By definition, network configuration backup is the process of saving network configuration files in a repository with versions stored in incremental order. The importance of this process being managed correctly cannot be overlooked. Faulty configuration changes can cause network outages, security breaches and compliance failures.
According to recent reports, misconfiguration errors account for around 75% of network outages. Despite this, many businesses still rely on manual processes to manage their network configuration backup and recovery processes, increasing the risk of something going wrong.
In this post, we look at the benefits of automating network configuration backups.
1. No more unreliable scripts
Scripting can be a very convenient way to automate common network management tasks like backing up configurations. While it is easy to create infinitely customisable scripts, this technique comes with quite a few drawbacks that make it unsuitable for backups. As well as being unreliable, due to the likelihood of human error when creating or changing them, scripts are time consuming and complex to write, difficult to test and are unable to handle errors and alerts. Our blog post Why Manual Scripting Can Leave Your Network Vulnerable, explains the pitfalls in further detail.
2. Accountability
Faulty configuration changes can take hours/days to fix to get the network back up and running. It can then take even longer for IT to understand who/what caused the bad change in the first place. Network configuration management solutions like Restorepoint automate the entire process of making changes, providing audit trails to determine who, where, how and when they were carried out.
3. Quickly roll back changes
When the worst-case scenario occurs and the network goes down because of a configuration error, businesses need to know that they can roll-back and restore the network fast. This isn’t easy when configurations are managed manually, especially when the network is made up of hundreds or thousands of network devices. Restorepoint allows you to quickly and easily roll back the last good configuration to all network devices.
4. Manage multi-vendor networks easily
Without automation, maintaining networks made up of multi-vendor devices and device types can be a real headache for network teams. With all the different device types having different configuration backup processes, admins often need vendor-specific training to troubleshoot network problems. Restorepoint supports over 100 network, security, and storage vendors so you can automate backups across all of your devices without complex backup scripts.
5. Simplify compliance auditing
Regular auditing is essential to comply with various government regulations and industry standards, like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), PCI (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability). The manual process of generating and auditing a report for compliance is time-consuming, prone to errors and could even escalate to costly legal issues if not carried out correctly. Restorepoint automatically audits your network estate, performing network configuration and device health checks at scale, providing a continuous view of your network compliance status.
ALSO READ: How To Ransomware Proof your Backups
6. Increase security
Network device configurations often contain lots of sensitive data: passwords, private keys, and internal IP address information that attackers would find valuable. Even so, some companies put their network backups taken by scripts right on a network share for convenient access by engineers, leaving them vulnerable to security breaches. Restorepoint stores sensitive configuration data centrally, using AES encryption and protects it with role-based access controls.
Are you ready to automate your critical network processes?
Restorepoint is a multi-vendor network configuration management solution that automates network backup, recovery, and compliance.
Want to find out more? Talk to a Restorepoint Expert here at ActivEdge for a full list of our features or book a demo for a full walkthrough.