Every IT person knows that network updates are routine. Sometimes they can work perfectly, and other times, the update messes things up and you have to roll back to the last good configuration.

But what do you do when the rollback goes wrong?

Here’s my first-hand experience with this exact scenario.

We recently implemented what was intended to be a routine update for our engineering network. The change timeframe, internal signoff, test coverage, and rollback strategy were all set up. Every step was even pre-documented. The setup was textbook.

But if you’ve been in IT for more than five minutes, you know that upgrades don’t always fail in the first stage.

The initial steps had gone smoothly and we had a sense of confidence. But midway through, this one failed. It damaged a core routing service and stopped our ability to reach our remote sites.

No big deal. We had a step-by-step rollback plan that we validated in the lab. We even walked through it with a dry run.

Then things took an unexpected turn.

Our rollback failed!

Why? In the background, one dependent service was automatically upgraded. This silently triggered a chain reaction. We found ourselves dealing with Entra ID login loops, DHCP failures, and version mismatches across multiple services. Our internal DNS collapsed. With DNS gone, so was access to our identity provider, our management tools, and even our door badge system.

The access control system was no longer available to us. It was one of those nights. The rollback was supposed to save us, but what could save us from the rollback?

Luckily, we had out-of-band management

We were saved by Out-of-Band (OOB) management through our ZPE architecture.

We used secure OOB serial and cellular failover. That gave us direct control of the devices, even when the core network was down and identity services were unreachable. We stayed operational.

Image: The out-of-band management path is a dedicated access network. It acts as a safety net for instances when a rollback fails and recovery processes must take place.

Fortunately, we had already segmented the engineering network from the business network. That isolation meant the failure didn’t spread. We could take our time rebuilding the broken pieces without impacting customer operations or internal productivity tools.

All services were back up and running within a few hours.

What did we learn?

I’m posting this because a lot of IT teams, particularly those in growth-stage businesses, neglect early architecture segmentation or OOB access. It is considered a “Phase 2” assignment. However, it’s the only way out should things go wrong, which they will.

Here’s what we learned:

• The quality of your assumptions determines how well your rollback strategy works. A rollback that depends on “nothing else changes” is fragile by design.
• DNS, Identity (like Entra ID), and VPN are interdependent. They form a delicate triangle, and when one goes, the others often follow.
• Out-of-Band is a fundamental design need, not just a catastrophe recovery tool. If you’re managing remote or critical infrastructure, there is no substitute for direct, independent access.
• Documentation is important. Access is more important. All the runbooks in the world won’t help if you can’t reach the system that runs them.

Prepare for failure. Walk through your worst-case scenario. Don’t count on luck to save you.

I think it’s time to revisit the old school way of thinking about managing and securing IT infrastructure. The legacy use case for OOB is outdated. For the past decade, most IT teams have viewed out-of-band (OOB) as a last resort; an insurance policy for when something goes wrong. That mindset made sense when OOB technology was focused on connecting you to a switch or router.

Technology and the role of IT have changed so much in the last few years. There’s a lot more pressure on IT folks these days! But we get it, and that’s why ZPE’s OOB platform has changed to help you.

At a minimum, you have to ensure system endpoints are hardened against attacks, patch and update regularly, back up and restore critical systems, and be prepared to isolate compromised networks. In other words, you have to make sure those complicated hybrid environments don’t go off the rails and cost your company money. OOB for the “just-in-case” scenario doesn’t cut it anymore, and treating it that way is a huge missed opportunity.

Don’t Be Reactive. Be Resilient By Design.

Some OOB vendors claim they have the solution to get you through installation day, doomsday, and everyday ops. But if I’m candid, ZPE is the only vendor who can live up to this standard.   We do what no one else can do! Our work with the world’s largest, most well-known hyperscale and tech companies proves our architecture and design principles.

This Gen 3 out-of-band (aka Isolated Management Infrastructure) is about staying in control no matter what gets thrown at you.

OOB Has A New Job Description

Out-of-band is evolving because of today’s radically different network demands:

• Edge computing is pushing infrastructure into hard-to-reach (sometimes hostile) environments.
• Remote and hybrid ops teams need 24/7 secure access without relying on fragile VPNs.
• Ransomware and insider threats are rising, requiring an isolated recovery path that can’t be hijacked by attackers.
• Patching delays leave systems vulnerable for weeks or months, and faulty updates can cause crashes that are difficult to recover from.
• Automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) are no longer nice-to-haves – they’re essential for things like initial provisioning, config management, and everyday ops.

