Providing hardware redundancy in a switched network can be
accomplished by implementing redundant modules within devices or by deploying
redundant devices.
To achieve network availability as close to 100
percent of the time as possible, these network components are required:
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Reliable, fault-tolerant network devices – Hardware and software
reliability to automatically identify and overcome failures.
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Device and link redundancy – Entire devices may be redundant or
modules within devices can be redundant. Links may also be redundant.
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Resilient network technologies – Intelligence that ensures fast
recovery around any device or link failure.
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Optimized network design – Well-defined network topologies and
configurations designed to ensure there is no single point of failure.
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Best practices – Documented procedures for deploying and maintaining
a robust e-commerce network infrastructure.
Network fault tolerance indicates the ability of a device or network to
recover from the failure of a component or device. Achieving high availability
relies on eliminating any single point of failure and on distributing
intelligence throughout the architecture. You can increase availability by
adding redundant components, including redundant network devices and
connections to redundant Internet services. With the proper design, no single
point of failure will have an impact on the availability of the overall
system.