Internet outages can have a devastating impact on business performance and reputation – this year alone has seen large scale incidents with major companies and organisations including the retailers M&S and H&M.
One of the most costly impacts for businesses that fall victim to cyberattacks is network downtime – a 2024 study by Oxford Economics found that downtime costs Global 2000 enterprises a colossal $400 billion a year. Maintaining uptime is, naturally, a critical focus for businesses to maximise productivity and value for their IT networks and applications.
Critical infrastructure performance means, for example: hospitals can keep networks running to service patients and make sure surgeries can be arranged; banks avoid costly unplanned downtime and large ecommerce businesses prevent slowdowns that can lead to customers clicking elsewhere.
Not only are the benefits in keeping the system up and running, but also in optimising processes to maximise efficiency and allow for faster time to market – invaluable for large companies in industries like manufacturing.
In tandem, we’re only just scratching the surface of how AI will be used to add to the toolbox of attackers – not to mention the new vulnerabilities that might open up as generative AI projects proliferate. IBM’s 2025 X-Force Intelligence Index notes that only 24% of current generative AI projects are secured.
With enterprises rushing to roll out AI systems, data centres are now deeply integrated into the architecture of many major companies and represent a growing target for attackers.
The role of fibre taps in network monitoring
Network monitoring – the use of a system that constantly monitors and notifies a network for performance, usage, failing components, and outside threats – is increasingly key to ensuring company data centres stay secure and uptime is maintained.
One of the most effective (and cost-efficient) methods of network monitoring is port tapping, a method of passively monitoring traffic being transmitted and received along a link in a network.
While cyber security happens on all 7 of the OSI layers, the tapping components operate on Layer 1 – able to help detect any network errors quickly, but without putting burden on the network connections.
This reduction of network complexity and congestion is a key advantage. An active tap replicates and sends network traffic to monitoring tools, potentially introducing additional traffic and affecting network performance. A passive tap collects and forwards network traffic for analysis without sending any additional traffic.
There are certain advantages to active tapping – they perform well in copper network environments where signal regeneration is more important and are more resilient when network signals are weak. Some active taps also offer advanced features that provide further failover options to maintain performance in challenging network conditions.
Significantly with passive taps however, since the data stream isn’t copied, this means there’s no risk of corruption or loss. One stream passes through the network, while the other is evaluated by the system’s software. You can even automate many of the monitoring, prioritisation, and response tasks.
Because you don’t need to disconnect fibre taps or reconfigure ports for moves, adds, and changes (MACs), passive monitoring lowers your risk of error and downtime. Plus, passive monitoring equipment can be located separately, so you can reduce the number of people with access to your network hardware.
One note of caution for operators who utilise passive monitoring is the possible privacy risks. With traffic being captured in real time, unless your organisation owns all of the infrastructure within a data centre, there’s a risk that tapping may give you access to other people’s data. The placement of the taps within the network is particularly important for this reason – ensuring data is only collected from certain servers in the data centre.
Planning ahead
With new laws proposed in the UK, as part of the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, that will place greater demands on data centres to meet robust cyber security standards, network monitoring will only grow in significance.
Passive network monitoring, particularly through fibre taps, offers an efficient solution to monitor traffic and prevent network disruptions without burdening system performance and with minimal maintenance required.
Given their compatibility with multiple generations of optics, fibre taps also won’t need replacing if the network is upgraded, making them a sensible choice for future-ready data centre builds today.
