ZPE Systems, Author at ZPE Systems

Out-of-Band Is a Lifesaver for Critical Edge Networking. Here’s Why …

by ZPE Systems | May 18, 2021 | Out of Band Management, Remote Network Management

The edge of the network is where local area networks make their connections to the edge of the Internet and to wide-area networks. Thus, edge networking serves edge computing, which brings computation and storage resources closer to the locations where it’s needed to help improve response times and reduce long-haul bandwidth consumption and associated costs.

In other words, the edge includes systems that are close to endpoint devices on your networks, and where third-party services may interact with them. This includes such things as typical end-user devices (PCs, tablets, smartphones, and so on), as well as Internet of Things (IoT) devices (sensors, cameras, and so forth), self-service kiosks, mobile apps, POS systems, and other systems and services active in the so-called “last mile” of a network.

Understanding Edge Networking and Computing

Devices at the edge are different from networks at the edge. Devices at the edge attach to the outermost reaches of your networks so they can connect to and use apps, services, storage, and data as their needs dictate. Edge networks, on the other hand, describe the connections and tunnels that connect branch and remote office locations to each other, to your data centers, and to distributed cloud-based applications and services. Edge computing involves providing resources and services normally found at the network core (especially in a data center) closer to the network edge so that users can consume compute, storage, data, load balancing, and more quickly and efficiently. A good general way to describe such processing and its location is to call it all “edge networking.”

Learn more about the challenges of Edge Networking and some real-world examples in this 14 minute podcast.

How Out-of-Band Plays into Edge Networking

Various kinds of technologies can make critical remote infrastructure more reliable, resilient, and robust. This helps to keep that infrastructure running, and helps ensure a better experience to those who must rely upon it to be secure, available, and efficient. Such technologies include:

Analysts estimate that by 2023, over half of all data generated in enterprises will come from locations outside the data center or the cloud. That means from edge networking facilities of all kinds, close to the action. That’s where workers are working, devices are acquiring data, transactions get processed, and so forth and so on. How does out-of-band (usually abbreviated OOB) play into this situation and related management and control scenarios?

OOB provides a separate communications connection to the infrastructure that supports and controls edge networking. Historically, OOB connections have used slow, narrow-bandwidth connections via phone lines or similar technologies (X.25, ISDN, and so forth) to connect to devices, so they can be accessed, inspected, updated, repaired, restarted, and more. Nowadays, wireless links such as 4G and 5G, and wired long-haul networking technologies such as Metro and Carrier Ethernet offer higher bandwidth, more capability, and direct support for TCP/IP.

By design, OOB is separate and disjointed from production networks. It will often rely on separate interfaces and media (and even service providers) to provide a “way in” to key devices for management and control, even if (or when) production networks go down. OOB tools let IT professionals manage and troubleshoot edge networking devices even when they aren’t otherwise accessible. Then, they can be reset, repaired, updated, or simply restarted to put them (and the infrastructures they support, including compute, storage, and network resources) back to work quickly and easily.

Good OOB management tools and facilities also support automated monitoring and response, so that simple repairs and corrections may be applied without requiring human operators to get involved. This permits enterprises to monitor performance and respond quickly to slowdowns and outages that might otherwise affect user productivity, or impede key data flows. The same tools and capabilities also support improved security posture, with the ability to remediate or work around threats and vulnerabilities as they’re discovered.

In general, OOB management and control provide the tools and technologies needed to make the most out of edge networking and its compute, storage, and network capabilities. As more and more activity moves to edge networking environments, enterprises need to maximize their productivity and usability, provide the best performance and user experiences, and manage security and data protection. OOB offers the “right stuff” to do all these things both affordably and well.

Ready for a deeper dive into edge networking? Read our free ebook:

Download the eBook: The Future of Edge Networking

Critical Remote Infrastructure and Why It Matters

by ZPE Systems | May 17, 2021 | Out of Band Management, Remote Network Management

Companies are finding it challenging, and sometimes difficult, to adjust to remote work. But “work from anywhere” (WFA) isn’t just a passing fancy, nor is it likely to subside even when the world emerges from the other side of the pandemic. An untethered workforce, in and out of the office, is likely to be part of whatever normal working conditions means from now on. Thus, it’s essential to recognize that success depends on your network as a crucial business and access component, and as the lifeline through which work acts and moves.

