Enterprise networks today face continued pressure from a growing and diverse number of threats. This includes both cyberattacks and physical disruptions—spanning natural disasters, DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks, geopolitical sabotage and accidental damage.
Natural and manmade disasters severely damage and disrupt enterprise networks and can lead to significant financial impacts, business operations, data loss and reputational damage:
- A 2024 study covered in Network Computing found that the total economic impact of internet outages or degradations ranged from $1 million to $10 million per month.
- In industries such as finance and healthcare, Forbes reported that “downtime can eclipse $5 million an hour in certain scenarios—and that’s not including any potential fines or penalties.”
- “Nearly half of data center operators have experienced an extreme weather event that threatened their continuous operation,” says TechTarget’s Bridget Botelho. “Uptime is essential for these providers as they house critical telecommunications networks and IT systems for finance, business and healthcare.”
- A recent survey from Opengear of CIOs and network engineers found that 91% of CIOs stated that they experience downtime at least once a quarter. Due to continued network outages and rising economic pressures, 79% of U.S. CIOs now say it’s harder to meet customer expectations in today’s environment, a concern also reflected by 68% of U.S. network engineers.
For enterprises and network operators alike, each threat requires a unique mitigation strategy, whether this amounts to proactive DDoS mitigation, more diversity and redundancy, physical security or networking weatherproofing.
DDoS security for business continuity
The DDoS landscape has shifted massively over the past few years, coinciding with evolving network threats. In 2025, DDoS attacks have become “more like a veteran boxer who has learned a few new tricks. They’ve adapted to the internet of today, taken advantage of our growing dependency on networked devices, and come up with some new ways to punch where it hurts,” says Sweta Bose in Cyber Security News.
Adding to this, DDoS attack trends are increasingly reflecting geopolitical tensions, with state-sponsored attacks becoming primary weapons of hybrid warfare. The DDoS Threat Landscape Report 2025 found a clear correlation between the ebb and flow of the ground war in Ukraine and attack trends, not only in Russia and Ukraine but also neighboring countries such as Poland.
Attack targets aren’t limited to military or state assets, but frequently threaten private enterprise networks, making resilient cyber defenses more vital than ever. The World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook (GCO) 2025 shows that nearly 60% of organizations report that geopolitical tensions have directly influenced their cybersecurity strategy.
Key considerations to ensure enterprise network resilience and security
Ultimately enterprise network leaders should partner with the right operator to plan contingencies for a multitude of physical and virtual threats. Implementing network resiliency and redundancy involves thorough planning and preparation, including identifying critical and vulnerable segments and establishing secondary hardware, alternative network paths, and backup power resources. Key components include backup equipment, diverse routing and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) or generators to ensure continuous operation during disruptions.
Additionally, organizations should implement a multifaceted network security strategy to stay proactive. Network segmentation is crucial, helping companies separate their critical services from public-facing systems. Dedicated DDoS defense in the cloud is also helpful in preventing on-premises systems and access links from being overwhelmed during a sustained assault.
According to research by Opengear, 92% of U.S. CIOs have increased their budget over the last 12 months to improve their network resilience, with almost half (44%) dedicating over 50% of their IT budget to infrastructure spend in order to secure their operations.
Given that organizations appear to be increasing their budget for network resilience, what are some best practices in finding the right network operator for your business?
When evaluating a network provider, it’s critical to partner with one that incorporates robust security measures including alarm technology, stringent access control, and meticulously planned route diversity. Working directly with a network owner that deploys, operates, and governs the core network offers panoramic visibility to incoming threats, with forensic insights into performance management, traffic prioritization and granular quality-of-service control.
Further, the right partner should offer:
- Independent third-party perspectives to help identify changes and react quickly and decisively to sudden or evolving disruptive forces.
- Scale, wide experience and deep expertise to help manage disruptors.
- Geographic spread and local knowledge to provide guidance and support in specific markets.
- A consultative, partnership-based approach to work collaboratively.
The right network provider offers enterprise organizations support to make confident, timely decisions and implement effective efficient network management solutions – avoiding doubt, delay and, above all, regret.
Why Arelion?
- Arelion solves global connectivity challenges for multinational enterprises whose businesses rely on digital infrastructure. Its AS1299 network was established in 1993 and is ranked the world’s best-connected internet backbone since 2017 (Kentik Market Intelligence).
- Arelion’s network spans 77,000 km of optical fiber in North America, Europe and Asia, serving more than 2,900 customers across 129 countries. It connects more than 700 cloud, security, and content providers, and provide direct on-ramps to the top five cloud providers.
- Arelion strives to deliver the best customer care in the industry and achieved an outstanding Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 70 for 2024.
Learn More
- Download the 2025 DDoS Threat Landscape Report
- Download the Disruption Report 2024
- Arelion Blog
- For more information, contact Arelion today.