Manufacturers face continuity challenge

Failure to safeguard network availability could threaten core production processes.

Manufacturers could be putting production line continuity at risk by failing to address network availability challenges.

The growing use of electronic information in the manufacturing process means that network availability is becoming increasingly critical. Yet a survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit has revealed that network availability is one of the most challenging issues facing network managers.

Chris Knowles, Security Solutions Director at Computacenter, commented: “Maintaining network availability is a problem for every industry sector, as it can be impacted by so many different factors from a denial of service attack to a faulty switch. Keeping track of all these eventualities is extremely complex, especially if an organisation has multiple local and wide area networks.”

Valuable insight

Identifying such problems before they become critical can help to minimise downtime and provide organisations with a valuable insight into their network infrastructures.

“Manufacturers are increasingly using their networks to share and transfer critical data from CAD/CAM and supply chain applications, so it is essential that they have excellent visibility of the infrastructure’s performance,” added Knowles.

Although there are a range of tools that can provide such visibility, organisations need a comprehensive understanding of systems integration and network management to maximise the benefits of these solutions.

“The complexity of today’s networks means that implementing a monitoring solution will often result in additional modifications, especially when being used across multiple sites,” said Knowles.

Managed service

Manufacturers also have the added option of working with an external provider that can offer a remote monitoring service. This not only helps organisations overcome some of the complexity surrounding network management but also the need for a dedicated internal resource, which has obvious financial implications.

“Monitoring a network round-the-clock is very intensive, and very few companies can afford to provide this level of service internally,“ commented Knowles. “By working with an external partner, manufacturers can gain the level of protection they need at a price they can afford.”

Computacenter’s Service Operations Centre acts as a central management point for monitoring and managing customer networks. The centre is manned 24 hours a day by service engineers who monitor customer’s systems and instigate a resolution for any issues that might disrupt the use of monitored platforms.