Causes of WAN Downtime
WAN downtime is a serious problem that affects most business immediately because it is unexpected. The frequency of occurrence is hard to predict but several problems associated with a variety of causes can be eliminated or prevented by introducing WAN Redundancy into the Business Continuity strategy.
The following is a list of common causes for WAN downtime. Many others -- with varying degrees of effect on WAN availability -- are not listed, but it should be noted they do exist.
- ISP or Telco Failure - problems in ISP and Telco networks can cause WAN downtime and oftentimes are the common blame point for non availability of WANs. However, over the years, this has taken a catch-all meaning and any un-attributable WAN downtimes are lumped in this category. WAN Redundancy, through the use of multiple carriers at any facility will resolve this problem satisfactorily (see WAN Redundancy technology).
- Hardware Failure - failure of hardware such as routers, switches, etc., can result in WAN downtime. Regular maintenance can reduce the number of failures and having "hot" spares on hand can reduce downtime to minimal levels.
- Natural disasters - this is an area that can have potentially very serious effects on Business Continuity. A major natural disaster like Katrina or the Tsunami can not only wipe out the wide area network, but also can wipe out the entire office. WAN Redundancy may not work as all lines may go down. In this case, a site-to-site failover solution would be applicable. Site-to-site failover provides failover to a different location if the main site is incapacitated.
- Human Error - WAN downtime can be caused by human error. Often times the error is in the setup stage itself. To ensure WAN Redundancy, all settings of different equipment should be check thoroughly and tested under simulated conditions.
- Terrorism, employee sabotage, corporate sabotage, etc., - this is very hard to prevent, but WAN Redundancy via offsite data storage and DR sites can mitigate the effects of this.
