April 9, 2024 Minimizing Network Downtime with Out-of-Band Management

In the digital era, out-of-band management is key to mitigating costly network outages.

By: Tracy Collins, VP of Sales, Americas, Opengear

Increasingly, perhaps more than ever, companies across the manufacturing and industry sectors rely on the network to ensure constant, reliable productivity. Nevertheless, maintaining an always-on network is no easy task. A shocking 96% of US businesses experience at least one network outage per quarter.

These disruptions to normal operations can be disastrous, halting production, jamming logistics and supply chains, and fraying relationships with partners and customers. In addition to being behind schedule, unplanned downtime can compromise staff safety, resulting in turnover and an inability to hire skilled professionals due to a poor reputation.

The monetary losses are also significant, with network downtime costing roughly $260,000 per hour in the manufacturing industry; for the automotive industry, it’s $3 million per hour; and for the energy industry, it’s $2.48 million per hour. In light of these consequences, organizations must build a more resilient network by implementing solutions like out-of-band management.

Why Are Network Outages So Common? 

Manufacturing and industrial organizations continue to pursue digital transformation and embrace Industry 4.0 innovations, like the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and 5G. Although these technologies bring unprecedented performance, agility, and efficiency, including improved connectivity between IT and OT systems, they put considerable strain on the network, increasing the risk of disruption. 

Another unintended consequence of these upgrades is that they expand the attack surface, providing more opportunities for bad actors from within and outside the organization to manipulate control systems, expose sensitive information, and cause network outages. For example, advanced software stacks require habitual updates, making them vulnerable to bugs, exploits, and cyberattacks.  

Outside of the network challenges that arise from digital transformation, ISP carrier issues, fiber cuts, human error, and cable interconnect can all compromise network integrity, triggering downtime. Manufacturers’ networks are also susceptible to naturally occurring events like severe weather.

Moreover, limited IT resources and the dispersed nature of manufacturing make recovering from these outages difficult. It is impossible for technicians to physically be on site at every distributed plant, data center, and factory monitoring network infrastructure. As a result, when disruptions occur, companies have no choice but to send these technicians to manually restore operations, which can be an incredibly time-consuming endeavor.

Out-of-Band Management

Manufacturers can use out-of-band management to build a resilient network capable of recovering quickly from network outages, ensuring maximum uptime. Specifically, out-of-band management enables technicians to securely and remotely access critical devices from a central location even when the primary network is unavailable. With visibility and remote administration capabilities, network technicians can configure and troubleshoot devices from anywhere, eliminating the tedious hassle of traveling on site.

An out-of-band network functions as an independent management plane, meaning technicians can simultaneously lock down critical functions on the production network while continuing to configure and manage devices on the out-of-band network. Out-of-band management also permits technicians and IT administrators to restrict user access to critical devices and functions. Should bad actors successfully breach a manufacturer’s system, their technicians can use out-of-band management to isolate the incident, locking down network elements and barring access to impacted equipment.

The benefits of out-of-band management extend beyond mitigating and recovering from worst-day scenarios; it also supports technicians in day-to-day configuration and other routine processes such as IT infrastructure management and monitoring. Likewise, out-of-band management can accelerate day-one provisioning, empowering manufacturers to deploy new remote sites securely and at scale.

The Role of AI in Network Resiliency   

Something manufacturers and other industrial organizations should prioritize when considering various out-of-band management providers is a solution’s ability to infuse intelligence and automation into IT infrastructure. Intelligence and automation are critical to achieving a more resilient network as well as a more efficient one.

Consider how much information is at the edge – it is unreasonable to expect a human to manually collect, process, and analyze all of this data in a reasonable amount of time. However, an out-of-band management solution with tools like adaptive AI and machine learning (ML) can enable technicians to streamline these daily tasks.

Best-in-class out-of-band management providers will also incorporate AI into their offerings to help technicians automate configurations and the other daily operations of network infrastructure. Additionally, AI-powered automation allows technicians to set up automated SMS alerts that notify authorized personnel of network issues and threats.

As manufacturers and other industrial organizations seek to build more resilient networks, they must exercise scrutiny when selecting a possible out-of-band management solution – noting which possess automation capabilities.

Tracy has over 25 years of experience in leadership positions in the IT and Infrastructure industry. Prior to joining Opengear, Tracy led the Americas business for EkkoSense, the leading provider of AI/ML software that allows data center operators to operate more efficiently. Prior to joining EkkoSense, Tracy was the CEO of Alabama based Simple Helix, a regional colocation data center operator and MSP. Tracy spent over 21 years with Vertiv, in various leadership positions including leading the global channel organization.

Tracy has an extensive background in sales leadership, and channel development with a strong track record of driving growth while improving profitability. Tracy holds both a Bachelors of Science, Business Administration, and a Masters of Science in Management from the University of Alabama – Huntsville.

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