The new rules of resilience: What CIOs need to know
When high-speed, reliable Internet connections underpin every aspect of business, being able to keep your organization online and productive should be every CIO’s number-one priority. But multi-national businesses face an evolving threat landscape that puts their networks at constant risk, a widening skills gap, and rigid Service Level Agreements for availability. CIOs need to embed network resilience into their connectivity strategies to overcome these challenges.
Threats to enterprise networks
The threat landscape is broad and CIOs face the challenging task of constantly evaluating and adjusting their strategies to mitigate evolving threats. Increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, with ransomware, DDoS attacks, and insider threats are pushing networks to their limits. And environmental factors, from natural disasters to climate-related disruptions, can threaten physical infrastructure and service continuity.
The hidden costs of network downtime
Not only are there many threats to contend with, but the repercussions of network downtime are steep too. Every minute of downtime chips away at business revenue, operational efficiency, and customer trust.
The hard costs are easy to quantify—lost transactions, SLA penalties, and remediation expenses. But the soft costs, like brand reputation damage and employee productivity loss, can have even longer-term impacts.
Network complexity as a threat to resilience
As enterprises expand across multiple regions, they inherit a tangle of providers, technologies, and service-level agreements. This complexity creates visibility gaps, making it difficult to identify vulnerabilities before they turn into full-blown outages.
Blind spots in network performance monitoring can result in undetected bottlenecks, security breaches, and performance degradation.
However, there’s another element to network complexity and resilience that is often overlooked. CIOs are facing a critical talent shortage, in fact 40% of businesses cite talent and skillset as a major barrier to implementing adequate Internet performance monitoring. In fact, 77% highlight the critical role of third-party technology providers in their Internet resilience strategies to overcome this talent shortage and provide the expertise, insight, and experience to create network strategies with resilience built in and tailored to each site’s needs.
Network resilience needs to be a priority in any strategy
Given the significant impact any downtime can have across an organization, network resilience should be a key part of an enterprise’s business continuity strategy.
But your network resilience approach needs to be multi-faceted as no single connectivity solution can guarantee resilience on its own. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach either, you need to assess the needs of your business, with a granularity of detail that covers each site’s needs and vulnerabilities too.
Then you can build in:
Technology diversity
A diverse, multi-layered approach to network infrastructure is essential. By integrating multiple technologies, businesses can ensure redundancy and failover options that keep operations running smoothly. This includes a mix of traditional broadband, fiber, and emerging technologies such as Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to provide backup connectivity in case of failure.
Always on connectivity
Fixed Wireless Access and LEO satellite solutions offer powerful alternatives to traditional connectivity for a resilient, always-on network that adapts to shifting demands and conditions.
With Fixed Wireless Access, you can quickly deploy reliable, flexible mobile (4G/LTE/5G) networks even in remote areas or locations that are normally difficult to connect. While LEO satellites ensure connectivity even in the most remote locations. LEO satellites, in particular, offer low latency and high-speed connections that make them an attractive failover option for global enterprises.
The importance of a unified strategy for network resilience
It can be hard to see the big picture while focusing on the details of every site when it comes to network resilience. However, a fragmented approach leads to fragmented visibility, complex vendor landscapes, and subpar resilience.
One way to ensure you get a unified network strategy is to work with an experienced Managed Service Provider, like Expereo. This ensures you get:
- One trusted partner designing, implementing and managing your connectivity and resilience strategy.
- One point of contact for all your ISP and connectivity needs.
- On-demand access to the skills and expertise you need to scale any connectivity services up or down.
- Connectivity services in 190 countries with on-the-ground, in region support.
- Visibility and control down to site level with the expereoOne platform, so you can see your performance, issues, and services in real-time. With a centralized view of network performance, procurement, and support, enterprises can make data-driven decisions and respond to disruptions faster than ever.
By leveraging an experienced managed services partner, CIOs can turn potential blind spots into actionable insights and build a network that’s as resilient as it is agile. Additionally, working with Expereo means you get access to the latest innovations and best practices, ensuring businesses stay ahead of emerging threats and opportunities.
Building a culture of resilience
Beyond your network strategy, you need to also embed resilience across your organization’s culture. This will mean that IT isn’t the only defense and that every single employee is actively safeguarding the business.
This means providing continuous training, scenario planning, and cross-functional collaboration to ensure that all stakeholders understand their roles in maintaining network integrity.
The bottom line for resilience
Ultimately, the organizations that prioritize resilience today will be the ones leading their industries tomorrow. With the right strategy, the right technologies, and the right partner, CIOs can build networks that power a business’s ambitions without compromise.
Get in touch today to discuss your needs.