It’s a lot to add to the old “break/fix” job description. That’s why traditional OOB solutions fall short and we succeed. ZPE is designed to help teams enforce security policies, manage infrastructure proactively, drive automation, and do all the things that keep the bad stuff from happening in the first place. ZPE’s founders knew this evolution was coming, and that’s why they built Gen 3 out-of-band.

Gen 3 Out-of-Band Is Your Strategic Weapon

Unlike normal OOB setups that are bolted onto the production network, Gen 3 out-of-band is physically and logically separated via Isolated Management Infrastructure (IMI) approach. That separation is key – it gives teams persistent, secure access to infrastructure without touching the production network.

This means you stay in control no matter what.

Image: Gen 3 out-of-band management takes advantage of an approach called Isolated Management Infrastructure, a fully separate network that guarantees admin access when the main network is down.

Imagine your OOB system helping you:

• Push golden configurations across 100 remote sites without relying on a VPN.
• Automatically detect config drift and restore known-good states.
• Trigger remediation workflows when a security policy is violated.
• Run automation playbooks at remote locations using integrated tools like Ansible, Terraform, or GitOps pipelines.
• Maintain operations when production links are compromised or hijacked.
• Deploy the Gartner-recommended Secure Isolated Recovery Environment to stop an active cyberattack in hours (not weeks).

Gen 3 out-of-band is the dedicated management plane that enables all these things, which is a huge strategic advantage. Here are some real-world examples:

• Vapor IO shrunk edge data center deployment times to one hour and achieved full lights-out operations. No more late-night wakeup calls or expensive on-site visits.
• IAA refreshed their nationwide infrastructure while keeping 100% uptime and saving $17,500 per month in management costs.
• Living Spaces quadrupled business while saving $300,000 per year. They actually shrunk their workload and didn’t need to add any headcount.

OOB is no longer just for the worst day. Gen 3 out-of-band gives you the architecture and platform to build resilience into your business strategy and minimize what the worst day could be.

Check out these helpful resources

• Out-of-Band Deployment Guide
• Video: ZPE Cloud demo presented by Marcel van Zwienen
• How Oxidized Network Backups Improve Resilience
• Yes, You Can Have Out-of-Band Management in One Device
• How to Set Up An Out-of-Band Network Using Starlink

“No one ever tells you this part…”

My name is Ahmed Algam. I am a Network & Systems Administrator for ZPE Systems – A Brand of Legrand, with over 20 years of experience in network administration, system infrastructure, Microsoft ERP solutions, and enterprise IT management. I have a B.S. in Computer Science and will soon complete my Master’s of Information and Data Science.

In the early days of my IT career, I learned how to build systems from scratch, configure networks, and apply patches.

Like many, I was trained to focus on the obvious goals: keep things running, keep everything secure, and automate what I can.

But what no one taught me? What to do when everything goes dark – literally.

That’s exactly what happened recently.

ZPE’s Fremont branch lost power unexpectedly and without notice from our provider.

One by one, our services went down

• ESXi Hosts
• Backup Servers
• VPN Tunnels
• Core Routers and Switches

Here is the part that I wish I knew 20 years ago…

You won’t be rescued by dashboards, spreadsheets, or documentation when IT goes dark. What WILL save you is system design, specifically out-of-band management.

And for which I am lucky that design did save us.

Without Out-of-band (OOB), I would have had to spend the whole night at the office manually rebooting, configuring, and troubleshooting everything. It’s a nightmare for IT admins because you might get the call while you’re attending your kids’ sporting events, attending college courses, or spending quality time with your family. IT emergencies can really intrude on your life outside of work. It’s just part of the job.

But I was so grateful to have OOB because it gave me a separate path dedicated to recovery, which was just what I needed. I was able to instantly remote-into my infrastructure without leaving home.

Image: Isolated Management Infrastructure uses out-of-band management (OOBM) serial consoles to access production devices when they are offline.

Within minutes, I was able to:

• Remotely connect through our OOB console
• Restart critical infrastructure
• Monitor recovery independently of the production path

I didn’t have to head for the office or change the plans I had with my family. With our OOB system in place, I knew that I could fix the problem, have services restored before sunrise, and still get a good night’s sleep.

