A Guide to Simple Network Redundancy

Network redundancy is a simple but important concept, and it’s something that your business absolutely must embrace in order to guarantee your ability to protect your business network. A failure to create redundancy could leave your business crippled at the worst possible time. As such, here’s a look at network redundancy – including why it is so important.

What is this type of redundancy?

As discussed here, redundancy involves the installation of additional hardware or software that is supposed to protect your computer network. In many cases, it involves installing duplicate pieces of equipment or alternate routes that are designed to protect your network in the event that a critical component crashes. This type of redundancy can take on many forms, including building outside hardware onto your system or purchasing software that can allow your computer system to continue to operate, even in the face of outside attack or internal failure. Ideally, in this instance, redundancy means that these redundant components will work without any input from users. Indeed, they may not even be aware of such an issue, as the software will seamlessly and unobtrusively move from one component to the next. 

Why is this so important?

• Continuity of operations: The most important reason is also the most obvious. Redundancy will ensure that your business operations or computer system will be able to continue, even in the event that a critical piece of hardware crashes, thus allowing you to continue your operations. Think of the concept of redundancy as a computer backup system.
• Protection against lost revenue: If your computer network or website is like any other modern one, you fully understand how expensive it would be if it were to suddenly stop working. This may mean that your business loses the ability to process credit card transactions, access your CRM software, or to even send an Email. This means lost revenue and lost goodwill among your customers, and that could translate into a major business hit – and all of this is before factoring in the cost of repairing the equipment. Simply put, this type of redundancy isn’t optional – it’s vitally important for your revenue.
• Protection against outside attacks: DDoS attacks – or Distributed Denial of Service attacks – are common ways in which nefarious outside actors will attempt to gain access to your computer network. One of the best ways you can protect against these attacks is to build in redundancy into your computer system. Doing so can help to ensure that your network stays up, even in the face of such an attack, thus protecting your business and ensuring that your critical business functions continue.

In this day of reliance on digital networks and cybersecurity, the protection of your digital assets is no longer optional. Simply put, you must build redundancy into your overall network. Failure to do so will ensure that you are leaving your computer network – and thus your business – vulnerable to an outside attack.