The Binomial Bookstore

MISSION-CRITICAL NETWORK PLANNING
by Matthew Liotine

“Whether a terrorist attack, fiber cut, security breach, natural disaster or traffic overload,
today’s networks must be designed to withstand adverse conditions and provide continuous
service. This comprehensive, leading-edge book reveals the techniques and strategies to
help you keep enterprise data and voice networks in service under critical circumstances.
You learn numerous ways to minimize single points of failure through redundancy and
backups, and discover how to select the right networking technologies to improve
survivability and performance.

“This unique and timely resource shows you how to spot vulnerabilities in a network, use the
protective features of different technologies for continuity and security, and build survivable
network infrastructure. Supported with over 150 illustrations, this handy reference goes far
beyond typical books dealing with only disaster recovery, to offer you a complete avoidance
approach that proactively implements measures to protect infrastructure and systems from
unplanned events.”

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
Purpose of the Book
What is Mission Critical?
Network Continuity versus Disaster Recovery
The Case for Mission Critical Planning
Trends Affecting Continuity Planning
Mission Goals and Objectives
Organization of the Book.

PRINCIPLES OF CONTINUITY
Fault Mechanics
Disruptions
Containment
Errors
Failover
Recovery
Contingency
Resumption. Principles of Redundancy
Principles of Tolerance
Principles of Design.

CONTINUITY METRICS
Recovery Metrics
Reliability Metrics
Availability Metrics
Exposure Metrics
Risk/Loss Metrics
Cost Metrics
Capacity Metrics
Performance Metrics.

NETWORK TOPOLOGY AND PROTOCOL CONSIDERATIONS FOR CONTINUITY
Network Topology
Network Protocols.

NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES FOR CONTINUITY
Local Area Networks
Wide Area Networks
Metropolitan Area Networks.

PROCESSING, LOAD CONTROL AND INTERNETWORKING FOR CONTINUITY
Clusters
Load Balancing
Internetworking
Caching.

NETWORK ACCESS CONTINUITY
Voice Network Access
Data Network Access
Wireless Access.

PLATFORM CONTINUITY
Critical Platform Characteristics
Platform Tolerance
Server Platforms
Network Platforms
Platform Management
Power Management.

SOFTWARE APPLICATION CONTINUITY
Classifying Applications
Application Development
Application Architecture
Application Deployment
Application Performance Management
Application Recovery
Application/Platform Interaction
Application Performance Checklist.

STORAGE CONTINUITY
Mission Critical Storage Requirements
Data Replication
Replication Strategies
Backup Strategies
Storage Systems
Storage Sites and Services
Networked Storage
Storage Operations & Management.

CONTINUITY FACILITIES
Enterprise Layout
Cable Plant
Power Plant
Environmental Strategies.

NETWORK MANAGEMENT FOR CONTINUITY
Migrating Network Management to the Enterprise
Topology Discovery
Network Monitoring
Problem Resolution
Restoration Management
Carrier/Supplier Management
Traffic Management
Service Level Management
QoS
Policy Based Network Management
Service Level Agreements
Change Management.

USING RECOVERY SITES AND SERVICES
Types of Sites
Types of Services
Implementing and Managing Recovery Sites.

CONTINUITY TESTING
Requirements and Testing
Test Planning
Test Environment
Test Phases.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

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PURPOSE OF THE BOOK

“As organizations grow increasingly dependent on IT, they also grow more dependent on
immunity to outages and service disruptions. This book presents strategies, practices, and
techniques to plan networks that are survivable and have stable behavior. Although the
practice of disaster recovery emphasizes restoration from outages and disruptions, this book
is not intended to be a book on disaster recovery. Instead, we discuss how to design
survivability and performance into a network, using conventional networking technologies and
practices, and how to create the ability to recover from a variety of problems. We tell you
what
to look out for and what to keep in mind. Wherever possible, we try to discuss the benefits
and caveats in doing things a certain way.

“There is often a temptation to become too obsessed with individual technologies versus
looking at the big picture. To this end, this book emphasizes higher-level architectural
strategies that utilize and leverage the features of various technologies. As many of these
strategies can be turned around and applied elsewhere, even at different network levels, one
will find that the practice of network continuity planning is influenced more on how various
capabilities are arranged together and less on a sole reliance on the capability of one
technology.

“Organizations with infinite money and resources and no competitors can certainly eliminate
most disruptions and outages, but of course such firms do not exist. Most firms are faced
with
the challenge of maximizing survivability and performance in light of tight budgets and
troubled economies. As a result, network continuity planning becomes a practice of
prioritizing; assigning dollars to those portions of the network that are most mission critical
and that can directly affect service delivery. If done indiscriminately, network continuity
planning can waste time and money, leading to ineffective solutions that produce a false
sense of security.”

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EXCERPT FROM THE FOREWORD

“September 11, 2001, is a defining date in U.S. and world history. September 11, or 911,
may also prove to be a defining event for business networking, as 911 brought attention to
the challenging practices and processes of maintaining states of preparedness in critical
infrastructures. Among these were the communications infrastructure built around and upon
Internet technology. While the news coverage in the days and weeks following 911 justly
focused on the human tragedy, many individuals and organizations affected by the terrorist
acts struggled to resume business as usual. Those for whom the Internet was critical to their
business processes were either devastated by the extent to which they were isolated from
customers, partners, and even their colleagues, or they were surprised (if not astonished) that
their businesses processes were rapidly restored, and in some cases, remained nearly
intact.

“The first group undoubtedly struggled through a slow, painful, disruptive, and expensive
process we call business resumption and disaster recovery. The latter group included a
handful of "lucky ducks" but many more organizations for which business and network
continuity were carefully planned and implemented. When needed, these continuity
measures
executed as intended. For these organizations, 911 was not a defining event in a business
sense, but a catastrophic event for which they had prepared their business and network
operations.

“A second and equally compelling reason that 911 was not a defining event to the latter group
is that maintaining business and network continuity is as much about maintaining good
performance when confronted with incidental events and temporary outages as it is when
confronted with catastrophic ones.

“In this unique work, Matthew Liotine presents strategies, best practices, processes, and
techniques to prepare networks that are survivable and have stable behavior. He shows us
how to design survivable networks that perform well and can quickly recover from a variety of
problems to a well-performing state using commercial, off-the-shelf equipment and public
services. The proactive measures and anticipatory planning Matthew presents here are
immensely more useful lessons to learn and apply than resumption and recovery measures.

“This book discusses problems and offers recommendations and solutions in each of the IT
disciplines most often seen in large enterprises today. All of the major functional
areas-networking (wide area and local area networks); hardware and operating system
platforms, applications, and services; facilities, recovery and mirroring sites, and storage;
and management and testing-are examined.

“Dr. Liotine provides the most comprehensive analysis I have seen thus far in our industry. He
establishes a wonderful balance between technology and business,
complementing useful technical insight for the IT manager and staff with equally useful insight
into planning, practice, process, manpower, and capital expenses for the business
development folks. If your network is truly something you view as mission critical, you cannot
afford to overlook this work.”
- David Piscitello
- Core Competence, Inc.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“Matthew Liotine is currently vice president of BLR Consulting and has formerly served as a
product marketing director at AT&T Bell Laboratories. A former president of the Society of
Information & Management Science, Chicago Chapter, Dr. Liotine holds a Ph.D. in
engineering from Princeton University.”

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2004, 432 Pages. Order #DR599.
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The Binomial Bookstore

IT Disaster Recovery

Rothstein Associates Inc.