The VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud service supports inherent security in network agility, intelligently adapting to changing business priorities, such as the mass shift to home working necessitated by Covid-19. At the same time, VMware provides optimised access to public cloud services through its system of gateways, and to private/hybrid data centres and the enterprise applications hosted there.

“Many of our clients today are operating in complex hybrid technology environments,” says Scott Smith, CEO. “They are undertaking their own, unique digital transformation journeys and looking to their partners to help them leverage technology for business success.”

As a provider of SD-WAN, Over the Wire can now complement its investment in a national data network, launching a hybrid WAN service. VMware provides customers with an SD-WAN delivery model that leverages any underlay network technology, including the core MPLS network combined with ‘Over The Top’ connections where required – an excellent outcome for businesses with, for example, a combination of state head offices and a branch network, for example in Retail and Health. VMware delivers increased flexibility to customers through elastic access, improving performance for cloud applications at the edge – all via a zero-touch deployment and operations model.

As a network aggregator and now a VMware SD-WAN Service Provider, Over the Wire is investing heavily in managed SD-WAN solutions. Combined with its cloud voice fabric NetSIP, managed VMware SD-WAN is a robust application for business, delivering virtual quality of service through intelligent link optimisation.

Both Enterprises and Service Providers benefit from Over the Wire’s multi-tenant cloud gateway architecture and the ability to support real-time applications over private, broadband and wireless links. VMware and Over the Wire’s partnership provides increased flexibility for customers seeking to deliver performance, reliability and security across the Enterprise, over the Internet and to the cloud.

Adoption of cloud computing by businesses around the world has accelerated dramatically. As more mission-critical applications move to the cloud, reliability and performance of such applications is fundamental to the growth of businesses.

Today’s distributed enterprises struggle with application performance and WAN complexity at their branch offices. VMware SD-WAN automates branch deployment and ongoing management, enables performance to cloud and enterprise applications and enables IT departments to roll out branch offices virtually by uniquely using the cloud as the WAN. Rapid deployment – while fixed connections are being installed – and branch resilience are possible using 4G/5G technology.

“Over the Wire aims to provide connectivity and collaboration using cloud solutions that will free customers from the burden of investing in hardware solutions,” said Scott Smith, CEO. “VMware is at the core of this initiative. By combining VMware SD-WAN with Over the Wire’s national voice and data network, customers can easily transform their business using a next-generation branch network that combines intrinsic security and performance with a simple, centralised and abstracted management layer. This will help them adapt to changing business and network conditions.”

“We are pleased to collaborate with Over the Wire,” said Ron Longo, vice president worldwide service provider sales, VMware. “Over the Wire has an enviable pedigree in delivering reliable managed voice and data network solutions – and great customer experience. Together, we will provide businesses with what they need for simple, scalable and cost-effective cloud networking.”

The post Over the Wire Partners with VMware to Deliver Managed SD-WAN Services in Australia appeared first on Over the Wire.

With the shutdown of ISDN services to commence at the end of September 2019, the death of traditional telephony is just around the corner. The roll-out of NBN, while incomplete, has been the catalyst for Telstra to pull support for the legacy fixed-line technology, and the flood of change requests has well and truly commenced.

Number Porting

A major change for organisations shifting from ISDN phone services to business VoIP is the requirement to convert their existing phone numbers to be virtually hosted. This is achieved by porting these numbers to a new VoIP provider to ensure they aren’t lost when ISDN services are disconnected.

Delays in porting numbers are already noticeable and substantial, with average porting timeframes doubled in the past 6 months when transferring away from Telstra, and increased over 50% from Optus and other carriers. These delays are impacting all number porting, not just transitions from ISDN, and is only expected to get worse as fixed-line telephony shutdown becomes a reality.

Handling the delays:

• Planning ahead is paramount. With complex number porting often taking as long as three months to finalise, getting ports underway early is the best way to ensure you don’t miss any calls. Over the Wire customers get access to our powerful self-service Customer Portal and easy-to-use number porting tool, and of course our friendly staff are always happy to help simplify the process for you.
• While waiting for number ports to be completed, a redirection to temporary numbers can help to keep services flowing and give you the ability to take advantage of your new VoIP setup sooner. Ask our sales team if you qualify for free temporary numbers to help make your transition to Over the Wire even smoother than ever.

