Building Resilient Networks Against Communication Failures Is a Strategic Business Imperative [A.T. Kearney]

A.T. Kearney Co., Ltd. (Minato-ku, Tokyo; Japan Representative: Takeshi Harihata) has published a paper titled "Network Resilience—A Strategic Imperative for CTOs, CEOs, and Boards." This paper was developed based on a survey evaluating the performance, aspirations, and challenges of network resilience among global Tier 1 telecommunications providers and hyperscalers, combined with the expertise and technical insights of Kearney’s telecommunications practice team.

The paper highlights that network resilience is no longer solely a technical concern for telecom operators, but a strategic business theme that must be addressed by CEOs, CTOs, and boards. In other words, network resilience now stands alongside cybersecurity, financial performance, customer experience goals, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives as a top agenda item for telecom leaders. Leading Tier 1 operators are targeting core network availability of 99.999% or higher, less than five minutes of nationwide service disruption per customer annually, and full recovery within 30 minutes of a failure. Recent data also indicates that notifying customers within 10 minutes of an outage is essential to minimizing negative impacts.

At the same time, as networks become increasingly software-defined, virtualized, and cloud-native, vulnerabilities originating in the management plane are emerging as a key challenge to resilience. The paper notes that a majority of surveyed operators reported that half of recent major outages were caused by issues in the management plane.

99.999%+ Availability, Under 5 Minutes Annually, 30-Minute Recovery: Advanced Operators Expand Goals from Availability to Recovery

For telecom operators, network outages are no longer just operational issues. The paper positions network resilience as a core issue affecting brand reputation and customer loyalty. Leading Tier 1 operators are targeting core network availability of 99.999% or higher, less than five minutes of nationwide service disruption per customer annually, and full recovery within 30 minutes of a failure.

This shift is driven by rising customer expectations for always-on connectivity. Users now rely on reliable connections for everyday activities such as shopping, food delivery, remote work, and online learning. When outages occur, information spreads rapidly via online platforms like Downdetector and social media, making recovery speed and customer communication as critical as availability itself.

Majority of Operators Cite 'Half Due to Management Plane,' Highlighting Limits of Redundancy-Centric Approaches

The paper reveals that many surveyed operators reported that half of recent large-scale outages originated in the management plane. The management plane refers to the application layer responsible for orchestrating, automating, and managing network operations. As networks become virtualized, cloud-based, and software-defined, vulnerabilities in this layer can propagate failures across multiple redundant network domains.

Traditionally, telecom operators have enhanced network architecture resilience through redundancy, increased spare capacity, and reducing the blast radius of failures. However, the paper argues that traditional network engineering methods—such as adding redundant nodes or paths—are no longer sufficient to guarantee resilience against failures. Instead, it suggests that reducing the blast radius through separation of the management and service planes, geographic segmentation of the management plane, and limiting the scope of changes applied at once will be critical.

AIOps Prediction Accuracy Below 50%, Risk Mitigation via Limited Rollouts of 1–5%

Given the increasing complexity of networks and the growing number of software-originated vulnerabilities, the paper acknowledges that preventing all failures is impossible. Therefore, emphasis must shift from prevention alone to rapid detection and recovery. AIOps—applying AI to network operations—is positioned as a powerful tool. However, AIOps for telecom networks remains in its early stages of maturity. According to Kearney’s survey, even the most advanced AIOps systems today achieve less than 50% accuracy in predicting failures.

At the same time, the paper stresses that technological solutions alone are insufficient. Organizations must also reevaluate processes, skill sets, and culture. As an example of disciplined change management, the paper highlights a phased rollout approach: after lab testing, changes are first deployed in a very limited portion of the production network. This initial rollout typically affects only 1–5% of customer connections in a rolling segment, followed by gradual, small-batch updates across the entire production network.

- About the Paper

• Title: "Network Resilience—A Strategic Imperative for CTOs, CEOs, and Boards" • URL: https://www.jp.kearney.com/issue-papers-perspectives/network-resilience-a-strategic-imperative-for-ctos-ceos-and-boards

- Authors

Takeshi Harihata, Managing Director Japan / Senior Partner

Graduated from the Faculty of Liberal Arts, University of Tokyo. After working in sales planning, business strategy, and service development at a major telecommunications company, he joined A.T. Kearney. With over 20 years of consulting experience focused on telecommunications, high-tech, and media companies, he leverages cross-functional experience from corporate roles to deliver practical, high-impact consulting services in digital transformation, overseas business strategy, new business development, portfolio restructuring, and turnaround management.

Kentarou Taki, Senior Partner

Graduated from the Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo, and joined A.T. Kearney. With approximately 10 years of consulting experience, he has worked on a wide range of business topics—from strategy and new ventures to R&D, M&A, marketing, operations, cost optimization, and HR/organization—primarily in telecommunications, financial institutions, and consumer goods. He specializes in large-scale, company-wide digital transformation initiatives.

About A.T. Kearney

A.T. Kearney (global brand name: Kearney) has been a trusted partner to leading organizations worldwide for over 100 years, serving more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500 companies and government agencies across numerous countries. With a presence in over 40 countries, our greatest strength lies in our people. Committed to Impact First, we tackle our clients’ most complex challenges with innovative thinking and execution excellence, partnering to drive transformative change. In Japan, we entered the market in 1972 and have since provided end-to-end support—from strategy formulation to execution—for leading companies across all major industries. For more information, visit our website: https://www.jp.kearney.com/ Keywords: