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Zero Trust Security Benefits

by | Feb 21, 2024 | Improve Network Security, Micro-segmentation, Minimize Impact of Disruptions, Zero Trust Security

A 3D illustration of the words Zero Trust

Network security has become more challenging for companies whose employees, devices, and applications no longer reside within one easily defended perimeter. Additionally, cyber attacks like ransomware constantly threaten networks, forcing organizations to operate under the assumption that systems are already breached.

Zero trust security is a methodology that helps companies limit the blast radius of an attack to prevent the exfiltration of sensitive and valuable data. Zero trust assumes that every user, device, and application is unsafe until proven otherwise, following the principle of “never trust, always verify.” This guide discusses how zero trust security benefits organizations by increasing network visibility, reducing the scope of cyber attacks, and providing precise security coverage.

Zero trust security benefits

The Top 3 Zero Trust Security Benefits

Improves Network Control

Zero trust visibility tools improve network control and efficiency by enabling preventative maintenance, faster incident response, and automation.

Reduces Attack Radius

Zero trust security limits the lateral movement of attackers on the network to reduce the duration of and damage caused by successful breaches.

Provides Precise Security Coverage

Zero trust uses highly specific security policies and controls, ensuring the best possible protection for each resource without any coverage gaps.

1. Improves network control

Implementing zero trust security requires knowing exactly what devices, users, applications, and services access the network, where they reside, and their potential vulnerabilities. Additionally, you must monitor all traffic on the network to identify unusual activity that could indicate compromise, and react to potential breaches. Zero trust teams deploy tools such as SIEM (security information and event management) and inventory discovery and assessment solutions to achieve this level of granular visibility.

While these tools are necessary to implement zero trust, the visibility they provide has side benefits that improve network management control and efficiency. Having insight into the health status of every network resource enables preventative maintenance and speedy responses to issues that could affect performance or availability if left unchecked. Many zero-trust solutions also use automation tools, such as automatic device/app discovery or AI threat detection, to cut back on the time your administrators spend on tedious, day-to-day management and monitoring tasks.

2. Reduces attack radius

Many traditional cybersecurity methodologies focus almost entirely on prevention, but once an attacker breaches the network, teams lack the tools to find or stop them. Zero trust security assumes a breach is already occurring. It provides the tools and techniques needed to stop it, reducing the attack radius and limiting the damage caused to your organization.

Zero trust uses network micro-segmentation and precise security policies to create perimeters around individual resources, requiring users to continuously prove their identity and “trustworthiness” as they move around the network. Each checkpoint provides another opportunity for multi-factor authentication (MFA) or security monitoring tools to catch and lock out the account.

Zero trust security reduces the duration of attacks, which limits data exfiltration, downtime, and other business impacts.

3. Provides precise security coverage

Traditional security models create one large perimeter of controls and policies that must address every potential vulnerability on the network. This approach leads to a bloated patchwork of appliances and solutions that may not cover all bases, leaving gaps in your security that could expose critical vulnerabilities.

Conversely, zero trust security creates micro-perimeters around individual resources, allowing you to implement the exact policies and controls required to protect each component. Tools like next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) enable teams to micro-segment the network, create micro-perimeters, and enforce access controls. Zero trust identity and access management (IAM) solutions also provide a centralized place to create, deploy, manage, and monitor highly specific security policies to protect individual resources.

Zero trust security shrinks your perimeter to smaller network segments, allowing teams to apply the best security policies and controls to protect each micro-perimeter. As a result, you don’t have to worry about any weak points or gaps in your network security.

How to take advantage of zero trust security benefits

Zero trust security benefits organizations by increasing their overall network visibility, reducing the scope and impact of attacks, and enabling more precise security controls and access policies.

One important thing to consider is that you must apply zero trust to both production network resources and management interfaces on the control plane. The best practice is to move management interfaces to an isolated, out-of-band (OOB) network using Nodegrid OOB devices to help create an isolated management infrastructure (IMI) that’s micro-segmented with zero trust policies and controls. A zero-trust IMI prevents attackers from jumping from production resources to the control plane for “crown jewels” infrastructure, significantly improving your security posture.

Isolated Management Infrastructure

Additionally, achieving zero trust is easier with an open, flexible, vendor-neutral platform that integrates all your tools, features, and controls into one simplified interface. For example, the Nodegrid platform from ZPE Systems serves as a single security gateway with seamless integrations with third-party services like Okta and Palo Alto Panorama. Nodegrid allows you to take advantage of zero trust security benefits with a customized solution that supports your organization’s unique goals and requirements.

Want to learn more about how to simplify zero trust security with Nodegrid?

ZPE Systems can help your company realize these zero trust security benefits with our secure out-of-band management solutions and vendor-neutral platform. Schedule a free Nodegrid demo to learn more.

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Network Resilience: What is a Resilience System?

by | Feb 2, 2024 | Application Hosting, Data Center Resilience, Improve Network Security, Increase Productivity, Micro-segmentation, Minimize Impact of Disruptions, Monitoring & Reporting, Network Automation, Out of Band Management, Power Management, Remote Network Management, Serial Consoles, Virtualization, Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP), Zero Trust Security

A digital web of interconnected network resilience concepts being selected by a business person in a suit.