Fibre Service Provisioning

In addition to the delays in number porting, the extra demand for high speed fibre internet and private network services has also caused longer than usual provisioning timeframes for these services. Whether as a necessity due to copper-based connections no longer being serviceable, or businesses taking advantage of great new pricing for additional bandwidth options to support over-the-top voice services, the spike in requests has been noticeable. While typical lead times for fibre services is between 4 – 8 weeks, the current trend is generally between 8 – 14 weeks.

Handling the delays:

• Again, planning ahead is an important factor. If moving office or in the path of a disconnection be sure to have your request in early to stay connected.
• If you’re in a pinch for time, we’ve got your back. Our Private Mobile Data options are a great way to bridge the gap and have you up-and-running fast – just see what Credo Financial had to say when we helped them relocate with just 2 weeks notice!

Be ready for the ISDN shutdown

If you’d like to know more about the ISDN shutdown and how you can make sure your business is prepared, check out or ISDN Shutdown Survival Guide, an ebook designed specifically to help Australian businesses navigate the minefield being caused the Telstra’s ISDN shutdown. Or let us know if you’d like help from one of our sales consultants to guide you through the process.

The post Threat of ISDN shutdown already causing delays across the industry appeared first on Over the Wire.

When your organisation suffers a data breach, the damage is more than lost data or costs to restore a system. Reputational damage can result in significant customer churn.

How do data breaches impact customer churn?

In IBM and The Ponemon Institute’s research report on data breaches in Australia, the organisations outlined the exact breakdown of breach costs.

On average, a data breach cost businesses $139 per compromised file. That breaks down to $60 in technical costs, and $79 to indirect costs like customer churn. That’s an average of 56 per cent of data breach costs coming through issues of customer retention.

Some sectors are more susceptible to this than others. Financial services and technology companies recorded higher than average churn after a data breach, while hospitality and retail are among those with more limited churn impacts.

At its core, this is an issue of trust. If your organisation deals in personal or private information, particularly financial data, there is an expectation that your company will be able to keep it secure. When it fails to do this, it fails at the core of its business. That is perhaps why churn in those sectors is so much higher than in retail or hospitality, where data security is not a core theme.

Lost records mean lost trust, which in turn means lost business. But how can you go about minimising this churn?

How to minimise the business impacts of a data breach

In trend terms, the churn-related impacts of a data breach are on the decline. IBM and Ponemon’s research noted a 5.3 per cent drop in these costs over 2017, particularly among companies that had a lower technical cost per record.

One of the keys to this could be brand management. Your response to a data breach shouldn’t just be in line with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme – it should be part of a wider strategy to regain the trust of your customer base.

1. Future-proofing and transparency

Consider Facebook’s response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal – one of the most reputationally damaging events in history. Beyond repairing the immediate harm, the company completely overhauled its privacy settings and communicated those changes to users clearly. Well, relatively clearly. The company’s stock continued to fall after the event, but this is a prime example of future-proofing in a transparent manner, of demonstrating a commitment to safety and security in the eyes of your customers.

2. Implement best practice early

Data breaches will, to a certain degree, always have an element of embarrassment to them. However, if your company can demonstrate to customers that it has a strong history of best-practice data security, this may go a long way towards minimising churn.

As an example of this done wrong, look no further than the Australian government. Early 2018 saw the leak of confidential written documents that were stored in a cabinet that was sold in a second-hand store. Regular audits of your information storage and best-practice rules on digitisation are a must at the very least.

Use people you trust

In many cases, businesses simply won’t have the in-house expertise required to implement proper data security strategies. And that’s OK! The team at Over the Wire are network specialists – local experts who will partner with you to understand exactly what your business needs.

It’s a surefire way of tightening up security, demonstrating to customers that you take handling their information seriously, and mitigating the churn that results from a data breach. Don’t forget to download and implement our white paper, 6 Steps to Improve Your Business Cyber Security here.

