To provide an insight into the networking industry, Westbase.io runs a “What Is” blog series. Take a look at the latest edition; What is Out-Of-Band Management?
When a network goes down, sending technicians to site to repair or replace equipment can end in large financial costs and be quite time consuming, making distributed networks historically inefficient to manage. As a result, a secure, reliable means for accessing the network “out-of-band” has become crucial to addressing this. This is where Out-Of-Band Management (OOBM) comes in.
An Out-Of-Band Management (OOBM) solution enables central teams to troubleshoot issues that are in remote locations even when the primary network isn’t available; this allows them to identify issues and possibly even get the primary network back online without ever having to visit the affected site.
Traditional OOBM solutions use secondary fixed line services such as ISDN (integrated services digital network) or POTS (plain old telephone service), combined with a dedicated OOBM modem, but these are not always reliable. Leveraging a similar fixed line infrastructure as the primary connection, OOBM services like these can easily be affected by the same issue as the primary line – making their purpose redundant. In addition, the OOBM connection speed for legacy approaches are usually too slow to provide a viable failover solution, reducing its overall value and often making it too expensive an option except for high profile or critical locations.
Using 4G/5G for Out-Of-Band Management
An alternative today to the traditional fixed line and modem approach to OOBM is to use a cellular networking solution. 4G/5G can enable central IT resources to access the primary network via the diversified cellular network, which is unlikely to be affected by the same issue as the primary fixed line – providing a more stable solution for OOBM.
Able to deliver connectivity speeds and bandwidth which matches and, in some cases, outstrips fixed line speeds, the same 4G/5G solution can be used to provide failover connectivity for the location as well – keeping it online while central teams work remotely to identify and resolve the issues with the primary network. This makes failover and OOBM a more valuable and affordable solution overall, meaning it can be extended even to low priority locations.
Westbase.io’s 4G/5G networking solutions are all cloud managed, making them ideal for managing distributed enterprise networks. By enabling central IT teams to configure, monitor and troubleshoot the whole cellular estate remotely via the cloud, it makes a 4G/5G for Out-of-Band Management and failover solution even more efficient and effective to manage. It also means that it can be rolled out in a fraction of the time it would take to build a fixed line infrastructure, getting the failover and OOBM solution in place quickly.
Find out more
Westbase.io is the leading 4G/5G, IoT and assisted reality (aR) solutions distributor.
30+ years of experience, best-in-class solutions, and partner support that makes sense. These are just some of the reasons that our partners choose Westbase.io.
Contact your account manager to find out more about becoming a partner today: hello@westbase.io., +44 1291 437 567 or +31 35 799 2290.
Alternatively, just hit the button below to reach us via our website’s contact form: