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3 Ways Your Critical Remote Infrastructure Is Costing You

It’s easy to imagine all the ways that downtime can throw a wrench into your critical remote infrastructure operations. Things like scaling, service outages, and tedious management are just part of the job. No matter how much these stand in the way of business, there’s not much that you can do about them, right?

Not quite. In this post, we’ll explore three reasons your complex critical remote infrastructure is costing you, and how Nodegrid is the simple solution that helps you save.

If you’re short on time, here’s a two-minute video explaining how you can cut through the complexity of managing your network.

Deploying critical remote infrastructure

You’re probably familiar with long deployment times for your critical remote infrastructure. Manually provisioning and setting up networks consumes a lot of time and resources. The obvious costs here are the staff wages and device shipping expenses; however, the not-so-obvious cost is the business opportunity that you miss. The longer it takes you to deploy, the longer your location goes without meeting demand or generating revenue.

How can you minimize this cost? By using zero touch provisioning.

Zero touch provisioning uses automation to automatically configure and build your networks. Instead of putting staff on site to manually set up each device in your stack, you can instruct even unskilled staff to simply plug in and boot your devices. Zero touch provisioning does the rest of the work and can bring you online in hours.

Not all zero touch provisioning is the same, though. Most vendors only allow you to use it for their devices or products, which means unless you standardize on their offerings, you’re going to be limited in terms of what systems and services you can automatically deploy. On top of this, you still need to pre-configure devices and put sensitive info at risk, as well as perform manual orchestration and firmware updates.

This is where Nodegrid sets itself apart. Because it features the vendor-neutral Nodegrid OS, it allows you to use your choice of automation tools as well as build custom scripts to orchestrate across devices and environments. This means you can use true zero touch provisioning that extends to every part of your infrastructure — from configuring end devices from different vendors, to bootstrapping VMs, activating service licenses, and setting up your entire network. It offers airtight security as well, because you can completely provision bare-metal devices via ZPE Cloud.

When it comes to your critical remote infrastructure, Nodegrid is your go-to solution for fast, complete, and secure network deployments.

Keeping critical remote infrastructure online

How often does your critical remote infrastructure go offline? When it does, you can suffer losses at a rate of $5,000 or more per minute, according to Gartner. And this only covers the monetary portion. You also need to consider the reputation damage, degradation of trust, and decreased customer satisfaction that result from sudden outages.

If you’re familiar with redundant solutions, you know that these can be a life saver — but on the other hand, they come with two times the number of solutions that you need to purchase, deploy, and manage.

You typically need to deploy two boxes for each function you wish to add redundancy to, and connect them in a high availability configuration. In other words, two firewalls, two routers, two SD-WAN boxes, etc. All this means the initial and ongoing burden of redundancy can be…off-putting.

However, Nodegrid devices feature a powerful hypervisor that allows you to deploy virtualized network functions (VNFs). The onboard, multi-core Intel CPU and Linux-based Nodegrid OS provide you with enough resources to spin up VMs, guest operating systems, applications, and Docker containers directly on Nodegrid appliances. Instead of spending tons of money on more devices that clutter your infrastructure and management efforts, you can host firewalls, virtual routers, SD-WAN solutions, and custom and third-party solutions on one box. You can easily shrink a redundant setup of six devices into two Nodegrid boxes.

Beyond covering your network services with redundancy, Nodegrid also gives you built-in 5G/4G LTE connectivity available via two and four SIM cards, respectively. You don’t have to worry about a main line outage taking down an entire office or store location. Nodegrid automatically switches to your backup cellular connections, so you can keep critical remote infrastructure online and operations running.

Responding to critical remote infrastructure problems

It can be difficult to manage critical remote infrastructure because it’s, well, remote. You may have store locations that are very far away from any skilled IT staff. Or you may operate in an industry such as utilities or oil and gas, where you have critical components distributed across power grids or offshore drilling platforms.

Unless you have a robust remote management tool in place, you’re losing time and money responding to problems. This also means the user experience suffers and is difficult to optimize.

For your business, the losses can start to pile up even before an issue is reported. Your efforts are pulled into managing and dispatching IT teams for on-site support, while users and customers put up with poor network performance or even complete outages.

But when you use Nodegrid and ZPE Cloud, you gain in-depth management capabilities that allow you to fully support your network from a distance. You can save significantly on operational costs by reducing or eliminating the need to roll support trucks. That’s because ZPE Cloud gives you a complete view of your distributed infrastructure, and gives you convenient remote access to manage all your solutions. Use your browser to securely connect without a VPN. You can instantly troubleshoot issues and even reboot devices from thousands of miles away.