Act early, act in good faith and act smart. Get in touch with the Over the Wire team to minimise risks today.

The post What Impact Does a Data Breach Have on Your Customer Base? appeared first on Over the Wire.

The Basics of Corporate Networks

Most corporate networks in Australia today are built on private MPLS (MultiProtocol Label Switching) technology. These private networks are distinct and separate from the public Internet, and are only able to interact with it based on the business’s security policies. These policies are enforced by a firewall which separates and regulates the flow of data between the public Internet and the private corporate network.

A different paradigm: SD-WAN

When people talk about SD-WAN in a corporate network setting, they are usually referring to an approach which uses CPE’s (Customer Premise Equipment) that run more advanced software to effectively build a virtual network over the top of any underlying network – public or private.

Each branch typically ends up having its own firewalled Internet link, and the corporate network itself might even be run over the Internet through secure VPN (Virtual Private Network) tunnels.

What are the Pros and Cons?

MPLS and SD-WAN each has advantages and disadvantages which may be relevant depending on an organisation’s requirements. It can be optimal to combine elements of both approaches to deliver what is knowns as a Hybrid WAN solution. A comparison of the two approaches to some key areas follows.

Security

To be secure, SD-WAN requires encrypted VPN tunnels between sites and relies on firewalls at each Internet connection point to secure your corporate data. These are proven technologies, but is a VPN (Virtual Private Network) over the Internet as secure as an ACTUAL private network that doesn’t run over the Internet at all? The answer to that is more complex than the scope of this article.

With proper configuration either a VPN or private MPLS approach can be considered secure. An even more secure solution can be achieved via a hybrid WAN configuration that uses encrypted VPN tunnels over private MPLS links. The best approach depends on your organisation’s needs and budget.

Network Visibility and Orchestration

The more advanced software that runs on SD-WAN devices can give improved visibility and orchestration of network traffic. In practice OTW’s Advanced ESP firewall can provide similar network edge reporting for a private network.

The ultimate in network reporting and orchestration can be delivered via an integrated solution between Advanced ESP and compatible SD-WAN devices. Once again, the best approach comes down to your organisation’s needs and budget.

Critical Traffic: Application Prioritisation vs QoS

Certain types of network traffic are affected by fluctuations in network performance much more than general traffic. Examples of sensitive traffic include voice, realtime video and terminal services. SD-WAN and private MPLS each have the capability to provide priority to critical traffic, but they use different approaches which can lead to different outcomes.

A private MPLS network provides priority to critical traffic such as voice using end-to-end QoS (Quality of Service). End-to-end QoS is the gold standard in traffic management, with every step in the data’s journey managing its priority and ensuring that it will be delivered promptly and in the same order it was sent. Assurance of voice quality can only be achieved with the benefit of end-to-end QoS.

An SD-WAN network cannot deliver end-to-end QoS over a public network like the Internet. Instead, SD-WAN can make decisions about which link to send traffic along depending on what application the data belongs to, and the current performance of the available links. This makes SD-WAN adept at optimising the utilisation and performance of multiple links to a single site, whether this is implemented as providing active/active load balancing between links, split tunnelling based on application, or low priority traffic being sent down cheaper low quality links, while high priority traffic is sent down the best available link at a point in time.

The flexibility of application prioritisation has many uses, but it should be noted that application layer priority cannot provide the same consistency and assurance of voice quality as end-to-end QoS. For an SD-WAN solution to achieve that standard, the underlying network layer still needs to be an appropriate high quality private MPLS link that supports QoS, effectively making it a hybrid WAN solution.

International

When a corporate network involves international locations, the cost and logistics of deploying private MPLS connectivity to those locations can be prohibitive. SD-WAN shines in this situation, allowing an office to be connected to the network simply by sending an SD-WAN device to the site and connecting it to an easily available Internet link.