Network resilience means being able to withstand or recover from adversity, service degradation, and complete outages with minimal business disruption. The longer business-critical services are down, or systems are breached, the greater the risk of significant financial, reputational, and legal consequences. A resilience system is a set of technologies that enable an organization to continue operating while teams work to repair failures and recover from cyberattacks. But what exactly is a resilience system, and what does it look like? This guide to network resilience defines resilience systems, provides example use cases, compares them to related technologies like backups and redundant systems, and describes the key components required to build them.

Table of contents
    1. What is a resilience system?
    2. Resilience system use cases
    3. Do backups and redundancy equate to network resilience?
    4. What does a resilience system look like?
    5. Additional network resilience resources

What is a resilience system?

A resilience system provides all the infrastructure, tools, and services necessary to continue operating, if in a degraded state, during major incidents. It also includes everything needed to recover data, rebuild systems, perform security testing, and continue delivering core business functionality. A resilience system is typically isolated from the production network, preventing cybercriminals from finding and compromising it and ensuring teams have continuous access even if the primary network goes down.

Resilience system use cases

Some examples of the challenges that resilience systems help overcome include:

1. Ransomware recovery

In a ransomware attack, cybercriminals infect systems with malware that spreads throughout the network and encrypts any data it encounters. Modern ransomware now uses packaged attacks that move at machine speed, instantly incapacitating entire networks. Organizations completely lose access to critical systems and data until they pay a ransom, often in untraceable cryptocurrency. Ransomware is an exceptionally tenacious form of malware and tends to reinfect backup data and rebuilt systems, significantly hampering recovery efforts and increasing the duration and cost of the attack. The best practice for resilience systems is to isolate them on an out-of-band (OOB) network, inaccessible to hackers who have breached the production in-band network. Doing so creates a safe, isolated recovery environment (IRE) where teams can restore critical data and systems without the risk of reinfection. The resilience system includes all the tools and hardware needed to restore critical business services and infrastructure. An IRE significantly accelerates ransomware recovery and minimizes downtime, so businesses can avoid paying ransoms and reduce the overall cost of attacks.

2. Network outages

Enterprise network architectures and supply chains are highly complex, with lots of moving parts that rely on external vendors to maintain availability. Just one of those vendors dropping the ball could take the entire organization offline, severely impacting network resilience. For example, in 2023, an expired cryptographic certificate caused Cisco’s Viptela SD-WAN appliances to fail on reboot, completely taking down affected networks until the issue was resolved. With a resilience system, Viptela customers could have potentially avoided this downtime by failing over to alternative network resources. For example, a resilience system with integrated cellular failover allows branches to continue connecting to and delivering critical business services while also providing a lifeline for remote teams to access and recover failed systems. A resilience system also provides observability and automatic notifications so teams are instantly alerted to issues like certificate expirations and can respond quickly to recover critical services.

3. Shift to remote work

Incidents like ransomware attacks and equipment failures happen frequently enough that companies can create detailed plans and proactively implement solutions to minimize their impact, but not all adverse events are so predictable. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the massive shift to remote work strained the network resources of most organizations. Instead of maintaining a limited number of branch offices, teams suddenly had to treat every employee as a new branch, leading to performance degradation and outages as they scrambled to reinforce the business’s remote capabilities. A resilience system gives teams the tools and resources they need to provision additional infrastructure, manage networking logic, deploy new security solutions, and more, even while the primary network is offline or under a heavy load. A resilience system is the key to quickly adjusting network performance and security to adapt to sudden changes like a transition to fully remote operations.

Do backups and redundancy equate to network resilience?

The short answer is no; backups and redundancy do not equate to network resilience, though they do contribute to making systems more resilient.

  • Backups are copies of data, configurations, and application code used to do a hot or cold restore when a production system fails. The underlying infrastructure must remain operational for teams to access and use backups, and unless additional resilience measures are taken, it’s easy for backups to become infected or compromised, severely hampering recovery efforts.
  • Redundancy involves duplicating critical systems, services, and applications as a failsafe in case the primaries go down. Organizations can “fail over” to the redundancies to continue critical business operations during outages. However, redundant systems are just as susceptible to failures and infections without additional resilience measures like out-of-band management and isolated management infrastructure.

Backups and redundancy are part of network resilience but alone are not enough to ensure business continuity. Resilience systems focus on maintaining the architecture of the production network while adding the ability to recover or adapt to adversity. The next section discusses all the tools and technologies that make up network resilience systems.

What does a resilience system look like?

There are four key components that go into a resilience system.

Key Components of a Resilience System

Alternative Networking

Full-stack routing and switching, Wi-Fi, VoIP, virtualization, software-defined network overlays for SDN & SD-WAN

Alternative Compute

Full-stack compute, containers, virtual machines, and any other resources needed to run applications and deliver services

Storage & Storage Recovery

Enough storage to recover systems and applications as well as support content delivery

Automation

Tools like zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) to facilitate speedy recovery while minimizing human error

Alternative networking and compute resources ensure the organization can failover in the event of a network failure or continue delivering services when production servers are unavailable. Teams also need enough storage to restore backup data, build new systems, and support the content delivery network (CDN). Automation solutions like zero-touch provisioning (ZTP), configuration management, and security validation tools accelerate the recovery process while mitigating the risk of human error. Combined, these components enable teams to reduce the frequency, severity, and duration of outages, improving overall network resilience.

