Building Highly Available Networks

As critical applications such as e-commerce and telephony move toward Internet-based providers and away from traditional networks, highly available networks are no longer an option but a requirement. End users will begin to demand that modern IP networks provide the same level of availability they have come to expect from traditional networks. Achieving high availability in an IP network is more than providing redundancy at the physical layer; it is a far-reaching method of doing business, from site selection to the highest levels of management.

This course is about the critical aspects of planning, design, implementation, operation, and optimization of networks with the goal of "five nines" availability (99.999% uptime, or less than 5 minutes of downtime per year).

In a laboratory with the most advanced Cisco® networking equipment, you will learn how to navigate the "road to five nines." This path is not just about implementing and verifying, but also about measuring, monitoring, and operating a network to achieve high availability. Hands-on exercises not only teach you deployment skills, but also emphasize before-and-after measurements of the feature or function you just deployed. This allows you to observe firsthand the effect you have made on network availability.