Cost

There is significant hype in the market about SD-WAN enabling organisations to cut the cost of their WAN. The SD-WAN vendors who promote this claim are mostly based in the USA where the wholesale network connectivity landscape is quite different – in Australia, private MPLS links are more affordable compared to commodity Internet links. As a result, the higher cost of SD-WAN endpoints typically offsets the gains from reduced tail costs, resulting in a similar Total Cost of Ownership.

At the end of the day, whether a network solution is based on SD-WAN, private MPLS, or a Hybrid WAN approach, in most cases the only way to materially cut networking costs is to sacrifice link quality or network resilience.

The Right Solution for your Organisation

There is no “one solution fits all” when it comes to corporate networks. It takes professionals who understand the finer details of networks and business requirements to develop the best solution for your needs.

Over the Wire is uniquely positioned to design and deliver the style of network solution that makes sense for your organisation, whether it is based on private MPLS, SD-WAN or an integrated combination of both. Over the Wire’s years of experience in converged voice & data networks and managed security, combined with our status as a Fortinet Gold Partner, enables us to deliver a network solution which provides the standards of quality and security that you require.

Contact a member of the Over the Wire team today and speak to one of our experts to find out what solution suits your unique business needs.

The post What is SD WAN? appeared first on Over the Wire.

For example, you may have heard about Ethereum, a public blockchain network used by the UN’s World Food Programme to underpin a cashless economy for Syrian refugees. The instant validation of data means that this kind of process is applicable all around the world.

In Australia, businesses are starting to take note – here are five ways your business could leverage blockchain technology.

1. Customer identification

By employing blockchain, financial services organisations could tap into untold efficiencies in customer identification.

In a recent piece by iGTB Senior Business Analyst Binu Yohannan, he argues that the blockchain can serve as a single repository of customer identification information for an entire industry sector. With the appropriate encryption and data security regulations, the blockchain could store a bank’s customer or transaction information in a database with all other institutions in the same country or city.

This gives organisations access to real-time, secure information that would otherwise be held up in the gatekeeping processes banks commit to on an individual basis.

2. Smart contracts

A smart contract is a computer program that contains a set of legal rules for negotiating the terms of an agreement. The rules can automatically be enforced and the agreed terms executed without the need for third party approval.

Smart contract data is encrypted and stored on a shared ledger in a Blockchain so in theory it is secure and immutable.

There have been exploits of smart contracts in the past, so it’s important that your code is as airtight as your network security.

3. International payments

International payments can be made much faster and in a more transparent manner through the blockchain, according to Mastercard. The credit card giant is embracing the blockchain in a bid to overcome speed- and cost-related hold-ups in global B2B transactions.

An Accenture report suggests a 70 per cent drop in financial reporting costs through blockchain, as well as a 30 per cent decrease in compliance-related costs. By settling B2B transactions in the digital sphere without third party risks, businesses can realise massive financial benefits.

4. Voting and corporate governance

The transparency and P2P verification of a blockchain network makes it ideal for ensuring information is both secure and accurate. While this has largely meant financial institutions are benefiting from the tech, any enterprise involved in any kind of election can also reap the rewards.

By skipping third parties (in this case an electoral authority), organisations can create a shared voting ledger that records and validates data without fear of tampering. It’s ideal for true insight into how an employee base (or even an entire population) wishes to vote.

5. Democratising the music industry

A tale as old as time – how do artists get paid for the full value of their work? The answer could lie in blockchain.

Writing for Techcrunch in 2016, TechTalks founder Ben Dickson argued that a single database on a blockchain network could contain artists’ music, including copyrights, licensing fees, time stamps and unique identifiers. Tamper-proof and concreted in the system, individuals and businesses could then buy the music for a transparent dollar value, which is then permanently recorded in the chain.

By skipping third parties like labels and streaming services, people can pay artists directly for their music in a transparent, efficient manner.

What are you waiting for?

Blockchain technology has levelled the playing field in so many ways. No longer do banks, record labels or other third-party authorities control information and money in the way they used to. It’s a complete democratisation of information, but it’s also absolutely reliant on data networks – which can be fallible.

The blockchain can revolutionise your business, yes, but without the right security protocols the information you submit to it could be vulnerable.

