Network resiliency became ever-more concerning this year as the cost of outages to businesses and user expectations for always-on services both grew. Natural disasters (notably the devastation of Hurricane Helene), human and configuration errors (think Crowdstrike), and subsea cable cuts accounted for some of the year’s major outages.
Such incidences should prompt all enterprises to revisit their disaster recovery plans. Additionally, the outages and their impact have spawned interest in new types of solutions and services, such as new satellite connectivity options and using 5G as a backup when wired services fail. These new offerings help maintain connectivity in the event of an outage.
2024 Network Resiliency Challenges and Solutions
Given this background, here are the top five Network Computing network resiliency articles of the year:
1) Internet Resilience Report: Outages Cost Companies Over $10 Million a Month
Internet outages impacting large enterprises led to monthly losses exceeding $10 million, according to a report by Catchpoint. The bottom line from the report is that there is a critical need for IT managers to prioritize network resilience. To that point, the report found that 87% of organizations experienced at least one internet disruption in the past year, with 9% facing five or more incidents. These outages not only result in significant financial setbacks but also damage customer trust and brand reputation. The report authors suggested that IT managers should implement robust network monitoring, diversify internet service providers, and develop comprehensive incident response strategies to ensure continuous business operations.
2) Forget High Availability; Modern Enterprises Need Always-on Services
For decades, providers touted the high availability guarantees of their services. You would often hear of five nines uptime (meaning service was available 99.999% of the time). Well, in today’s digital world, that does not seem to be enough in all situations. Increasingly, IT managers in large enterprises must shift their focus from traditional high-availability solutions to ensuring truly “always-on” services. This evolution is driven by the increasing demand for uninterrupted access to applications and data, necessitating strategies that include redundancy, fault tolerance, and real-time monitoring. To enhance service continuity, IT managers must adopt comprehensive network resilience measures to minimize downtime and meet the expectations of a 24/7 operational environment.
3) Non-terrestrial Services Emerge as a Key Element of Network Resiliency
In the pursuit of enhanced network resiliency, IT managers in large enterprises are increasingly turning to emerging non-terrestrial services, such as those offered via satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and medium-Earth orbit (MEO). Currently, as these services are introduced, they are being used to complement traditional terrestrial networks. They offer alternative communication pathways, ensuring continuity during terrestrial network failures caused by natural disasters or other disruptions. By integrating non-terrestrial services into their infrastructure, IT leaders can achieve greater redundancy, lower latency, and expanded global connectivity coverage, thereby strengthening their organization’s overall network resilience.
4) AT&T Gateway Automatically Fails Over from Fiber to 5G
As the availability of 5G broadband services grows, providers are leveraging its capabilities to supplement hard-wired and fiber connectivity in the event of an outage. On the consumer front, companies like Xfinity offer battery-powered 5G routers that maintain connectivity if a home or small business’s main service is out for any reason. On the enterprise side, one of the most interesting offerings introduced in 2024 was a new gateway device from AT&T that automatically switches from fiber to 5G in the event of a service disruption. Such offerings enhance network resilience for large enterprises. This seamless failover capability ensures continuous internet connectivity, minimizing downtime and maintaining business operations during fiber outages.
5) Refreshing Your Network DR Plan
The wide-scale devastation of Hurricane Helene hammered home the importance of keeping disaster recovery (DR) plans up-to-date and well-tested. To that point, regularly updating network disaster recovery plans is essential for IT managers in large enterprises to ensure business continuity and network resilience. As network infrastructures evolve, DR strategies must be revisited to address new technologies, potential vulnerabilities, and changing business requirements. Key considerations include assessing current network architectures, identifying critical assets, implementing robust backup solutions, and conducting regular testing of DR procedures. By proactively refreshing their network DR plans, IT managers can minimize downtime, protect organizational data, and maintain operational efficiency during unforeseen disruptions.
A Final Word on Network Resiliency
Network outages will continue to be a bane to enterprises in 2025. At a minimum, IT managers must be sure their disaster recovery plans are robust and up to date. Organizations that want to strengthen their network resiliency further must adopt some of the new technologies and solutions that are coming along that provide alternative connectivity options.
Follow our coverage of network resiliency throughout 2025 to keep up to date with these developments.