Keeping an enterprise connected—especially to remote workers, and to customers and partners—is necessary to keep the business running, productive, and profitable. Traditional networking solutions were built for heavy-duty use, but under controlled in-office situations and conditions. Today, operating and managing remote infrastructure is key to supporting WFA and normal business operations and success. There will be changes involved that involve new ideas and approaches, along with new habits and instincts to develop and call upon.

Understanding Critical Remote Infrastructure

Critical remote infrastructure includes edge computing facilities, remote and branch offices, and other locations away from data centers and headquarters where the company network must have access. In short, any infrastructure elements that deliver remote access—including WAN links, routers and switches, servers and storage, plus hyperconververged infrastructure components—must keep running for a modern company to keep working and conducting its business. If all such elements are visible and easily manageable, companies will be able to remain profitable and productive even when employees and customers are scattered around the globe.

How Technology Supports Critical Remote Infrastructure

Out-of-band management
Failover networks
Secure access tools

In the sections that follow, each of these technologies is explained, and its relevance to maintaining a working critical remote infrastructure explored.

Advanced Out-of-Band Management

Advanced out-of-band (OOB) management solutions can bring OOB networking into the 21st century. Where dial-up or ISDN is slow, old-fashioned, and insecure, modern, OOB technologies let companies perform management tasks from anywhere. This fits today’s WFA world nicely, because IT staff are as likely to be working from home as anyone and everyone else.

An advanced OOB solution uses a separate and secure management path that’s isolated from all other networks. In days of yore, OOB connections used slow, narrow-bandwidth connections to connect to devices, so they could be accessed, inspected, updated, repaired, and more. Modern OOB runs over wireless links such as 4G and 5G, or wired long-haul networking technologies such as Metro and Carrier Ethernet. Thus, modern OOB offers higher bandwidth, more capability, and direct support for conventional, well-known and -used protocols (e.g. the TCP/IP stack).

Modern OOB lets companies respond quickly and efficiently to incidents or outages, and get the job done expeditiously and securely for routine maintenance and upkeep. Not only is the OOB network protected from unwanted traffic and attack, it also provides rapid access to the management network via full-speed broadband connections. Because advanced OOB makes network management convenient and efficient to any location, it’s ideally suited to keep critical remote infrastructure running at its best and most secure.

See what we’re talking about (in less than 2 min.) in this intro video explaining data continuity with OOBM.

Cellular-Based Network Failover

If elements of critical remote infrastructure go down or become unavailable, a business will suffer from lost productivity as remote workers are idled or isolated from vital apps, data, and services. Worst case, restoring connections can take hours or days, as work simply ceases. Modern remote networks can employ cellular failover to prevent such downtime. If the main connection drops, a failover-equipped network switches to an always-ready cellular connection (3G, 4G, or even 5G) to maintain network continuity and accessibility.

Capable cellular links provide companies with freedom of choice. They can decide which wireless carriers to employ, and can even elect multiple backups. It’s reasonable to think of such capability as a kind of “connectivity insurance.” In fact, most cellular carriers deliver 99% reliability or better, so the odds are highly in favor that your failover will work.

Keep Workers Working Using Secure Access Service Edge

Remote workers need equipment, connections, identity and access authorization, and more to enjoy a successful work experience away from the office. Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is a transformative technology that bypasses traditional hassles involved in remote work setups. It moves networking and security into the cloud so users benefit from safe connectivity wherever they’re located, through SASE’s nearby points of presence.

Also, SASE uses an identity-driven security model. Employees need not rely on special hardware; instead, they can access the network using their own smartphones, tablets, desktop PCs, or other web-capable devices. In fact, SASE offers employees flexible, always-available network access. At the same time, it frees up your own enterprise links for business-critical traffic. If you deploy a modern SASE solution, you can keep your staff connected and your remote workers working.

