Creating a secure perimeter around critical OT networks requires a multi-faceted approach, but one of the key areas of focus in this domain is high availability. And when data is mission critical, downtime is unacceptable. High availability features in security gateways and data diodes enable customers to maximize uptime and minimize downtime and the loss of data during a network outage, loss of power, or hardware failure. In this blog, let’s explore four reasons why high availability and its role in network perimeter cybersecurity are critical to an organization’s overall posture.
What is High Availability?
Before we dive into the key concepts of this blog, let’s first address idea of high availability itself; high availability in data diodes and security gateways involves strategic redundancy, reliable failover mechanisms, continuous health monitoring, and synchronization to ensure uninterrupted operation. It is typically achieved through a combination, or all the aforementioned concepts over multiple physical devices to remove single points of failure from a security posture.
4 Reasons High Availability Matters
1. Ensuring Continued Functionality
High availability ensures the continued functionality of infrastructure, even when some of its components fail. This is particularly significant for mission-critical systems, where a service disruption may lead to adverse business impact, resulting in additional expenses or financial losses. By implementing high availability features, organizations can ensure that their services remain operational, thereby minimizing the risk of downtime.
2. Protecting Against External Threats
The security perimeter is an important part of every organization’s cybersecurity strategy. It provides the necessary controls to protect against external threats and adhere to regulations. In the event of a failure, high availability enables customers to maintain a secure perimeter without the need to revert to insecure firewall-based security in order to keep customer data flowing.
3. Minimizing Loss
Protecting digital assets and ensuring cyber resilience is an essential part of any organization’s cybersecurity considerations. High availability ensures that there is minimal potential for data loss in the event of a hardware failure, loss of power, or network connectivity disruption.
4. Streamlining Service/Patch Update Process
High availability makes maintaining data flows a much more reliable process. Overall, this means that software and patch updates can be applied without disrupting data transmission, ensuring seamless operation and minimal downtime.
MetaDefender NetWall
By leveraging cutting-edge technologies and industry-leading best practices, MetaDefender NetWall products with high availability ensure organizations maintain business continuity in the event of faults and challenges to normal operation by eliminating the single point of failure with 99.99% system availability.
The Benefits of NetWall High Availability
High availability utilizes active/standby components across two sets of MetaDefender NetWall products, where one will be in an active state at a given time while the other will be in standby, ready to take over in the event of a failure in the active NetWall.
Maximized Uptime/Minimized Data Loss
Hardware redundancy with automated failover, maximizes uptime and minimizes data loss in the event of a hardware failure, power loss, or network connectivity issues
Added Value
Every MetaDefender NetWall product comes high availability enabled
Stay Ready for the Future
MetaDefender NetWall is field upgradeable to a high availability configuration—now or later
First-of-its-Kind Diode Technology
Redundant optical connections enable MetaDefender Optical Diode to overcome historical limitations often associated with high availability using data diodes
Strengthening the Perimeter
High availability is essential in network perimeter cybersecurity as it ensures uninterrupted service, efficient resource utilization, and reliable protection against cyberthreats. OPSWAT has integrated—and improved—this critical feature in its NetWall product line to make removing the singular point of failure easier than ever before. We know that firewalls are not enough, so talk to an expert today and discover why OPSWAT is the critical advantage trusted globally to defend what’s critical.