Network resilience with ZPE Systems

A resilient network will continue delivering critical business services in the face of any challenge, whether from cybercriminals, supply chain issues, global events, or even plain human error. A resilience system is isolated from the production network to ensure security and availability, and it consists of all the tools and technologies needed to troubleshoot, recover, and deliver your most crucial data, applications, and infrastructure. The Nodegrid platform from ZPE Systems is the perfect foundation for a resilience system. Nodegrid is a vendor-neutral, out-of-band management solution capable of running your choice of third-party software. Nodegrid allows you to build a highly customizable IRE containing all the tools needed to safely recover from ransomware. You can even use Nodegrid to deliver services while the primary network or systems are down, making it your all-in-one network resilience multi-tool.

Want to ensure network resilience by accelerating ransomware recovery?

Minimize the business impact of ransomware with the help of our whitepaper, 3 Steps to Ransomware Recovery. Learn how to follow Gartner’s best practices to build an Isolated Recovery Environment

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Out-of-Band Management: What It Is and Why You Need It

by | Jan 26, 2024 | Data Center Management, Data Center Resilience, Improve Network Security, Minimize Impact of Disruptions, Monitoring & Reporting, Out of Band Management, Power Management, Remote Network Management, Serial Consoles

Thumbnail – What is out-of-band management

This scenario is every IT professional’s worst nightmare: it’s the middle of the night, a remote site on the other side of the country has gone offline, and nobody knows why. A single minute of downtime can cost anywhere from several hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, and the nearest tech is a six-hour plane ride away. Consider 2024’s CrowdStrike outage and the devastation caused for banks, airports, and many other organizations.

A bar chart showing the average hourly cost of downtime by industry.
Data Source: SolarWinds

Out-of-band management offers the solution: a way for teams to access critical remote infrastructure during outages and breaches without “out-of-chair” expenses. Out-of-band management allows organizations to recover remote infrastructure faster, reducing the duration and expense of downtime.

This guide to out-of-band management answers critical questions about what this technology is, why you need it, and how to choose the right solution.

Table of contents
What is Out-of-Band Management?
Why Do You Need Out-of-Band Management?
What is an Out-of-Band Management solution?
How Does Out-of-Band Management Improve Security and Resilience?
Why Choose Nodegrid for Out-of-Band Management?

What is out-of-band management?

Out-of-band management (OOBM) involves controlling network infrastructure and workflows on an out-of-band network. An out-of-band network is an entirely separate network that runs parallel with your production (or in-band) network but doesn’t rely on any of the same infrastructure or services. OOBM allows teams to administer network infrastructure remotely on a dedicated connection, such as secondary Fiber or cellular LTE, that will remain available even if the in-band network goes down from an equipment failure, ISP outage, or ransomware attack.

A diagram showing how out-of-band management works.

The biggest reason to use out-of-band management is to ensure continuous, uninterrupted access to critical remote infrastructure even when the primary network is down. OOBM allows teams to recover from outages and cyberattacks faster and more cost-efficiently because they can access, troubleshoot, and restore systems without rolling trucks or hiring on-site services.

Out-of-band management provides a lifeline for teams to access critical remote infrastructure when the production network is offline. It allows them to immediately begin troubleshooting and repairing the issue to restore services ASAP. With OOBM, companies save money on recovery expenses, and minimize the duration and business impact of downtime.

What is an OOBM serial console?

Front and back views of the Nodegrid out-of-band management serial console.

Some organizations use OOBM jump boxes (or jump servers) that are connected to both the in-band and out-of-band networks, allowing administrators to “jump” from one network to the other for management. Examples of low-cost jump boxes include the Intel NUC and the Raspberry Pi. However, OOBM jump boxes are security risks because they do not effectively isolate the management infrastructure, plus they require an entire duplicate infrastructure of devices and services to create the out-of-band network. The best practice for security, resilience, and efficiency is to deploy an all-in-one, out-of-band management solution.

An out-of-band management solution uses hardware devices known as serial consoles, which connect to infrastructure devices via their management port (usually RS232 Serial, Ethernet, or USB). Serial consoles are known by lots of other names, including terminal servers, console servers, console server switches, serial routers, and serial switches.

The serial console has dedicated network interfaces to provide an Internet connection for remote management access, often fiber or 4G/5G cellular LTE, so they don’t connect to or rely upon the primary production network at all. This gives teams the ability to continuously monitor and administer critical remote infrastructure even during an ISP or WAN outage that would make a jump box inaccessible.

Learn more about security & resilience with out-of-band management
  • Understanding Serial Console Interfaces
  • Serial Console Redirection Guide
  • Serial Console PDU Management Guide

    •  Administrators remotely access an OOBM serial console via this dedicated link and, from there, can view and manage all connected infrastructure from a single, convenient software platform. This software is typically deployed on-premises and runs as a VM (virtual machine)  either on the serial console itself or on a separate machine, but there are some cloud-based OOBM network management software tools.

    Out-of-band management software varies from provider to provider, with most offering second-generation (or Gen 2) solutions that provide some built-in automation capabilities but do not support vendor-neutral integrations with third-party tools. Newer, third-generation (or Gen 3) solutions use an open, x86 Linux-based operating system to allow easy integrations with other vendors’ software for automation, orchestration, security, monitoring, and more.