Check out these blog posts for more tips on remote work: “6 IT Solutions to Implement Right Now for More Effective Remote Work” and “Managing a Remote Team.”

Advanced Out-of-Band Management for a Major Media Provider

by ZPE Systems | Apr 26, 2021 | Case Studies, Out of Band Management

Out-of-band management brings critical connectivity to your network infrastructure. As a secure way to access your systems, out-of-band (OOB) helps you troubleshoot issues, patch devices, and maintain uptime with more control of your network.

Here’s a 90-second video explaining how OOB helps you prevent data center disruptions.

Out-of-band also delivers crucial capabilities far beyond the data center. When coupled with cellular failover connectivity, you can deploy OOB solutions to take control of your most remote sites. In fact, one major media provider took advantage of OOB & cellular failover by implementing Nodegrid at their rural locations. Continue reading to find out more.

Out-of-Band; Cellular Failover Bring Big Benefits

With a secure OOB path and modern connection speeds, you can establish a reliable and fast access path to your networks. You don’t have to juggle delicate admin protocols or put up with slow modems & phone lines. Instead, you can respond instantly to issues and mitigate downtime.
OOB allows you to cut down on support costs and effort. Without a comprehensive solution, you’re forced to put staff on-site for issues large and small. This means spending time & money collaborating staff schedules, setting up travel arrangements, and coordinating support timelines & resources. But OOB lets you put your best people on the job instantly, even if they are thousands of miles away from the network location. Just imagine turning a three-day hassle into a three-minute job.
Using cellular failover, you can get reliable backup connectivity for your production and management networks. This boosts the resilience of your support efforts, and at the same time helps you maintain steady customer satisfaction levels.

How Does Nodegrid Make Out-of-Band Better?

Nodegrid brings advanced out-of-band capabilities to organizations across the globe. Whereas traditional OOB solutions involve modems, phone lines, and vendor-specific UIs, Nodegrid features OOB that’s simple fast. That’s because ZPE Systems’ innovation-driven engineers focused heavily on the drawbacks of legacy solutions, and created out-of-band that’s easy to deploy & use.

You can roll out Nodegrid on your existing system without any overhaul. Just deploy the standalone ISO image and get a view of your network infrastructure, no matter which vendor solutions you use. To make management simple, Nodegrid Manager comes standard and gives you a clean, unified UI to control all your network devices, both physical and virtual. You can access your OOB network securely from your browser, whether you’re using a desktop, laptop, or mobile device.

Nodegrid’s advanced out-of-band is supported by broadband connection, and is also accessible via cellular. This gives you added peace of mind knowing that if your main connection goes down, you can keep your networks running and maintain management access via cellular failover. For even more redundancy and reliability, Nodegrid devices support up to 4 SIM slots, giving you backups for your backups.

Who Uses Nodegrid’s Advanced Out-of-Band?

A large media company required a strong defense from downtime. A major obstacle, however, was the fact that the enterprise served very rural areas that could be difficult to support.

For each service area, the provider deployed hardware stacks consisting of legacy solutions. When issues presented themselves, the company’s reputation hinged on how quickly they could restore service. Oftentimes this was no small feat, because they required a technician to be dispatched for troubleshooting. After lengthy travel times (upwards of hours, in some cases), the technician would connect their service computer which would allow support staff to remote-in via dial-up connection.

To uphold their reputation and customer satisfaction levels, the media provider needed to slash their response times and support costs with a more efficient out-of-band solution.

The company deployed Nodegrid, which delivered the capabilities they needed along with strong cellular connectivity and backup.

Want to learn more about Nodegrid’s advanced out-of-band? Download the case study now!

Shifting Gears: How Network Automation Drove an Auto Company to the Cloud

by ZPE Systems | Apr 19, 2021 | Case Studies, Pillar 1 - Data Center Infrastructure Management, Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP)

Case Study – Moving Data Center to the Cloud

Download the Case Study

Network automation and zero touch provisioning are more than luxuries. They’re quickly becoming the powertrain of business, helping you meet growth demands and keep up with important opportunities. These technologies also prove invaluable to making sure everyday tasks don’t hold you back, regardless of the environment you’re using.