This wasn’t luck

It was the result of:

• Planning for the worst-case scenario, not just the routine
• Having OOB in all essential areas
• Testing access methods instead of assuming they’ll just work
• Separating management traffic from production flows
• Staying calm with an architecture designed to withstand chaos

Even highly-skilled IT teams come to a full standstill during disruptions

It has nothing to do with a lack of talent or skill. The reason is their inability to access the malfunctioning systems.

So here’s my advice to every IT professional:

• Now is the time to prepare for the worst
• Make an OOB network
• Separate management paths from production (and test access!)

Because when the lights go out, that’s when real IT begins.

What is Out-of-Band Management?

Out-of-Band Management has been around for decades. It gives IT administrators remote access to network equipment through an independent channel, serving as a lifeline when the primary network is down.

Image: Traditional out-of-band solutions provide a secondary path to production infrastructure, but still rely in part on production equipment.

Most OOB solutions are like a backup entrance: if the main network is compromised, locked, or unavailable, OOB provides a way to “go around the front door” and fix the problem from the outside.

Key Characteristics:

• Separate Path: Usually uses dedicated serial ports, USB consoles, or cellular links.
• Primary Use Cases: Though OOB can be used for regular maintenance and updates, it’s typically used for emergency access, remote rebooting, BIOS/firmware-level diagnostics, and sometimes initial provisioning.
• Tools Involved: Console servers, terminal servers, or devices with embedded OOB ports (e.g., BMC/IPMI for servers).

Business Impact:

From a business standpoint, traditional OOB solutions offer reactive resilience that helps resolve outages faster and without costly site visits. It also reduces Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) and enhances the ability to manage remote or unmanned locations.

However, solutions like ZPE Systems’ Nodegrid provide robust capability that evolves out-of-band to a new level. This comprehensive, next-gen OOB is called Isolated Management Infrastructure.

What is Isolated Management Infrastructure?

Isolated Management Infrastructure furthers the concept of resilience and is a natural evolution of out-of-band. IMI does two things:

1. Rather than just providing a secondary path into production devices, IMI creates a completely separate management plane that does not rely on any production device.
2. IMI incorporates its own switches, routers, servers, and jumpboxes to support additional critical IT functions like networking, computing, security, and automation.

Image: Isolated Management Infrastructure creates a completely separate management plane and full-stack platform for maintaining critical services even during disruptions, and is strongly encouraged by CISA BOD 23-02.

IMI doesn’t just provide access during a crisis – it creates a separate layer of control and serves as a resilience system that keeps core services running no matter what. This gives organizations proactive resilience from simple upgrade errors and misconfigurations, to ransomware attacks and global disruptions like 2024’s CrowdStrike outage.

Key Characteristics:

• Fully Isolated Design: The management plane is physically and logically isolated from the production network, with console access to all production devices via a variety of interfaces including RS-232, Ethernet, USB, and IPMI.
• Backup Links: Uses two or more backup links for reliable access, such as 5G, Starlink, and others.
• Multi-Functionality: Hosts network monitoring, DNS, DHCP, automation engines, virtual firewalls, and all tools and functions to support critical services during disruptions.
• Automation: Provides a safe environment for teams to build, test, and integrate automation workflows, with the ability to automatically revert back to a golden image in case of errors.
• Ransomware Recovery: Hosts all tools, apps, and services to deploy the Gartner-recommended Secure Isolated Recovery Environments (SIRE).
• Zero Trust and Compliance Ready: Built to minimize blast radius and support regulated environments, with segmentation and zero trust security features such as MFA and Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC).

Business Impact:

IMI enables operational continuity in the face of cyberattacks, misconfigurations, or outages. It aligns with zero-trust principles and regulatory frameworks like NIST 800-207, making it ideal for government, finance, and healthcare. It also provides a foundation for modern DevSecOps and AI-driven automation strategies.

Comparing Reactive vs. Proactive Resilience

Why Businesses Should Care

For CIOs and CTOs

IMI is more than a management tool – it’s a strategic shift in infrastructure design. It minimizes dependency on the production network for critical IT functions and gives teams a layered defense. For organizations using AI, hybrid-cloud architectures, or edge computing, IMI is strongly encouraged and should be incorporated into the initial design.

For Network Architects and Engineers

IMI significantly reduces manual intervention during incidents. Instead of scrambling to access firewalls or core switches when something breaks, teams can rely on an isolated environment that remains fully operational. It also enables advanced automation workflows (e.g., self-healing, dynamic traffic rerouting) that just aren’t possible in traditional OOB environments.