    The benefits of out-of-band management

    Out-of-band management can help you:

    • Improve network performance: Performing resource-intensive management, automation, and orchestration workflows on the out-of-band network reduces the strain on the production network for better speed and reliability.
    • Accelerate ransomware recovery: The OOBM network can be used to create an isolated recovery environment (IRE) where teams can safely rebuild and recover from ransomware attacks without the risk of reinfection, reducing the duration and expense of ransomware-related outages.
    • Streamline repairs and rebuilds: OOBM provides the ability to deploy the tools and applications needed to isolate, cleanse, rebuild, and restore services that have been affected by failures and ransomware.

    The security and resilience benefits of out-of-band management are discussed further below.

    How does out-of-band management improve security and resilience?

    Network breaches and ransomware attacks occur so frequently that most businesses know it’s no longer a question of “if,” but “when” they’ll be hit. Once cybercriminals compromise a device or account and can move around the network, it’s only a matter of time before they find the management interfaces and take complete control over critical infrastructure.

    OOBM and management infrastructure isolation

    Serial consoles create an out-of-band network by directly connecting to the management port of infrastructure devices and moving all control functions off of the production LAN. This isolates the management plane from the data plane, which is part of a cybersecurity best practice known as isolated management infrastructure (IMI). An IMI further segments the management network and routes management ports to terminate on top-of-rack, OOBM serial switches, creating multiple layers of isolated management. The isolated management plane is always remotely accessible to engineers via the OOBM connection, but it remains hidden from any cybercriminals who may breach the production network.

    Multi Layered OOB IMI – ZPE Systems

     

    OOBM and ransomware recovery

    Out-of-band management also improves security and resilience by aiding in ransomware recovery. According to a Sophos survey, 70% of companies hit by ransomware take longer than two weeks to recover, due in no small part to the pervasive nature of the malware used and how frequently rebuilt systems and recovered data get reinfected. Today’s ransomware attacks are now pre-packaged and move at machine speed – meaning instantly – across infrastructure, bringing entire businesses down before they’ve even realized they’re under attack. The longer the business is offline, the more revenue (and customer trust) is lost, causing recovery costs to skyrocket.

    An IMI using out-of-band management gives teams an isolated recovery environment (IRE) where they can recover data and rebuild systems without the risk of reinfection. The IRE allows organizations to get services back online faster to reduce the financial and reputational consequences of ransomware attacks.

    A diagram showing the components of an isolated recovery environment.

    Resilience is defined as the ability to continuously operate and deliver services, if in a degraded fashion, even while undergoing major failures and breaches. Out-of-band management improves resilience by ensuring that teams have continuous access to critical remote infrastructure no matter what’s going wrong with the production environment. OOBM serial consoles also isolate the management infrastructure to protect it from attackers on the primary network and provide a safe environment for teams to recover from ransomware.

    Learn more about security & resilience with out-of-band management
  • Dissecting the MGM Cyberattack: Lions, Tigers, & Bears, Oh My!
  • The Biggest Ransomware Attack You Haven’t Heard of…Yet
  • Breaking Down The 2023 Ragnar Locker Cyberattacks
  • What to do if You’re Ransomware’d: A Healthcare Example

    • Why choose Nodegrid for out-of-band management?

    Many network teams think of out-of-band as being a huge expense and time sink. Setting up  proper infrastructure for OOBM and IMI typically requires 6 or more boxes at each business site for routing, switching, firewall, storage, cellular access, and a jump box. The Nodegrid platform from ZPE Systems reduces the cost and headache of out-of-band management by combining all these functions and more into a single box. Teams can easily drop a Nodegrid box in each site at a fraction of the cost of deploying a traditional OOBM network.

    A diagram showing ZPE’s multi-function capabilities for IMI in branch and edge sites.

    The first Gen 3 OOBM solution

    Nodegrid is the first and only Gen 3 out-of-band management solution. Nodegrid OOBM devices use the x86 Linux-based NodegridOS, which is capable of running VMs and Docker containers to host your choice of third-party applications for automation, orchestration, security, SD-WAN, and more. Nodegrid’s ability to host other vendors’ software ensures that teams have access to all the tools they need to troubleshoot and recover infrastructure from within the IMI environment, making it the perfect network resilience multi-tool.

    Nodegrid OOBM software is available as an on-premises solution or a highly scalable cloud-based app, and both support easy integrations with tools for monitoring, automated configuration management, and more. This enables teams to consolidate and streamline their workflows, maximizing efficiency while reducing the risk of human error.

    Nodegrid’s other key features include:

    • Built-in 5G/4G LTE and Wi-Fi options for OOB and network failover
    • OOB support over IPMI, ILO, DRAC, CIMC, vSerial, and KVM
    • Robust hardware security like BIOS protection, UEFI Secure Boot, and an encrypted solid-state disk
    • SAML 2.0 and two-factor authentication (2FA)
    • Support for legacy and mixed-vendor infrastructure without expensive adapters

    ZPE Systems offers a wide range of out-of-band management devices to fit any deployment size and use case, including the 96-port Nodegrid Serial Console Plus (NSCP) for large and hyperscale data centers, and the Nodegrid Gate SR, which combines branch gateway routing and OOB serial console functionality for remote business sites like retail stores and manufacturing plants.