By adopting automation, you can quickly realize its time- and cost-saving benefits that transform your networking capabilities — whether you’re using a traditional client-server architecture, or a cloud-based configuration.

In this blog entry, you’ll see how Nodegrid accelerated one car company’s drive to the cloud, and how network automation helped them seamlessly shift gears.

But first, here’s a recap of network automation.

Network automation employs software to help eliminate manual management tasks. This can help with routine work, such as device discovery or firmware updates, to more in-depth processes that are part of configuration management jobs. Automation helps with every aspect of networking, including improving the test lab environment, streamlining deployments, and reducing the workload for ongoing support and maintenance.

The beauty of automation is that you can use it at any scale you like. This can mean implementing something as simple as a few workflow commands that assist with device discovery and mapping, or as extensive as automating configuration tasks for a zero touch provisioning approach.

Why are companies racing to adopt network automation?

Network automation improves business in the same way that engines improve transportation. This simple analogy highlights the benefits of automated network tasks and processes, so let’s break it down.

Without modern machines, we rely entirely on manual input to move from point A to point B. Stamina and endurance are crucial, and so is the ability to think critically in the event that unexpected adversity crosses your path (i.e. storms, injuries, bears). Even if you’re in tip-top shape physically and mentally, relatively short ventures can drag on because your input drives the entire trip. Everything seems like a marathon.

And this is how manual networking feels. Discovering devices, installing security patches, monitoring data usage, updating firmware — all these tasks and more rest on your shoulders, and it’s up to you to carry them to completion. There’s little time, if any, to do anything besides focus on your arduous (non)adventure.

When you introduce engine-driven transportation such as a turbocharged sports car or tuned up off-road vehicle, you can easily go anywhere. Your mechanized chariot of horsepower converts your most minor input into forces that lurch you toward your destination. As for your stamina, endurance, and time, you save it all — even as you power through torrential rains or traverse over rocky mountainsides.

Automation transforms networking in the same way. You no longer have to heavily focus on every task and process, and can instead set your gaze on what’s beyond the horizon.

Deployment — Network automation lets you automate configuration tasks and set up zero touch provisioning. This means that you can save a ton of time and money getting new sites configured and online. Instead of having staff perform extensive manual provisioning duties, you can just install your devices and let zero touch provisioning build your network automatically.
Support & OPEX — For ongoing network support, automation continues to deliver time and cost savings. You don’t have to manually address every patch installation, firmware upgrade, or other issue. This means fewer truck rolls and more time for staff to focus on critical business needs.
Maintenance — Nothing helps you maintain uptime like autonomous networking. With automation, you can set up scripts for a self healing network, and create alerts & notifications that let you know when critical issues occur.

How does Nodegrid supercharge network automation?

Network automation brings you major benefits, and Nodegrid delivers even more. That’s because Nodegrid is an open platform that lets you take advantage of automation, regardless of which vendor solutions you’re currently using. This flexible solution helps you:

Customize using third-party automation tools & solutions of your choice, including in-house scripts and software.
Extend automation and zero touch provisioning to end devices, even those that don’t support automation.
Control devices remotely — from anywhere — no matter which vendors or manufacturers you deploy.

Here’s how Nodegrid put an auto company’s migration on cruise control.

For a major automobile manufacturer, a private cloud network model was necessary to help them meet their business needs. The challenge, however, would be in finding a solution that could integrate with their automation-heavy environment. They also required a solution that could provide reliable and comprehensive out-of-band access to their data centers, along with tools that could support collaboration with their heavily involved NetOps & DevOps teams.

With an already fatigued IT staff, the traditional approach was a roadblock nearly impossible to pass. Manually migrating and provisioning would burn too much time and effort, and pull network personnel away from keeping everyday operations in motion.

But when the company discovered Nodegrid, they realized that they could put deployment and management on cruise control.

By deploying the Nodegrid Serial Console S Series, the auto manufacturer had a powerful engine to drive their private cloud adoption.

