Network resilience and disaster response
Introduction
The network is the crucial backbone driving technology innovation today. Faced with myriad environmental challenges, from extreme weather, to power outages, wildfires and even a global pandemic, network resilience is more important than ever before. Broadband played a key role in keeping economies going through Covid lockdowns, gearing up massively and at lightning speed as the demand for voice, video and data increased dramatically overnight. According to McKinsey, the top economic tech performers through the Covid crisis, were those who could be more innovative than their peers. Innovation in technology also brings risks, and one thing the pandemic taught us is that environmental factors can wreak havoc quite unpredictably. In this chapter, we look at the opportunities, technology trends, futureproofing, and the benefits of empowering field workers to create more resilient communications networks.
Featured Contributors
Subhajit Ghosh
Lead Digital Transformation
Leader & Product Owner for
Customer Facing Portfolio
CenturyLink
Cian O'Mahony
Head of Operations
Siro
Shamim Idrisi
Head of Agile Network
Operations Center
Telstra
Robert Nolan
Director Service Operations
Virgin Media
Jose Almeida
Network Strategy Manager
Vodafone
Todd Kuty
Director of Customer Integration
IQGeo
What are the biggest opportunities for improving disaster response for Network Operations Centers?
Network operators are faced with the immense challenge of understanding their ever-growing networks in minute detail. Knowing exact locations of assets and how they’re performing will give them a competitive market edge. Focusing on preventing issues and staying one step ahead is the key to building a resilient network. Using geospatial software strategies provides network operators with an accurate view of their network, enabling fast and accurate decisions.
Complementing a single detailed view of the network, is communication between teams, says Cian O’Mahony, Head of Operations at Siro: “I think the biggest opportunity for improving disaster response is really around teams engaging with teams in a timely manner.”
Watch the video to find out what else telco operators have to say about these opportunities.
Maturing your processes must be part of your daily routine.
SHAMIM IDRISI
Head of Agile Network Operations Center, Telstra
Which emerging technology trends in network resilience and disaster response are you adopting?
Networks are getting smarter and operators need an environment to assimilate all this new information. With more and more IoT technology at the edge of the network it creates a need for greater data consolidation in a single geospatial view. The cloud dominates broader industry trends and while hyperscalers could become a threat to telco operators, their cloud and virtualization offerings are also an important enabler. Jose Almeida, Network Strategy Manager at Vodafone says: “The main technology that is improving business is actually the cloud and virtualization.” Network operators are scaling up and investing and it’s critical to maintain visibility of all the assets in their network to ensure quick and effective response.
The whole migration toward network function virtualization is allowing the restoration and recovery, and the resiliency to be expedited a lot faster.
ROBERT NOLAN
Director of Service Operations, Virgin Media
What advice can you give for futureproofing against network interruptions and disaster scenarios?
Now more than ever, business continuity is largely determined by the broadband network. Network interruptions occur for various reasons, taking many forms, which makes planning for them a complex process. It is important to balance activity with impact, especially with critical clients in the healthcare or education sectors, according to industry experts (click on the video to see more). “We don’t just track our network traffic, we also see the availability and what the trends look like,” says Shamim Idrisi, Telstra’s Head of the Agile Network Operations Center.
This helps facilitate early risk assessments, while good communication with all stakeholders is critical to managing these situations when they arise, he says. In developing a resilient DR strategy, the benefits are not evident only in the case of a disaster, but promote the general health of the network. From time savings and greater productivity, to increased safety and better collaboration between business units, the advantages are measurable.
We try to ensure that we stay ahead of the planning application, the awards, that we understand what sites are active and at what stages so we can risk assess the impacts on our network.
CIAN O'MAHONY
Head of Operations, Siro
You’re allowing customers to try and resolve the issues themselves where you can, but you need that proactive awareness.
SHAMIM IDRISI
Head of Agile Network Operations Center. Telstra
Should organizations empower field workers to capture and act on data rather than rely on the Network Operations Center to make all the decisions?
“One thing we have learned from Covid is our level of trust with our colleagues, or employees, or employers has increased,” says O’Mahony. As a result, network operators are working on empowering their field technicians by allowing greater access to critical data and encouraging them to analyze the situation in the field to make timely, well-informed decisions. Both Vodafone and Virgin Media agree.
“We are moving more information to the field engineer, so they have more power to make decisions,” says Almeida. Robert Nolan, Director of Service Operations at Virgin Media concurs: “The real enabler for us as a business is allowing the field worker to access the same telemetry data, and to analyze that data locally.” It goes without saying that these mobile digital systems must be easy to use and accessible to the generation of digital natives who now make up a growing share of the field worker demographic.
Most of the clients will be facing the issue that they don’t have visibility on their system, and they don’t know the areas that need to be targeted.
SUBHAJIT GHOSH
Lead Digital Transformation Leader & Product Owner
for Customer Facing Portfolio, CenturyLink
Conclusion
If the last two years are anything to go by, technology disruptions will continue to be less predictable than ever. Network assessment, maintenance and response processes must be agile enough to turn on a dime. “The opportunity here,” says Todd Kuty, Director Customer Integration at IQGeo, “is to empower technicians to go out and triage quickly and resolve issues without having to call on [additional] support. It’s really about transparency and empowerment.” The planning involved in disaster response is complex. Good co-ordination and communication are key to ensuring a speedy reaction, says Kuty. “These are particularly difficult challenges when things are going crazy in a crisis. Things break down and this has to do with not being empowered to do the job yourself or get the necessary information yourself.”
IQGeo’s technology focus is on adoption of open source, cloud, and virtualization. “We’re also creating an environment where we’re blurring the lines between offline and online applications, so that you’re not relying on network connections in order to do your job in the field,” says Kuty. "Creating visibility of assets in real-time allows time to be spent on fixing issues rather than searching for information in a critical situation", he goes on to say. Flexibility, adaptability, innovation, communication – from the physical hardware of network assets to softer skills, these are what will drive the network operators’ competitive edge.
IQGeo sponsored the research and interviews provided in this Video Magazine. The topics covered are of strategic interest to IQGeo as its geospatial network design and management software is used by telecommunications and fiber network operators around the world. Visit their website to learn Why network operators partner with IQGeo.