    Nodegrid OOB serial console comparison


    Guest OS
    Docker Apps
    Wi-Fi
    Cellular (Dual-SIM)
    Serial Ports
    Data Sheet
    Nodegrid Serial Console S Series
    1
    1-2
    No
    1
    16, 32 or 48
    Download
    Nodegrid Serial Console Plus (NSCP)
    1
    1-2
    Yes
    1
    16, 32, 48 or 96
    Download

    Nodegrid OOB network edge router comparison


    Guest OS
    Docker Apps
    Wi-Fi
    Cellular (Dual-SIM)
    Serial Ports
    Data Sheet
    Nodegrid Link SR
    1
    1-2
    Yes
    1
    1
    Download
    Nodegrid Bold SR
    1
    1-2
    Yes
    1-2
    8
    Download
    Nodegrid Hive SR
    1-2
    1-3
    Yes
    1-2
    8
    Download
    Nodegrid Gate SR
    1-3
    1-4
    Yes
    1-2
    8
    Download
    Nodegrid Net SR
    1-6
    1-4
    Yes
    1-4
    16-80
    Download
    Nodegrid Mini SR
    1
    1-2
    Yes
    1
    Via USB
    Download

    Get scalable network resilience with the only Gen 3 out-of-band management solution

    Only Nodegrid OOBM delivers network control, security, automation, and resilience with a completely vendor-neutral platform. To see Nodegrid out-of-band management in action, request a free demo.

    Request a Demo

    Network Resilience Doesn’t Mean What it Did 20 Years Ago

    by | Jan 25, 2024 | Application Hosting, Data Center Management, DevOps, Edge Computing, Improve Network Security, Micro-segmentation, Minimize Impact of Disruptions, NetDevOps, Network Automation, Remote Network Management, Virtualization, Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP), Zero Trust Security

    Network resilience requirements have changed

    Enterprise networks are like air. When they’re running smoothly, it’s easy to take them for granted, as business users and customers are able to go about their normal activities. But when customer service reps are suddenly cut off from their ticketing system, or family movie night turns into a game of “Is it my router, or the network?”, everyone notices. This is why network resilience is critical.

    But, what exactly does resilience mean today? Let’s find out by looking at some recent real-world examples, the history of network architectures, and why network resilience doesn’t mean what it did 20 years ago.

    Why does network resilience matter?

    There’s no shortage of real-world examples showing why network resilience matters. The takeaway is that network resilience is directly tied to business, which means that it impacts revenue, costs, and risks. Here is a brief list of resilience-related incidents that occurred in 2023 alone:

    • FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) – An overworked contractor unintentionally deleted files, which delayed flights nationwide for an entire day.
    • Southwest Airlines – A firewall configuration change caused 16,000 flight cancellations and cost the company about $1 billion.
    • MOVEit FTP exploit – Thousands of global organizations fell victim to a MOVEit vulnerability, which allowed attackers to steal personal data for millions.
    • MGM Resorts – A human exploit and lack of recovery systems let an attack persist for weeks, causing millions in losses per day.
    • Ragnar Locker attacks – Several large organizations were locked out of IT systems for days, which slowed or halted customer operations worldwide.

    What does network resilience mean?

    Based on the examples above, it might seem that network resilience could mean different things. It might mean having backups of golden configs that you could easily restore in case of a mistake. It might mean beefing up your security and/or replacing outdated systems. It might mean having recovery processes in place.

    So, which is it?

    The answer is, it’s all of these and more.

    Donald Firesmith (Carnegie Mellon) defines resilience this way: “A system is resilient if it continues to carry out its mission in the face of adversity (i.e., if it provides required capabilities despite excessive stresses that can cause disruptions).”

    Network resilience means having a network that continues to serve its essential functions despite adversity. Adversity can stem from human error, system outages, cyberattacks, and even natural disasters that threaten to degrade or completely halt normal network operations. Achieving network resilience requires the ability to quickly address issues ranging from device failures and misconfigurations, to full-blown ISP outages and ransomware attacks.

    The problem is, this is now much more difficult than it used to be.

    How did network resilience become so complicated?

    Twenty years ago, IT teams managed a centralized architecture. The data center was able to serve end-users and customers with the minimal services they needed. Being “constantly connected” wasn’t a concern for most people. For the business, achieving resilience was as simple as going on-site or remoting-in via serial console to fix issues at the data center.

    Network architecture showing simplicity of data center connected via MPLS to branch office

    Then in the mid-2000s, the advent of the cloud changed everything. Infrastructure, data, and computing became decentralized into a distributed mix of on-prem and cloud solutions. Users could connect from anywhere, and on-demand services allowed people to be plugged in around-the-clock. Services for work, school, and entertainment could be delivered anytime, no matter where users were.

    Network architecture showing complexity of data center, CDN, remote user, branch office, all connected via many paths

    Behind the scenes, this explosion of architecture created three problems for achieving network resilience, which a simple serial could no longer fix:

    Too Much Work

    Infrastructure, data, and computing are widely distributed. Systems inevitably break and require work, but teams don’t have the staff to keep up.

    Too Much Complexity

    Pairing cloud and box-based stacks creates complex networks. Teams leave systems outdated, because they don’t want to break this delicate architecture.