Download the full case study below to discover all the benefits

Download the Case Study

Improving Network Design for a Major Online Retailer

by ZPE Systems | Apr 13, 2021 | Case Studies, Consolidation, Network Automation

Out-of-band management is a critical component of network design. Instead of using one of your main networks for administrative tasks, out-of-band (OOB) gives you admin access via a completely separate path. In this blog, you’ll learn about how one of the world’s largest online retailers implemented OOB, and how Nodegrid brought a few major surprises to the table.

Why consider out-of-band in network design?

How you approach network design depends on your industry, business goals, customers, and many other factors. However, enterprises across the spectrum implement out-of-band because it’s crucial to keeping networks running.

Out-of-band (OOB) gives you an isolated access path to your network’s assets. When it’s time to make routine updates, implement configuration changes, or address network threats, OOB is your secure line for administration. You don’t have to put your main network at risk or interrupt service. And with modern OOB solutions like Nodegrid, you can give support staff convenient remote access. No more rolling a truck for issues like resetting a password or updating firmware — you can do it all even from half a world away.

Here’s a recap video explaining Out-of-Band Management:

Along with OOB, you should also think about automation and consolidation when considering network design. Together, these three solutions bring you significant benefits like time and cost savings:

Out-of-band gives you remote access to your infrastructure. Think about no longer having to roll a truck every time a device needs to be rebooted, a patch installed, or a configuration rolled back. This can save you tremendously on support costs, boost response times, and help you maintain network & business continuity.
Network automation lets you automate critical tasks. When it comes to deploying new locations, you can take advantage of zero touch provisioning and get a network that builds itself. This helps you allocate resources more efficiently (i.e. let staff provision remotely instead of having to coordinate expensive travel plans & on-site work). You can also automate ongoing tasks and even non-routine work, saving you even more time & money on support.
Consolidation using all-in-one devices helps you save on CAPEX, rack space, and energy. Instead of having to deploy several devices to deliver failover, Wi-FI access, switching, routing, etc., you can use consolidated appliances. This can significantly reduce your stack, deployment costs, and support expenses.

How does Nodegrid improve network design?

ZPE Systems’ Nodegrid is pioneering network design capabilities that weren’t available until just a few years ago. And as you’ll see with this case study, we’re reinventing networking with possibilities that network engineers only dreamed of until recently.

Nodegrid’s advanced out-of-band gives you remote access without slow modems and phone lines. It takes advantage of fast broadband over WAN, and is even supported by cellular failover paths. So even if all your other network connections suffer an outage, Nodegrid’s out-of-band gives you continuous access to your infrastructure.

Nodegrid also supports custom automation via the most popular automation tools. Not only can you use zero touch provisioning and make configuration management a breeze, but you can also deploy your own in-house applications for seamless integration.

On top of all this, Nodegrid features all-in-one devices that let you wield the power of consolidation. In fact, you can replace up to six devices using the Nodegrid Services Router, which is a powerful appliance for converged infrastructure and features capabilities like switching, routing, cellular failover, and more.

But don’t just take our word for it.

Here’s how Nodegrid improved a major retailer’s network design

When a Fortune 500 business needed out-of-band at its distribution centers, they were faced with drawbacks. Traditional thinking meant they would install a network switch and an out-of-band device at each MDF. But Nodegrid came along and completely reimagined their network design.

Instead of wasting rack space, energy, and CAPEX & OPEX by implementing a traditional solution, the Nodegrid Services Router was deployed and helped save across the board. Without expanding their stack, the e-commerce giant got an all-in-one device with serial and networking capabilities that allowed them to gain full control of MDFs and IDF closets.

Out-of-band and consolidation were vital components of the implementation. But a major key would be seamless integration with the company’s automation-heavy environment. Nodegrid’s open, automation-friendly platform fit right into their network, and they deployed their proprietary kick-off application with ease.

Want to get the full story? You’ll get the details about how Nodegrid streamlined network design to deliver savings, convenient management, and customer satisfaction.

Download the case study now!

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

ZPE Solution Pathways

Discover Nodegrid