Get a Demo of IMI

Set up a 15-minute demo to see IMI in action. Our experts will show you how to automatically provision devices, recover failed equipment, and combat ransomware. Use the button to set up your demo now.

Watch How IMI Improves Security

Rene Neumann (Director of Solution Engineering) gives a 10-minute presentation on IMI and how it enhances security.

AI is quickly becoming core to business-critical ops. It’s making manufacturing safer and more efficient, optimizing retail inventory management, and improving healthcare patient outcomes. But there’s a big question for those operating AI infrastructure: How can you make sure your systems stay online even when things go wrong?

AI system reliability is critical because it’s not just about building or using AI – it’s about making sure it’s available through outages, cyberattacks, and any other disruptions. To achieve this, organizations need to support their AI systems with a robust underlying infrastructure that enables secure remote network management.

The High Cost of Unreliable AI

When AI systems go down, customers and business users immediately feel the impact. Whether it’s a failed inference service, a frozen GPU node, or a misconfigured update that crashes an edge device, downtime results in:

• Missed business opportunities
• Poor customer experiences
• Safety and compliance risks
• Unrecoverable data losses

So why can’t admins just remote-in to fix the problem? Because traditional network infrastructure setups use a shared management plane. This means that management access depends on the same network as production AI workloads. When your management tools rely on the production network, you lose access exactly when you need it most – during outages, misconfigurations, or cyber incidents. It’s like if you were free-falling and your reserve parachute relied on your main parachute.

Image: Traditional network infrastructures are built so that remote admin access depends at least partially on the production network. If a production device fails, admin access is cut off.

This is why hyperscalers developed a specific best practice that is now catching on with large enterprises, Fortune companies, and even government agencies. This best practice is called Isolated Management Infrastructure, or IMI.

What is Isolated Management Infrastructure?

Isolated Management Infrastructure (IMI) separates management access from the production network. It’s a physically and logically distinct environment used exclusively for managing your infrastructure – servers, network switches, storage devices, and more. Remember the parachute analogy? It’s just like that: the reserve chute is a completely separate system designed to save you when the main system is compromised.

Image: Isolated Management Infrastructure fully separates management access from the production network, which gives admins a dependable path to ensure AI system reliability.

This isolation provides a reliable pathway to access and control AI infrastructure, regardless of what’s happening in the production environment.

How IMI Enhances AI System Reliability:

1. Always-On Access to Infrastructure
   Even if your production network is compromised or offline, IMI remains reachable for diagnostics, patching, or reboots.
2. Separation of Duties
   Keeping management traffic separate limits the blast radius of failures or breaches, and helps you confidently apply or roll back config changes through a chain of command.
3. Rapid Problem Resolution
   Admins can immediately act on alerts or failures without waiting for primary systems to recover, and instantly launch a Secure Isolated Recovery Environment (SIRE) to combat active cyberattacks.
4. Secure Automation
   Admins are often reluctant to apply firmware/software updates or automation workflows out of fear that they’ll cause an outage. IMI gives them a safe environment to test these changes before rolling out to production, and also allows them to safely roll back using a golden image.

IMI vs. Out-of-Band: What’s the Difference?

While out-of-band (OOB) management is a component of many reliable infrastructures, it’s not sufficient on its own. OOB typically refers to a single device’s backup access path, like a serial console or IPMI port.

IMI is broader and architectural: it builds an entire parallel management ecosystem that’s secure, scalable, and independent from your AI workloads. Think of IMI as the full management backbone, not just a side street or second entrance, but a dedicated freeway. Check out this full breakdown comparing OOB vs IMI.

Use Case: Finance

Consider a financial services firm using AI for fraud detection. During a network misconfiguration incident, their LLMs stop receiving real-time data. Without IMI, engineers would be locked out of the systems they need to fix, similar to the CrowdStrike outage of 2024. But with IMI in place, they can restore routing in minutes, which helps them keep compliance systems online while avoiding regulatory fines, reputation damage, and other potential fallout.

Use Case: Manufacturing

Consider a manufacturing company using AI-driven computer vision on the factory floor to spot defects in real time. When a firmware update triggers a failure across several edge inference nodes, the primary network goes dark. Production stops, and on-site technicians no longer have access to the affected devices. With IMI, the IT team can remote-into the management plane, roll back the update, and bring the system back online within minutes, keeping downtime to a minimum while avoiding expensive delays in order fulfillment.