    Too Much Risk

    Unpatched, outdated systems are prime targets for packaged attacks that move at machine speed. Defense requires recovery tools that teams don’t have.

    Enabling businesses to be resilient in the modern age requires an approach that’s different than simply deploying a serial console for remote troubleshooting. Gen 1 and 2 serial consoles, which have dominated the market for 20 years, were designed to solve basic issues by offering limited remote access and some automation. The problem is, these still leave teams lacking the confidence to answer questions like:

    • “How can we guarantee access to fix stuff that breaks, without rolling trucks?”
    • “Can we automate change management, without fear of breaking the network?”
    • “Attacks are inevitable — How do we stop hackers from cutting off our access?”

    Hyperscalers, Internet Service Providers, Big Tech, and even the military have a resilience model that they’ve proven over the last decade. Their approach involves fully isolating command and control from data and user environments. This allows them to not only gain low-level remote access to maintain and fix systems, but also to “defend the hill” and maintain control if systems are compromised or destroyed.

    This approach uses something called Isolated Management Infrastructure (IMI).

    Isolated Management Infrastructure is the best practice for network resilience

    Isolated Management Infrastructure is the practice of creating a management network that is completely separate from the production network. Most IT teams are familiar with out-of-band management as this network; IMI, however, provides many capabilities that can’t be hosted on a traditional serial console or OOB network. And with increasing vulnerabilities, CISA issued a binding directive specifically calling for organizations to implement IMI.

    Isolated Management Infrastructure using Gen 3 serial consoles, like ZPE Systems’ Nodegrid devices, provides more than simple remote access and automation. Similar to a proper out-of-band network, IMI is completely isolated from production assets. This means there are no dependencies on production devices or connections, and management interfaces are not exposed to the internet or production gear. In the event of an outage or attack, teams retain management access, and this is just the beginning of the benefits of having IMI.

    A network architecture diagram showing Isolated Management Infrastructure next to production infrastructure

    IMI includes more than nine functions that are required for teams to fully service their production assets. These include:

    • Low-level access to all management interfaces, including serial, Ethernet, USB, IPMI, and others, to guarantee remote access to the entire environment
    • Open, edge-native automation to ensure services can continue operating in the event of outages or change errors
    • Computing, storage, and jumpbox capabilities that can natively host the apps and tools to deploy an IRE, to ensure fast, effective recovery from attacks

    Get the guide to build IMI

    ZPE Systems has worked alongside Big Tech to fulfill their requirements for IMI. In doing so, we created the Network Automation blueprint as a technical guide to help any organization build their own Isolated Management Infrastructure. Download the blueprint now to get started.

    Download blueprint

    IT Infrastructure Management Best Practices

    by | Jan 16, 2024 | Consolidation, Data Center Management, Data Center Resilience, Failover Connectivity, Increase Productivity, Minimize Impact of Disruptions, NetDevOps, NetDevOps Transformation, Network Automation, Out of Band Management, Remote Network Management, Security Service Edge (SSE), Vendor Neutral Platform, Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP), Zero Trust Security

    A small team uses IT infrastructure management best practices to manage an enterprise network

    A single hour of downtime costs organizations more than $300,000 in lost business, making network and service reliability critical to revenue. The biggest challenge facing IT infrastructure teams is ensuring network resilience, which is the ability to continue operating and delivering services during equipment failures, ransomware attacks, and other emergencies. This guide discusses IT infrastructure management best practices for creating and maintaining more resilient enterprise networks.
    .

    What is IT infrastructure management? It’s a collection of all the workflows involved in deploying and maintaining an organization’s network infrastructure. 

    IT infrastructure management best practices

    The following IT infrastructure management best practices help improve network resilience while streamlining operations. Click the links on the left for a more detailed look at the technologies and processes involved with each.

    Isolated Management Infrastructure (IMI)

    • Protects management interfaces in case attackers hack the production network

    • Ensures continuous access using OOB (out-of-band) management

    • Provides a safe environment to fight through and recover from ransomware

    Network and Infrastructure Automation

    • Reduces the risk of human error in network configurations and workflows

    • Enables faster deployments so new business sites generate revenue sooner

    • Accelerates recovery by automating device provisioning and deployment

    • Allows small IT infrastructure teams to effectively manage enterprise networks

    Vendor-Neutral Platforms

    • Reduces technical debt by allowing the use of familiar tools

    • Extends OOB, automation, AIOps, etc. to legacy/mixed-vendor infrastructure

    • Consolidates network infrastructure to reduce complexity and human error

    • Eliminates device sprawl and the need to sacrifice features

    AIOps

    • Improves security detection to defend against novel attacks

    • Provides insights and recommendations to improve network health for a better end-user experience

    • Accelerates incident resolution with automatic triaging and root-cause analysis (RCA)

    Isolated management infrastructure (IMI)

    Management interfaces provide the crucial path to monitoring and controlling critical infrastructure, like servers and switches, as well as crown-jewel digital assets like intellectual property (IP). If management interfaces are exposed to the internet or rely on the production network, attackers can easily hijack your critical infrastructure, access valuable resources, and take down the entire network. This is why CISA released a binding directive that instructs organizations to move management interfaces to a separate network, a practice known as isolated management infrastructure (IMI).

