Do you have an Out of Band Management Network?

Physical networks are incredibly reliable today. It’s rare for a business to be completely offline, we have an expectation that websites are “always on”. Today evolving wireless & low-cost satellite services (Kuiper & Starlink) are impacting secondary network connections and offering the opportunity to offer more network redundancy in the form of Out of Band Management (OOBM).

If you run a distributed network, with assets in a variety of locations, how are you prepared to repair network equipment at remote sites? If for example you were to lose a firewall or router at a remote location, do you have to deploy personnel to fix? How about if the outage occurs off-hours? Is the continuity plan of your organization including an Out of Band Management network? What are the company procedures if you access a remote site and equipment is offline?

I would offer that like all risk/reward propositions, Out of Band Management has security/cost/support considerations that should be acknowledged ahead of a potential test and deployment. Some questions to ask:

• Is your operation 24/7/365?
• What are your Network Service Level Agreements?
• Do your service providers provide managed services for network assets?
• Is the answer to above is “yes”, is it more cost effective to build vs. buy?
• Do you have to follow 2-factor security rules (FISMA, HIPAA, PCI) for remote access?
• Do you have secondary IP or cell signal at remote sites?

The Out of Band Management offering space has evolved over the past several years. More equipment players have entered the marketplace which is good for innovation and product development/growth. The obvious downside to the market noise is making a good, informed decisions that have a positive outcome.

When considering and OOBM network some ideas of things to review:

• Is my site critical? If I lose access for a period of time will the business be negatively impacted or can I manage a work around?  A typical Out of Band Management site will cost +/- $1,000 to establish and +/- $20 to operate month-over-month.
• In addition to Out of Band Management, do I need to have the ability to remotely power-cycle unresponsive network equipment?
• Are there personnel on site that are capable of making network fixes/assisting in repair?

A final piece of information to consider is the cost of downtime. Figures range from $100K-$500K per hour to represent financial losses for downtime, but also considerations to business reputation and productivity should be considered.

Out of Band Management networks are powerful tools to keep businesses running with top efficiency. Research your options, ask where your products are built, and follow top security experts and agencies. Always make sure to kick-the-tires before your buy; any reputable company will offer testing equipment and professionals to help you evaluate ahead of any purchase.

Adam Cady works in Sales Engineering for Communication Devices Inc (CDI). CDI is a US-manufacturer of high security, simple to use Out-of-Band Management tools and services, and can be reached at adamcady@commdevices.com for more information.