That’s where Over the Wire can help – read our comprehensive cyber security e-book to learn more about the primary areas of cyber risk and find out more about beefing up your security.

The post 5 ways blockchain can help Australian businesses appeared first on Over the Wire.

It’s an issue that every organisation needs to put on their data security agenda – has yours begun the process?

What is router compromise, and how does it work?

Router compromise is a fairly sophisticated form of data breach. Malicious entities conduct automated scans of routers to identify hardware that is vulnerable to an attack. This enables an adversary to extract configuration files, from which point they may be able to control or manipulate any devices that connect to your network, as well as the Internet connection itself.

In most cases so far, cyber attacks on routers have focused on those with Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) that is exposed to the Internet. This is a default setting, usually established during the setup of a network. While many organisations turn SNMP off after this process is complete, many more have left it open, creating risk of compromise. The ACSC has noted that router switches with Cisco Smart Install exposed to the Internet are also susceptible to router scanning and hacking.

How can you identify router compromise?

If your organisation’s router has this exposure to attacks, there are some straightforward checks that network administrators can take immediately. You should check network logs for:

• Unexpected SNMP queries; or queries of unknown origin.
• Command outputs or network configurations that have come from outside sources – particularly through Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP).
• Configurations that apply to GRE tunnels you would not expect changes to.

If any of these red flags emerge, it may be time to conduct a thorough assessment of the threat, in line with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme guidelines from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

How can you prevent router compromise?

The first step in prevention is the simplest – if your router has SNMP which is exposed to the Internet, disable it. If you require read/write capabilities with your SNMP, ensure it cannot connect with unauthorised or untrusted third parties. Alternatively, you can upgrade your SNMP to version 3 and adjust all of the community strings to an appropriate setting.

Similarly, for Cisco router users, if you do not require Cisco Smart Install to be active, disable it. You can also begin using Access Control Lists (ACL), which limit the access SNMP has to network configurations. Finally, you can configure your anti-spoofing protocols to drop any packets at the edge of your network which come from unauthorised sources.

The ACSC is also proactively scanning Australian IP address ranges, looking for vulnerable or compromised routers.

Mitigate the impacts of router scanning today

If your organisation suffers a router compromise-related attack, the costs can be far-reaching. Beyond the money spent eradicating the threat and hardening/patching your systems, significant data breaches require comprehensive follow-up action with both the OAIC and any affected third parties.

Hardware may need to be replaced, staff upskilled, and consumer relations or company reputation may suffer irreparable damage if an attack threatens an individual’s safety.

Cyber criminals are becoming more and more sophisticated, with router scanning just one example of new ways your systems can be breached. To stay on the cutting edge of data security, it’s critical you work with partners who can provide around-the-clock service, proactively anticipate threats and shut down risks before they spread.

To learn more about router vulnerability and other cyber risk areas, our 24 page eBook, IT Managers: Set your Network Defences to Stunning, is a great resource with tips you can use to identify, contain and prevent cyber security threats. You can download it here.

That’s the difference Over the Wire will make. Contact the team today to find out more.

The post How to spot (and stop) router compromise appeared first on Over the Wire.

Judo Bank is founded on the belief that the financing skills needed by the SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) community have been lost to increasingly centralised functions and cookie-cutter lending policies.

Judo’s mission is to put experienced and empowered relationship focused lenders back in customers premises, going against the industry trend by putting the customer experience first and foremost by ensuring Judo’s team can make credit decisions on the quality of the business, not just the quality of the security.

To do so, Judo looked to Over the Wire to deliver a network that enables its staff to work simply and securely from anywhere. By integrating Over the Wire’s Private Network, Voice and Network Security capabilities, both parties were able to collaborate on the design and implementation of the environment.

Alex Twigg, Judo Co-Founder says, “Starting with a blank sheet of paper is a fabulous opportunity but it’s not easy and wanting to flip an entrenched industry model on its head makes it more difficult again. We had to find likeminded technology partners that wanted to go on a journey with us, to make a difference. The OTW team got it from day 1 and the Network capabilities they delivered, just worked. We could focus all our efforts on creating a customer centric business, rather than how to enable our team to securely work from anywhere.”