Want more tactics to help you reduce downtime?

Watch our free webinar to see how you can cut downtime 50% or more using a Fortune 500 strategy.

Virtual Customer Premises Equipment with Palo Alto Networks and Nodegrid

Virtual Customer Premises Equipment

Virtual Customer Premises Equipment, or vCPE, is the epitome of network function virtualization. Enterprises are implementing this form of customer premises equipment because it brings many benefits, such as faster deployments, optimized resource allocation, and unlimited flexibility. Service providers are especially keen to using vCPE to simplify service delivery and dramatically improve customer experiences.

Regardless of what industry you’re in, you can use this virtualization approach to streamline your enterprise networking.

What is Virtual Customer Premises Equipment?

Virtual customer premises equipment makes use of virtualization to deliver network services. This approach essentially uses a virtual environment that consists of software-based functions. These functions can include routing, security/firewalls, VPNs, and much more.

How is Virtual Customer Premises Equipment different?

Networking typically involves deploying stacks of purpose-built devices at each location. These appliances must be configured, provisioned, and maintained by specialized staff, who are usually required to be on site to perform these tasks. This can become expensive — not just to purchase devices (and perpetually replace them every few years), but also to provide support and maintenance. And because branch offices usually have limited physical space, large stacks of equipment can be obtrusive and take up significant real estate.

vCPE vaporizes these large stacks, and instead puts the different network functions into a cloud-based model. These functions are hosted at a separate site or data center. Instead of using many dedicated appliances, branch locations need only one or two devices to run software that can deliver these functions to the site.

Why use Virtual Customer Premises Equipment?

Virtual customer premises equipment helps you gain more business agility. If you look at it from a hardware consolidation standpoint alone, it’s plain to see how much more easily you can deploy and manage your distributed networks.

  • Deploy faster & save money — Fewer pieces of hardware means you no longer need to haul many devices to each location. Once you have your virtualized functions set up at your service delivery site/data center, you can bring branch sites online using a single box. If you also use automation via zero touch provisioning, all you have to do is install & boot each device and watch your network build itself. You can deploy in minutes, while saving on device, shipping, and support costs.
  • Use exactly what you need — Purpose-built hardware can be difficult to optimize — usually, they are over-utilized and cause problems, or under-utilized and lead to wasted resources. Because vCPE allows you to set up a custom & dynamic environment, you can easily optimize resource allocation to eliminate problems and waste, so your network uses exactly what it needs.
  • Get endless flexibility — Software-based solutions are much simpler to deploy, manage, and replace than physical hardware. This gives you the ability to remain flexible as requirements change, especially if you choose a vendor-neutral vCPE platform. Imagine how simple it is to spin up a VM and run a new application, as opposed to purchasing, deploying, and provisioning a new dedicated device to go in each location.

You can get an all-in-one vCPE solution

ZPE Systems and Palo Alto Networks have partnered to bring you an all-in-one joint solution.

Using the Nodegrid Services Router (NSR), you can directly host Palo Alto’s VM-Series next-gen virtual firewalls. These powerful tools allow you to secure all traffic, including out-of-band paths, using a single solution. This makes it easy to deploy sites without hassle and get peace of mind knowing your networks are completely protected.

Here’s a brief video showing how easy it is to deploy your vCPE solution:

On top of this, the NSR allows you to host virtualized network functions (VNFs) from other vendors of your choice. The NSR is also an x86 Intel-powered device that features modular add-ons for compute and storage capabilities. You can deploy powerful vCPE implementations at branch sites, using a single box for routing, switching, computing, security, and other critical functions.

Click the link to read the full joint solutions brief, and contact us to set up a demo.

What is Cellular Failover?

Learn the basics of Cellular Failover in this 2 1/2 minute video. John Paul Kang, Solutions Engineer at ZPE Systems, shares his IT and data center expertise to provide a high-level overview of cellular failover.

  • What is Cellular Failover?
  • What problems does it address?
  • How does it benefit businesses?
  • How does it help system and network administrators?

Why Out-of-Band Management for the Branch is Better With Nodegrid

Out-of-band management (OOB) and business continuity go hand-in-hand. If set up properly, your OOB network should provide safe, reliable, always-ready access to your critical infrastructure components. Even when there’s not an outage, OOB is the key to optimizing your network — from troubleshooting issues, to maintaining speed & availability to all your users.

If you’re not entirely sure about out-of-band management’s big benefits, here are 3 reasons why you shouldn’t go a day without it.

