traditional WAN technologies, SD-WAN can distribute traffic across multiple connections efficiently. It automatically selects the best path for each application and can adapt in real-time to changing network conditions.

Multiple Internet Circuits

Adding multiple internet circuits is a straightforward way to build redundancy. You might have a primary connection through a fiber optic line and a secondary one through a different medium like DSL or cable. SD-WAN technology can manage these circuits effectively, distributing traffic and rerouting in case of a failure.

ISP Diversity

Relying on a single Internet Service Provider (ISP) is a risk. Consider using multiple ISPs to build additional layers of redundancy. This way, if one ISP experiences an outage, your network will continue to operate on the other ISP’s circuit.

Last Mile Diversity

Last-mile connectivity refers to the final leg of the telecommunications network that delivers services to customers. Last mile diversity means having different physical paths for your internet connectivity, reducing the risk that a single point of failure will knock out your connection.

High Availability: Routers and Firewalls

A high availability (HA) setup ensures that your network devices can withstand failures without causing downtime.

Dual Routers

Having two routers—one active and one on standby—ensures that if the primary router fails, the secondary one can take over, minimizing downtime. This applies to firewalls and SD-WAN devices as well.

Power Solutions: UPS and Alternatives

An Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) provides emergency power to your network devices during a power outage. This can keep your network up and running for a short period, giving you time to switch to alternative power sources like generators.

Additional Network Devices

Besides routers and switches, having backup hard drives and other critical network devices can safeguard against hardware failure.

Failover Policies

A well-defined failover policy outlines the procedures and systems in place to switch to a backup system when a failure occurs. This could be automated through SD-WAN or managed manually.

Building redundancy into your network is not a luxury; it's a necessity. Investing in multiple circuits, SD-WAN technology, high availability setups, and backup power solutions can save your organization time and money in the long run. Crafting well-thought-out failover policies will ensure that when the inevitable failure occurs, your downtime will be minimized, keeping your business running smoothly.

By putting these measures into place, you can build a robust and resilient network that can withstand the challenges of today's digital landscape.