Network resilience has always been one of the biggest priorities of IT managers but it’s never been more important in a COVID–affected world struggling with disparately workforces and social distancing. If a business–critical network goes down, who’s there to fix it? How can you establish a remote connection to the network if it’s not operational? How far away is the nearest engineer?
Redundancy is helpful, but it’s not the silver bullet for keeping a network operational. The good news is that all of these issues are addressed by Ingram Micro’s new partner, Opengear which offers a wide variety of network resilience solutions for businesses of all size.
OOB – Out of Band Connectivity
A core facet of Opengear’s solutions is out of band connectivity. This is where a networking resource can be connected to and managed regardless of its power state or firmware health. It operates by accessing devices via dedicated, secure, independent and robust networks that directly connect to the likes of traditional serial ports and, increasingly commonly, USB and Ethernet.
Opengear’s Network Resilience Platform is based upon the presence of its Smart OOB Console Servers and nodes at all locations. These are then centrally orchestrated through Lighthouse management software. The platform provides secure, remote access to critical network devices through a separate management plane and enables automated network maintenance and management.
Automated, Day-one deployment of NetOps
With DevOps tools and workflows being increasingly applied to networking, reliable virtualisation is becoming both more reliable and agile. The resulting ‘NetOps’ approach can be simply implemented into an existing enterprise network by layering it onto legacy equipment: adding flexibility and increasing functionality.
Opengear’s solution negates needing an expensive, lengthy installation that requires a specialist. By shipping a device to a remote location, a local engineer with basic IT skills can simply install the equipment. The node will then establish a secure LTE connection to its parent, Lighthouse centralised management software and interact with the network device using standard NetOps tools like Docker, Ansible and Python via a console server. Smart OOB includes automated port discovery and VLAN support on the legacy appliances.
A TPM 2.0 module enables secure booting and ensures that configuration can’t be tampered with. Up to 64GB of flash memory means that large files can be kept on site for rapid access but up-to-date configuration and image files can also be automatically downloaded and installed. It’s a simple, reliable and secure solution that allows for Day-one deployments.
Lighthouse Management Software
The Lighthouse platform centralises out-of-band management for IT infrastructure and provides an unparalleled level of resilient access and visibility even during critical failures.
It’s a secure, scalable solution that, in addition to Day-one provisioning enables everything from day-to-day monitoring and management, to disaster recovery. It’s end-to-end, out-of-band architecture means that it’s the perfect solution for security conscious organisations who would otherwise be extremely wary of allowing OOB access to critical infrastructure.
Network devices can be managed regardless of how they’re connected, software widgets can be laid out and organised to suit the individual preferences of network managers and there’s even a purpose-built, “Just give me a management console!” rapid-access function for the most awkwardly timed network meltdowns.
Lighthouse can be hosted in the cloud on Azure and AWS. An Enterprise version can access nodes via secure IP access and operate across multiple instances.
Partnering with Ingram Micro
The new partnership with Ingram Micro allows Opengear to focus on enlarging and enabling its channel network, consolidating its existing relationships and utilising Ingram’s expertise and relationships.
Ingram Micro’s director for advanced solutions, Brett Armstrong, said he is delighted that Opengear has chosen the company as a distributor in Australia and New Zealand.
“Opengear delivers secure, resilient access and automation to critical IT infrastructure, even when the network is down. Provisioning, orchestration and remote management of network devices, through innovative software and appliances, their solutions enablestechnical staff to manage their data centres and remote network locations reliably and efficiently. Their go-to-market strategy is channel-focused and we look forward to working with them on providing this comprehensive solution to our reseller community.”
Opengear APAC channel manager Belinda Polden said, “the partnership opens the gate to the ANZ channel community.”
“This alliance will allow us to focus on enlarging and enabling our channel network, consolidating existing relationships and utilising Ingram Micro’s expertise and network to forge new relationships. We are excited to be working together to provide key partners and integrators with our network resilience solutions.”
Click here to schedule a free demonstration on Opengear’s Network Resilience solutions.
