Top 6 Reasons For Network Failure IT Pros Won’t Tell You – Part 1
Medium and large-scale networks are common realities for thousands of construction companies.
Enterprises of all sizes across the globe will mostly be looking to the “big boys” for answers to solve complex and basic connectivity needs, but the answer, for construction, is not fibre.
For contractors that have teams across a handful, or even a hundred or more sites, require very reliable and robust connectivity to maintain efficient operations – that solution is branch Wireless WAN (Wide Area Network).
Since 2010, businesses have experienced a technology revolution in networking capabilities, especially with being able to manage various sites with good connectivity performance, reliability and ease of management through cloud-based software.
The implementation of advanced networking has enabled construction enterprises to utilise products and services like video conferencing, facial recognition, autonomous vehicles and smart manufacturing. Although a decade ago, loss of signal was an issue, it was not commercially prohibitive like it is now – stopping operations and cause for lost revenue – two biggest factors.
There are several unavoidable issues that may arise, but equally, there are a number of avoidable circumstances that could lead to network failure. Below are the Top 6 Reasons for Network Failure:
⚡ Line damage
When a business relies on telecommunications and connectivity from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to handle their data and voice traffic between sites, those phonelines and fixed communication gateways immediately become a calculated risk to said business. Whether those connections are damaged through man or natural causes, hard-wired networks [fibre] are at far greater risk of failure, at any point, when compared to 4G or 5G – wireless solutions remove the possibility of line damage.
⚡ Traffic spikes
One of the most common causes of network disruption are spikes in traffic. This extra activity is strenuous and can overwhelm a network if it isn’t prepared or scalable. These network failures will disrupt modern business and possibly across multiple sites if the failure hits a critical point in the network architecture.
⚡ Support network failures
Any distributed network that relies on the hardware of a third-party supplier is entirely dependant on that providers infrastructure – it has to be stable. If the equipment fails, your network will, too. Even if a network utilizes wireless networking features, it may still be susceptible to failure at critical points, such as cell towers and network masts.
⚡ Configuration errors
As networks grow, IT personnel are required to configure and manage all of these devices. Network misconfigurations and hardware failures will happen and even pulling the wrong wire will occur more often than you think. It’s not hard for someone to make a simple mistake and fix it, but it can become incredibly frustrating if that mistake brings down an entire branch network.
⚡ Power loss
Even in the most heavily developed and advanced cities in the world, power failure is not an uncommon occurrence. In many parts of the world, partial or total power failure is a regular nuisance. Networks lacking in redundancy and emergency power solutions will find that their business is ultimately beholden to the reliability of power distributors.
⚡ Hardware failure
Hardware wears over time, as expected, and devices can fail, particularly when networks scale – it is part of growth, unless redundancy is built-in from the start. The failure of any device in a network can cause either partial or entire network outages.
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