    The best practice for building an IMI is to use Gen 3 out-of-band (OOB) serial consoles, which unify the management of all connected devices and ensure continuous remote access via alternative network interfaces (such as 4G/5G cellular). OOB management gives IT teams a lifeline to troubleshoot and recover remote infrastructure during equipment failures and outages on the production network. The key is to ensure that OOB serial consoles are fully isolated from production and can run the applications, tools, and services needed to fight through a ransomware attack or outage without taking critical infrastructure offline for extended periods. This essentially allows you to instantly create a virtual War Room for coordinated recovery efforts to get you back online in a matter of hours instead of days or weeks. A diagram showing a multi-layered isolated management infrastructure. An IMI using out-of-band serial consoles also provides a safe environment to recover from ransomware attacks. The pervasive nature of ransomware and its tendency to re-infect cleaned systems mean it can take companies between 1 and 6 months to fully recover from an attack, with costs and revenue losses mounting with every day of downtime. The best practice is to use OOB serial consoles to create an isolated recovery environment (IRE) where teams can restore and rebuild without risking reinfection.
    .

    Network and infrastructure automation

    As enterprise network architectures grow more complex to support technologies like microservices applications, edge computing, and artificial intelligence, teams find it increasingly difficult to manually monitor and manage all the moving parts. Complexity increases the risk of configuration mistakes, which cause up to 35% of cybersecurity incidents. Network and infrastructure automation handles many tedious, repetitive tasks prone to human error, improving resilience and giving admins more time to focus on revenue-generating projects.

    Additionally, automated device provisioning tools like zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) and configuration management tools like RedHat Ansible make it easier for teams to recover critical infrastructure after a failure or attack. Network and infrastructure automation help organizations reduce the duration of outages and allow small IT infrastructure teams to manage large enterprise networks effectively, improving resilience and reducing costs.

    For an in-depth look at network and infrastructure automation, read the Best Network Automation Tools and What to Use Them For

    Vendor-neutral platforms

    Most enterprise networks bring together devices and solutions from many providers, and they often don’t interoperate easily. This box-based approach creates vendor lock-in and technical debt by preventing admins from using the tools or scripting languages they’re familiar with, and it makes a fragmented, complex architecture of management solutions that are difficult to operate efficiently. Organizations also end up compromising on features, ending up with a lot of stuff they don’t need and too little of what they do need.

    A vendor-neutral IT infrastructure management platform allows teams to unify all their workflows and solutions. It integrates your administrators’ favorite tools to reduce technical debt and provides a centralized place to deploy, orchestrate, and monitor the entire network. It also extends technologies like OOB, automation, and AIOps to otherwise unsupported legacy and mixed-vendor solutions. Such a platform is revolutionary in the same way smartphones were – instead of needing a separate calculator, watch, pager, phone, etc., everything was combined in a single device. A vendor-neutral management platform allows you to run all the apps, services, and tools you need without buying a bunch of extra hardware. It’s a crucial IT infrastructure management best practice for resilience because it consolidates and unifies network architectures to reduce complexity and prevent human error.

    Learn more about the benefits of a vendor-neutral IT infrastructure management platform by reading How To Ensure Network Scalability, Reliability, and Security With a Single Platform

    AIOps

    AIOps applies artificial intelligence technologies to IT operations to maximize resilience and efficiency. Some AIOps use cases include:

    • Security detection: AIOps security monitoring solutions are better at catching novel attacks (those using methods never encountered or documented before) than traditional, signature-based detection methods that rely on a database of known attack vectors.
    • Data analysis: AIOps can analyze all the gigabytes of logs generated by network infrastructure and provide health visualizations and recommendations for preventing potential issues or optimizing performance.
    • Root-cause analysis (RCA): Ingesting infrastructure logs allows AIOps to identify problems on the network, perform root-cause analysis to determine the source of the issues, and create & prioritize service incidents to accelerate remediation.

    AIOps is often thought of as “intelligent automation” because, while most automation follows a predetermined script or playbook of actions, AIOps can make decisions on-the-fly in response to analyzed data. AIOps and automation work together to reduce management complexity and improve network resilience.

    Want to find out more about using AIOps and automation to create a more resilient network? Read Using AIOps and Machine Learning To Manage Automated Network Infrastructure

    IT infrastructure management best practices for maximum resilience

    Network resilience is one of the top IT infrastructure management challenges facing modern enterprises. These IT infrastructure management best practices ensure resilience by isolating management infrastructure from attackers, reducing the risk of human error during configurations and other tedious workflows, breaking vendor lock-in to decrease network complexity, and applying artificial intelligence to the defense and maintenance of critical infrastructure.

    Need help getting started with these practices and technologies? ZPE Systems can help simplify IT infrastructure management with the vendor-neutral Nodegrid platform. Nodegrid’s OOB serial consoles and integrated branch routers allow you to build an isolated management infrastructure that supports your choice of third-party solutions for automation, AIOps, and more.

    Want to learn how to make IT infrastructure management easier with Nodegrid?

    To learn more about implementing IT infrastructure management best practices for resilience with Nodegrid, download our Network Automation Blueprint. 