OOB is essential to branch and satellite IT sites, where specialized personnel might only occasionally drop in. With this in mind, ZPE Systems’ Nodegrid platform offers OOB that’s far beyond ordinary:

  • Take advantage of secure access technologies, including non-VPN access links that work over any available WAN
  • Use zero touch provisioning for hands-off, automatic deployments — for even your most remote locations
  • Set up automation using popular tools & languages, for help with management of branch offices
  • Get ZPE Cloud for even more flexibility and remote management capabilities

What is Zero Touch Provisioning?

Learn the basics of Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) in this 2 1/2 minute video. Rene Neumann, EU Solutions Engineering Manager at ZPE Systems shares his IT and data center expertise to provide a high-level overview of ZTP.

  • What is ZTP?
  • What pain points does it address?
  • How does it benefit businesses?
  • How does it help system and network administrators?

Maintain Uptime With a Reliable Data Center and Business Continuity

The data center and business continuity — these go hand-in-hand, as one relies so heavily on the other. Because your data centers are mission critical, an outage can bring down your network and your business. But taking control of your data centers can be more than a hassle, especially if you use traditional out-of-band management (OOB) solutions.

In this article, you’ll explore some major shortcomings of common OOB, how they interfere with business continuity, and what ZPE Systems’ Nodegrid does to restore your peace of mind.

Challenges Involving the Data Center and Business Continuity

You Need to Stay Close.

For network maintenance and management, traditional out-of-band solutions force you to keep staff close to the data center. Not only is this because you need to perform routine tasks, such as monitoring power or opening shells for customers, but also because you need a reliable response in the event that your network faces major disruption. Otherwise, issues can result in you spending sums of time and money to put staff on-site, sometimes requiring late night wakeup calls and expensive round-trip airfare.

You Need Many Devices.

Rack space and energy consumption are at a premium when it comes to data center computing. But by nature, data centers require many appliances just to handle all necessary functions. Introducing OOB management typically involves adding even more devices, which steals more rack space, power, and money from your business. And with traditional OOB solutions, you usually end up with a rigid and complicated system that makes your job that much more difficult. Resolving most issues involves a lengthy administration protocol due to your enormous stack.

You Need Lots of Time.

When scaling and managing via traditional OOB solutions, time isn’t on your side. To deploy a new location, you need to risk shipping preconfigured devices that contain sensitive configuration data. Once you pass this first hurdle, you then need to put staff on-site to manually set up these devices, which can take weeks. Finally, your ongoing management of data center infrastructure involves juggling many vendor-specific consoles and interfaces. If you need to make quick adjustments or pinpoint a failed device, you’re forced to invest more time navigating a complex stack.

Nodegrid Improves Management of the Data Center and Business Continuity

Restore Uptime From Anywhere.

Nodegrid lets you untether staff from the data center’s physical location, and instead gives them the freedom to perform tasks 100% remotely. When you need to adapt to sudden work-from-home guidelines, or restore connectivity after a 3am outage, Nodegrid lets you thanks to flexible out-of-band management. It uses broadband links and 4G/LTE cellular to provide you with more speed than traditional OOB solutions, and you can even take control fo power management. No more midnight flights just to reboot devices — cycle power remotely and rest easy.

Save space and power

Nodegrid’s consolidated devices address the data center’s need for less — less occupied rack space, and less consumed energy. The all-in-one appliances handle network, compute, storage, and power functions, and also feature a blazing fast x86 64-bit architecture that supports direct third-party application hosting. For out-of-band management, you can connect via many common serial or digital interfaces, and even get a reliable cellular connection for backup. Nodegrid’s efficient devices free up rack space, consume less energy, and help you resolve issues faster.

Scale and manage fast

Nodegrid makes scaling quick and easy. With patented, all-in-one devices, cloud-based flexibility via ZPE Cloud, and Nodegrid Manager software, you can deploy and manage in minutes. Instead of shipping sensitive devices to your new location, you just need to send a bare-metal Nodegrid appliance. Once it’s safely at your new data center, simply plug it in and watch it work. ZPE Cloud delivers zero touch provisioning that’s secure, automatic, and consistent. For ongoing management, use this cloud connectivity coupled with Nodegrid Manager to get a full, in-depth view of your network infrastructure. Alerts and notifications pinpoint potential issues, and you can employ automation tools via Ansible, Puppet, Chef, and others for self-healing and repair.

Nodegrid keeps you secure with two-factor authentication and single sign-on. For added convenience and improved management, Nodegrid also comes with a screen- and session-sharing feature that lets you collaborate with others in real time. You can team up with your experts to find and fix issues fast.

If you want to see Nodegrid’s next gen out-of-band solution for the data center, schedule a demo now.