With the strength and depth of OTW capabilities, Judo Bank is creating a secure, flexible and robust network infrastructure that is able to overcome substantial barriers to entry in a fraction of the time it has traditionally taken, and at minimal cost.

Judo’s eye is on the future, and the team have built a technology platform that removes the restriction of having to work within a specific location. With the network Judo can not only deliver flexible working but is ready to roll out to Australia through pop-up offices and roaming team members.

Michael Omeros, Managing Director at Over the Wire, says, “We’ve been delighted to work closely with Judo Bank and its founding team who have embraced a forward-thinking approach to their IT&T. We have been able to deliver a private data network, Hosted PBX voice services, data centre colocation, and advanced Managed Security offerings to Judo, but the real value has been how all of these elements integrate together.”

“For example, we have been able to provide Judo with virtual mobile numbers for their staff which still track calls through the phone system, but can be answered on our mobile softphone application. Not only does that give their staff the ability to make and receive calls anywhere, but it also gives them the ability to have a truly mobile workforce.”

“We’re excited for the next phase of their roll-out which will introduce pop-up offices and roaming staff securely connected to the private network with our Layer 2 Private Mobile 4G data service. This will give their mobile workforce secure access to their corporate network by entirely bypassing the public Internet.”

For further details please contact the Over the Wire team at info@overthewire.com.au or the Judo Bank team on their website.

Judo Bank is a registered trademarks of Judo Bank.

The post Over the Wire Collaborates with Judo Bank to Deliver Working from Anywhere appeared first on Over the Wire.

This claim, made by Gizmodo Australia, is on the back of an in depth analysis conducted by ITNews, details of which are available here. This report gives an interesting insight into the deployment and adoption of NBN services in different regions, and the activation rates in each.

But does this actually mean fibre to the node (FttN) is more popular than fibre to the premises (FttP)? On face value this could be the takeaway, however the claim does not take into account important factors such as the availability of providers supplying services, the adoption life cycle inherent with any new product, and consumer choice.

While the number of suppliers ready and able to deliver NBN services in the first round of NBN regions, with FttP, weren’t nearly as comprehensive as what there is today, this lack of accessibility isn’t the only important factor to consider when looking at this data. As with all products, a natural adoption life cycle will take place, with Innovators and Early Adopters making a small, but meaningful portion of the market; it’s these ‘guinea pigs’ that give the majority of consumers the confidence in the new product to adopt it themselves, or learn from someone else’s mistakes.

Another consideration is that measuring popularity is a factor of choice, which isn’t something that consumers have here; the options are to adopt whichever form of NBN is available in the area, or switch to or maintain existing connectivity not impacted by the decommissioning of PSTN phone lines.

While the final take-away from the analysis is up to interpretation, one good thing is clear; we’ve finally moved away from measuring “premises passed” to actual adoption rates – not only a step in the right direction towards accountability, but giving the public access to real and meaningful statistics about our nation’s ongoing NBN saga.

To see if NBN is appropriate for your business, or if you will be impacted by the decommissioning of PSTN lines, contact an Over the Wire representative or call us on 1300 689 689 today.

Media enquiries: Chris Jacko

The post Is NBN’s fibre to the node really more popular than fibre to the premises? appeared first on Over the Wire.

In today’s market, an increasing reliance on cloud based technology solutions and the Internet in general, means that many companies struggle to get a large enough data connection at an affordable price. A 20Mbps service in metro areas could currently cost anything from $500 up to $1000 per month, depending on the provider. As a contrast to this, OTW Fibre Select is providing 100M Unlimited Internet, delivered on a fibre tail, at less than $500 per month. Additional speed options are also available, up to 400Mbps.

Managing Director of Over the Wire, Michael Omeros, comments “OTW Fibre Select represents a step-change in the corporate data network space. This new product will allow us to provide our clients with a significant increase in bandwidth at a fraction of the price they would currently be paying. At Over the Wire, our primary goal is to connect our clients to the technology and services they need to operate most effectively. OTW Fibre Select will further enable us to do this by offering data connectivity speeds at pricing that easily competes with existing technologies, and we expect to see a significant uptake from those businesses that fall within these select locations”.