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    Collaboration in DevOps: Strategies and Best Practices

    by | Jan 9, 2024 | Consolidation, Data Center Management, Data Center Resilience, DevOps, Failover Connectivity, Improve Network Security, Increase Productivity, Minimize Impact of Disruptions, NetDevOps, NetDevOps Transformation, Network Automation, Out of Band Management, Remote Network Management, Vendor Neutral Platform, Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP), Zero Trust Security

    Collaboration in DevOps is illustrated by two team members working together in front of the DevOps infinity logo.
    The DevOps methodology combines the software development and IT operations teams into a highly collaborative unit. In a DevOps environment, team members work simultaneously on the same code base, using automation and source control to accelerate releases. The transformation from a traditional, siloed organizational structure to a streamlined, fast-paced DevOps company is rewarding yet challenging. That’s why it’s important to have the right strategy, and in this guide to collaboration in DevOps, you’ll discover tips and best practices for a smooth transition.

    Collaboration in DevOps: Strategies and best practices

    A successful DevOps implementation results in a tightly interwoven team of software and infrastructure specialists working together to release high-quality applications as quickly as possible. This transition tends to be easier for developers, who are already used to working with software code, source control tools, and automation. Infrastructure teams, on the other hand, sometimes struggle to work at the velocity needed to support DevOps software projects and lack experience with automation technologies, causing a lot of frustration and delaying DevOps initiatives. The following strategies and best practices will help bring Dev and Ops together while minimizing friction.

    Turn infrastructure and network configurations into software code

    Infrastructure and network teams can’t keep up with the velocity of DevOps software development if they’re manually configuring, deploying, and troubleshooting resources using the GUI (graphical user interface) or CLI (command line interface). The best practice in a DevOps environment is to use software abstraction to turn all configurations and networking logic into code.

    Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

    Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools allow teams to write configurations as software code that provisions new resources automatically with the click of a button. IaC configurations can be executed as often as needed to deploy DevOps infrastructure very rapidly and at a large scale.

    Software-Defined Networking (SDN) 

    Software-defined networking (SDN) and Software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) use software abstraction layers to manage networking logic and workflows. SDN allows networking teams to control, monitor, and troubleshoot very large and complex network architectures from a centralized platform while using automation to optimize performance and prevent downtime.
    Software abstraction helps accelerate resource provisioning, reducing delays and friction between Dev and Ops. It can also be used to bring networking teams into the DevOps fold with automated, software-defined networks, creating what’s known as a NetDevOps environment.

    Use common, centralized tools for software source control

    Collaboration in DevOps means a whole team of developers or sysadmins may work on the same code base simultaneously. This is highly efficient — but risky. Development teams have used software source control tools like GitHub for years to track and manage code changes and prevent overwriting each other’s work. In a DevOps organization using IaC and SDN, the best practice is to incorporate infrastructure and network code into the same source control system used for software code.

    Managing infrastructure configurations using a tool like GitHub ensures that sysadmins can’t make unauthorized changes to critical resources. For example, administrators initiate many ransomware attacks and other major outages by directly changing infrastructure configurations without testing or approval. This happened in a high-profile MGM cyberattack when an IT staff member fell victim to social engineering and granted elevated Okta privileges to an attacker without having to get approval from a second pair of eyes.

    Using DevOps source control, all infrastructure changes must be reviewed and approved by a second party in the IT department to ensure they don’t introduce vulnerabilities or malicious code into production. Sysadmins can work quickly and creatively, knowing there’s a safety net to catch mistakes, reducing Ops delays, and fostering a more collaborative environment.

    Consolidate and integrate DevOps tools with a vendor-neutral platform

    An enterprise DevOps deployment usually involves dozens – if not hundreds – of different tools to automate and streamline the many workflows involved in a software development project. Having so many individual DevOps tools deployed around the enterprise increases the management complexity, which can have the following consequences.

    • Human error – The harder it is to stay on top of patch releases, security bulletins, and monitoring logs, the more likely it is that an issue will slip between the cracks until it causes an outage or breach.
    • Security complexity – Every additional DevOps tool added to the architecture makes integrating and implementing a consistent security model more complex and challenging, increasing the risk of coverage gaps.
    • Spiraling costs – With many different solutions handling individual workflows around the enterprise, the likelihood of buying redundant services or paying for unneeded features increases, which can impact ROI.
    • Reduced efficiency – DevOps aims to increase operational efficiency, but having to work across so many disparate tools can slow teams down, especially when those tools don’t interoperate.

    The best practice is consolidating your DevOps tools with a centralized, vendor-neutral platform. For example, the Nodegrid Services Delivery Platform from ZPE Systems can host and integrate 3rd-party DevOps tools, unifying them under a single management umbrella. Nodegrid gives IT teams single-pane-of-glass control over the entire DevOps architecture, including the underlying network infrastructure, which reduces management complexity, increases efficiency, and improves ROI.

    Maximize DevOps success

    DevOps collaboration can improve operational efficiency and allow companies to release software at the velocity required to stay competitive in the market. Using software abstraction, centralized source code control, and vendor-neutral management platforms reduces friction on your DevOps journey. The best practice is to unify your DevOps environment with a vendor-neutral platform like Nodegrid to maximize control, cost-effectiveness, and productivity.

    Want to Simplify collaboration in DevOps with the Nodegrid platform?

    Reach out to ZPE Systems today to learn more about how the Nodegrid Services Delivery Platform can help you simplify collaboration in DevOps.

     

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