FINAL WORD
David Coffey , Chief Product Officer , NS1 , an
IBM Company
Having access to multiple CDNs in the event of an outage gives application teams options and allows applications to stay available .
2 . Multi-cloud : The use of multiple clouds is a sound and popular approach and often recommended as the bedrock of resilient applications . While for some companies using different clouds is an evolution they didn ’ t plan in a cohesive way , multicloud usage does offer significant advantages .
As we see regularly in the news some of the world ’ s largest cloud providers suffer outages and if a company is reliant on a single provider this will instantly make an application unavailable . Resilience comes through using the services of
Corporate IT teams now need to put in place a unified tech stack that works for all lines of business . multiple cloud providers , which provides backup infrastructure when it is needed and allows companies to select the most cost-effective and dependable provider in each location .
3 . Intelligent traffic steering : Internet application traffic moves fast . This makes it almost impossible for network engineers to manually respond quickly enough to ensure consistency of service . Instead , what is needed is technology dedicated to traffic steering . This enables application teams to adapt to real-time conditions without there being any impact on the user experience in the event of an outage . Smart traffic steering uses various criteria to quickly reroute traffic whether that is the user ’ s location or the capacity of the server .
4 . Resilient DNS : DNS is the key driver behind the control of app traffic and as a result it is a common target for cybercriminals looking for a way through apps ’ defences . Resilient DNS and DDoS protection , therefore , are essential . A secondary DNS network separate from the primary network delivers this level of resilience providing an alternative if the primary network goes offline . Other technologies that could be considered for the stack are anycast routing , which can easily direct traffic to available servers if there is a partial outage and DNSSEC to guard against man-in-themiddle attacks .
5 . Network automation : They ’ ve been calling 2023 the year of efficiency . The four technologies listed above are increasingly crucial to reaching the best application and network performance , but networks need to be efficient on top of it all . It ’ s surprising how much of network tasks and operations continue to be written down on paper or in static spreadsheets . Anything from routine tasks to traffic steering are available for some sort of automation . The great thing about network automation tools is that they can start small with one use case , but the impact can be felt immediately . Think about what ’ s taking the most time and energy and start there . Examples could include proactively automating incidents , assuring an always-on performance ( like traffic steering ) or simply doing a task quicker . All of these things can help manage costs and make your system more efficient .
This list of five technologies should be regarded as a foundation for a unified tech stack . What matters most as corporate IT leaders regain control of the technology in their companies is to keep an open dialogue with the application team so their objectives can be met . Not only will this improve the integration of technologies , it will also cut costs and boost reliability , paving the way for the next stage in their company ’ s ongoing Digital Transformation . p
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