How To Architect for AI System Reliability

Achieving AI system reliability starts well before the first model is trained and even before GPU racks come online. It begins at the infrastructure layer. Here are important things to consider when architecting your IMI:

• Build a dedicated management network that’s isolated from production.
• Make sure to support functions such as Ethernet switching, serial switching, jumpbox/crash-cart, 5G, and automation.
• Use zero-trust access controls and role-based permissions for administrative actions.
• Design your IMI to scale across data centers, colocation sites, and edge locations.

Image: Architecting AI system reliability using IMI means deploying Ethernet switches, serial switches, WAN routers, 5G, and up to nine total functions. ZPE Systems’ Nodegrid eliminates the need for separate devices, as these edge routers can host all the functions necessary to deploy a complete IMI.

By treating management access as mission-critical, you ensure that AI system reliability is built-in rather than reactive.

Power Distribution Units (PDUs) are the unsung heroes of reliable IT operations. They provide the one thing that nobody pays attention to unless it’s gone: stable, uninterrupted power. Despite their essential role in hyperscale data centers, colocations, and remote edge sites, PDU management often remains one of the least optimized and most overlooked areas in IT operations. As organizations grow and expand their infrastructure footprints, the challenges associated with PDU management multiply to create inefficiencies, drive up costs, and expose critical systems to unnecessary downtime.

Why PDU Management is a Growing Concern

For enterprises that have adopted traditional Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) platforms or out-of-band (OOB) solutions, it might seem like power infrastructure is already covered. However, these tools fall short when it comes to giving teams granular control of PDUs. Many only support SNMP-based monitoring, which means teams can see status data but can’t push configurations, perform power cycling, or recover unresponsive devices. OOB solutions also rely on a single WAN link, which can fail and cut off admin access.

This lack of control results in IT teams still having to perform routine power management tasks on-site, even in supposedly modernized environments.

The Three Major Challenges of PDU Management

1. Operational Inefficiencies

Most PDUs still require manual interaction for updates, configuration changes, or outlet-level power cycling. If a PDU becomes unresponsive, or if firmware updates fail mid-process, SNMP interfaces become useless and recovery options are limited. In these cases, IT personnel must physically travel to the site – sometimes covering long distances – just to perform a simple reboot or plug in a crash cart. This not only introduces unnecessary downtime but also drains IT resources and slows incident resolution.

2. Slow Scaling

As businesses grow, so does the number of PDUs deployed across their infrastructure. Yet when it comes to providing network capabilities, power systems are not designed with scalability in mind. Even network-connected PDUs lack support for modern automation frameworks like Ansible, Terraform, or Python. Without REST APIs, scripting interfaces, or integration with infrastructure-as-code platforms, IT teams are left managing each unit individually through outdated web GUIs or vendor-specific software. This manual approach doesn’t scale and leads to costly delays, especially during site rollouts or large-scale upgrades.

3. High Administrative Overhead

Enterprises managing hundreds or thousands of PDUs across distributed environments face overwhelming complexity. Without centralized visibility, tracking the health, configuration status, or firmware version of each device becomes impossible. When each PDU requires its own login, manual updates, and independent troubleshooting processes, power management becomes reactive, not strategic. This overhead not only wastes time but also increases the risk of misconfigurations, security gaps, and service disruptions.

Best Practices for Modern PDU Management

To move beyond these limitations, organizations must rethink their approach. The goal is to eliminate on-site dependencies, enable remote control, and consolidate management across all PDUs. This is where Isolated Management Infrastructure (IMI) comes into play.

1. Enable Remote Power Management

Connect PDUs to a dedicated management network, ideally through both Ethernet and serial interfaces. This allows for complete remote access, from initial provisioning to ongoing troubleshooting, even if the primary network link goes down.

2. Automate Everything

Adopt solutions that support infrastructure-as-code, automation scripts, and third-party integrations. By automating tasks like firmware updates, power cycling, and configuration pushes, organizations can drastically reduce manual workloads and improve accuracy.

3. Centralize Administration

Deploy a unified platform that can manage all PDUs, regardless of vendor or model, from a single interface. Centralization enables consistent policies, rapid issue resolution, and streamlined operations across all environments.