In a time where requirements for reliable digital communication is constantly increasing, investing in larger quantities of bandwidth at such a low price will also allow businesses room to grow. Omeros adds, “By future-proofing their IT and communication services with OTW Fibre Select, businesses can easily converge their voice and data networks as well as look to cloud services to improve business agility and profitability. Significant cost savings can be made here as well, so OTW Fibre Select can be the catalyst for savings on a client’s data communications, voice and IT spend. In addition, since NBNCo has concentrated on locations outside of the CBD areas, this new product is all about offering the NBN experience and benefits sooner.”

Similar to Over the Wire’s suite of connectivity solutions, OTW Fibre Select can be used for both voice and data services and is available as an Internet Only Tail or a Private IP Link.

The post Over the Wire Releases New Fibre Products appeared first on Over the Wire.

“A Service Level Agreement is not a guarantee that your infrastructure will remain active for the specified uptime. Rather it is the minimum period of outage after which the business will receive a financial rebate, where this has been stated in the contract.”

For instance, a 99.95% uptime SLA (which is typical for the majority of business grade Ethernet services) has a maximum target downtime of 21 minutes and 55 seconds per month. Many IT Managers make the costly mistake of thinking this means that the service is guaranteed to be active for the remaining time period. It isn’t. The SLA simply means that come 21 minutes and 56 seconds, the customer will be able to claim some remuneration for any additional downtime experienced.

Why are the SLA’s not guarantees?

Using the example of a 99.95% SLA, 21 minutes and 55 seconds is more than enough time for a provider to fix the majority of network faults. However, infrastructure faults, which often rely on third parties to be resolved, can take much longer. For instance fibre cuts, ULL faults, and NTU failures are normally beyond the scope of the service providers control and as such require third party technicians to be physically present at the point of failure to be resolved. Depending on the fault, the remoteness of the area, number of services affected and the availability of qualified technicians, infrastructure failures may take several days to resolve.

Why does this matter if the provider has to compensate me?

Whilst an SLA may provide remuneration in the event of a service outage, the rate of remuneration is determined by the provider and is not linked to the actual loss incurred by the business. This means that the risk of a failure still needs to be weighed against the potential costs of one occurring. If the impact on the business is deemed to be unacceptably high it is strongly recommended that organisations consider utilising a redundancy package to mitigate the risk of an outage occurring.

What redundancy options are available?

Typical considerations for redundancy should include the following; however, it is recommend that all organisations consider backup links on a per-site basis so that the appropriate technology can be balanced against the cost.

• Due to their low cost and geographic availability, ADSL links are often recommended for the majority of sites.
• However if the site is in a remote location or there is a high risk of a large scale problem (e.g. flooding, bush fires, etc.), 3G and 4G backup links can be used. 3/4G is also recommended as a method of providing redundancy against terrestrial problems. For instance if a fibre cable, or other form of cable infrastructure is cut, it is likely that an ADSL connection will be affected as well, making 3/4G the most viable alternative. Microwave transmission can also be used to the same effect, however it comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. You can read more about the differences in connectivity options in this article on connectivity.
• The deployment of a second router to provide additional device redundancy can protect against hardware failure and get you back to work almost instantly.
• Due to a slow reduction in costs, protected fibre (fibre that takes diverse routes to the exchange) is becoming increasingly common as a backup option. Protected fibre comes with the advantage of being able to offer the same speed as the primary connectivity option.

Considerations should also be made as to whether there is a requirement for automatic or manual failover, as each of these options has the potential to affect the speed at which your service can be restored.

The next time your organisation is considering setting up a link to a new office, or upgrading an existing network, make sure you keep in mind that an SLA is not a silver bullet, and that the risk of an outage needs to be balanced against the potential costs of one occurring. 

The post Don’t Get Caught Out By Your SLA’s appeared first on Over the Wire.