Backup for all parts of a computer network ensures zero system downtime
UNLESS PROPER MEASURES are taken, a security network will invariably suffer downtime, whether it is intentionally shut down for software upgrades, or brought down by hardware failure or other unforeseen events.
High availability is the concept of ensuring there is a backup for every aspect of the system that can fail, so there will be no disruption if any part does.
High availability, applied to the area of computer security, involves building a second firewall into the security perimeter, so if one firewall goes down, another will automatically take its place to avoid any security compromises and prevent businesses from losing revenue.
According to a Gartner report on enterprise firewalls, such functions are starting to catch on, 'with leading products having the ability to place at least two firewalls in parallel and provide automated switchover'.
Ted Marr is president and chief executive of Resilience, a company headquartered in California that has been designing and manufacturing high availability and fault tolerant systems for critical network security applications for 10 years.
Mr Marr said Resilience had a winning formula with its Linux-based Ndurant range of high availability security appliances as it represented a cost-effective one-box solution housing two integrated hardware modules. This precluded the need to spend on and maintain two separate servers to achieve high availability.
