Heathrow Power Outage: The Need for Resilient Networks

The recent power outage at Heathrow Airport that grounded flights and disrupted operations for thousands of travellers was a stark reminder of the importance of resilience in any critical infrastructure.

While the incident may seem isolated to Heathrow, the lessons extend far beyond airports, and particularly to the world of telecommunications.

Just as an airport can’t afford single points of failure on its power grid, neither can a telco network.

Parallels Between Energy and Telecommunications Resilience

At its core, the Heathrow debacle stemmed from an overreliance on a system that was not adequately backed up. A failure in power supply caused cascading disruptions, rendering crucial airport functions inoperable.

Devoli Network Solutions Consultant Teo Hamoy says this type of failure has direct parallels with the telecommunications industry. "Communications networks are complex, interdependent systems that need redundancy, failover mechanisms, and proactive planning to withstand unexpected events. So a telco network outage can have consequences similar to Heathrow’s power failure. Businesses can lose important income, emergency services can be compromised, and whole regions can be cut off from communication. Planning for resilience shouldn’t be swept under the rug."

What Telco Can Learn from Heathrow

The Heathrow outage underscores some key lessons that apply directly to telecommunications networks:

1. Redundancy is Key to Avoiding Disaster
   Just as Heathrow should have had sufficient backup power systems, telco networks must incorporate redundancy. This means having geographically diverse data centres, backup power supplies, and alternative routing paths to prevent a single point of failure from causing widespread disruption.

2. Real-Time Monitoring and Proactive Maintenance
   Many major network failures can often be traced back to undetected issues that snowballed into larger problems. Implementing real-time network monitoring and predictive maintenance can identify potential weak points before they become catastrophic failures.

3. Rapid Failover Mechanisms
   Heathrow’s inability to quickly switch to capable backup power systems mirrors the challenge of slow failover in telecom networks. Ensuring seamless automatic switching between primary and backup systems minimises downtime and mitigates service interruptions.

4. Disaster Recovery Planning & Testing to Ensure Business Continuity
   Regularly testing disaster recovery plans can make the difference between a minor hiccup and a full-scale crisis. Providers should conduct frequent stress tests, simulate real-world failure scenarios, and refine response strategies to ensure business continuity.

The Cost of Not Planning for Resilience

Heathrow’s power outage resulted in cancelled flights, furious stranded passengers, and significant financial losses. And anyone in the telco industry knows that a major telco network failure can lead to severe consequences too—for example lost customer trust, regulatory scrutiny, and reputational damage.

"The cost of investing in resilient infrastructure is far lower than the price of a catastrophic failure", Teo says. "Bringing resilience to the top of the pile in your business continuity planning will help you avoid situations like that seen at Heathrow."

Time to Get Resilience Sorted?

Heathrow’s power outage is a wake-up call for every industry reliant on complex, interwoven infrastructure. So if your business or customers have gaps in their resilience, contact our team today to discuss the resilience options available via our carrier-grade Devoli Network across Australia and New Zealand.