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How to Prepare for Your Next Network War Room Debate - Part 2

Jay Botelho

Whether proactive or reactive in nature, war room sessions fundamentally come down to problem solving. But the ultimate goal is to eliminate these sessions altogether.

Start with How to Prepare for Your Next Network War Room Debate - Part 1

However, sometimes problems still happen no matter how proactive you are. If you have to go to the war room, and you want to win, here are some key tips:

Populate the room wisely and sparingly

The old adage about the bigger the group, the less work gets done certainly holds true for the war room. You want all critical functions represented, but with a single representative. If someone needs access to their teams for more details, they should report back, not drag more participants into the meetings.

Define roles and responsibilities

Clearly define roles and responsibilities for the war room. In most cases, the primary responsibility is to develop a comprehensive proposal to present to executive management. When done well, the execs shouldn't even need to participate. The right team should be able to deliver a rock-solid proposal, regardless of whether the driving force is project-focused or response-focused.

Bring data

Bring all the data you have and be prepared to share it. There are no secrets in the war room. All corporate politics must be put aside for a successful resolution. Remove blinders regarding available data. For example, when dealing with a security issue, don't forget to involve the network team. They often have critical data that's overlooked, at least in the beginning of the situational analysis.

Know the end game

Have an idea of the ultimate win-win outcome before you enter the war room. This is probably easier when the situation is project-focused vs. response-focused, but it's critical either way.

Involve PR experts

Involve PR experts for events that will impact the external perception of the brand. This is extremely important when dealing with response-focused issues, especially security breaches. External communication is a legal requirement for security breaches, and you need to get it right. It's the responsibility of the entire team to craft an accurate and complete response, but it's best for all communication to funnel through a single PR representative.

Plan to communicate only once

Analyze ALL the data and get the full extent of the problem isolated as early as possible. Communicate as clearly as you can. A great example of what not to do would be the Equifax breach, where the initial breach announcement was made approximately 6 weeks after discovery, with news of ever-greater exposure continuing to be reported by Equifax for more than 6 months.

War rooms can be intimidating places with lots of finger pointing, blame and chaos. For the network team, having the proper visibility tools in place is a win-win. First, it helps reduce these sessions, and second, if called in to answer the bell, it gives you the data needed to properly contribute and help solve the problem quickly. When the fingers start pointing, will you be ready?

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E-commerce is set to skyrocket with a 9% rise over the next few years ... To thrive in this competitive environment, retailers must identify digital resilience as their top priority. In a world where savvy shoppers expect 24/7 access to online deals and experiences, any unexpected downtime to digital services can lead to significant financial losses, damage to brand reputation, abandoned carts with designer shoes, and additional issues ...

Efficiency is a highly-desirable objective in business ... We're seeing this scenario play out in enterprises around the world as they continue to struggle with infrastructures and remote work models with an eye toward operational efficiencies. In contrast to that goal, a recent Broadcom survey of global IT and network professionals found widespread adoption of these strategies is making the network more complex and hampering observability, leading to uptime, performance and security issues. Let's look more closely at these challenges ...

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How to Prepare for Your Next Network War Room Debate - Part 2

Jay Botelho

Whether proactive or reactive in nature, war room sessions fundamentally come down to problem solving. But the ultimate goal is to eliminate these sessions altogether.

Start with How to Prepare for Your Next Network War Room Debate - Part 1

However, sometimes problems still happen no matter how proactive you are. If you have to go to the war room, and you want to win, here are some key tips:

Populate the room wisely and sparingly

The old adage about the bigger the group, the less work gets done certainly holds true for the war room. You want all critical functions represented, but with a single representative. If someone needs access to their teams for more details, they should report back, not drag more participants into the meetings.

Define roles and responsibilities

Clearly define roles and responsibilities for the war room. In most cases, the primary responsibility is to develop a comprehensive proposal to present to executive management. When done well, the execs shouldn't even need to participate. The right team should be able to deliver a rock-solid proposal, regardless of whether the driving force is project-focused or response-focused.

Bring data

Bring all the data you have and be prepared to share it. There are no secrets in the war room. All corporate politics must be put aside for a successful resolution. Remove blinders regarding available data. For example, when dealing with a security issue, don't forget to involve the network team. They often have critical data that's overlooked, at least in the beginning of the situational analysis.

Know the end game

Have an idea of the ultimate win-win outcome before you enter the war room. This is probably easier when the situation is project-focused vs. response-focused, but it's critical either way.

Involve PR experts

Involve PR experts for events that will impact the external perception of the brand. This is extremely important when dealing with response-focused issues, especially security breaches. External communication is a legal requirement for security breaches, and you need to get it right. It's the responsibility of the entire team to craft an accurate and complete response, but it's best for all communication to funnel through a single PR representative.

Plan to communicate only once

Analyze ALL the data and get the full extent of the problem isolated as early as possible. Communicate as clearly as you can. A great example of what not to do would be the Equifax breach, where the initial breach announcement was made approximately 6 weeks after discovery, with news of ever-greater exposure continuing to be reported by Equifax for more than 6 months.

War rooms can be intimidating places with lots of finger pointing, blame and chaos. For the network team, having the proper visibility tools in place is a win-win. First, it helps reduce these sessions, and second, if called in to answer the bell, it gives you the data needed to properly contribute and help solve the problem quickly. When the fingers start pointing, will you be ready?

Hot Topics

The Latest

E-commerce is set to skyrocket with a 9% rise over the next few years ... To thrive in this competitive environment, retailers must identify digital resilience as their top priority. In a world where savvy shoppers expect 24/7 access to online deals and experiences, any unexpected downtime to digital services can lead to significant financial losses, damage to brand reputation, abandoned carts with designer shoes, and additional issues ...

Efficiency is a highly-desirable objective in business ... We're seeing this scenario play out in enterprises around the world as they continue to struggle with infrastructures and remote work models with an eye toward operational efficiencies. In contrast to that goal, a recent Broadcom survey of global IT and network professionals found widespread adoption of these strategies is making the network more complex and hampering observability, leading to uptime, performance and security issues. Let's look more closely at these challenges ...

Image
Broadcom

The 2025 Catchpoint SRE Report dives into the forces transforming the SRE landscape, exploring both the challenges and opportunities ahead. Let's break down the key findings and what they mean for SRE professionals and the businesses relying on them ...

Image
Catchpoint

The pressure on IT teams has never been greater. As data environments grow increasingly complex, resource shortages are emerging as a major obstacle for IT leaders striving to meet the demands of modern infrastructure management ... According to DataStrike's newly released 2025 Data Infrastructure Survey Report, more than half (54%) of IT leaders cite resource limitations as a top challenge, highlighting a growing trend toward outsourcing as a solution ...

Image
Datastrike

Gartner revealed its top strategic predictions for 2025 and beyond. Gartner's top predictions explore how generative AI (GenAI) is affecting areas where most would assume only humans can have lasting impact ...

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating across the telecoms industry, with 88% of fixed broadband service providers now investigating or trialing AI automation to enhance their fixed broadband services, according to new research from Incognito Software Systems and Omdia ...

 

AWS is a cloud-based computing platform known for its reliability, scalability, and flexibility. However, as helpful as its comprehensive infrastructure is, disparate elements and numerous siloed components make it difficult for admins to visualize the cloud performance in detail. It requires meticulous monitoring techniques and deep visibility to understand cloud performance and analyze operational efficiency in detail to ensure seamless cloud operations ...

Imagine a future where software, once a complex obstacle, becomes a natural extension of daily workflow — an intuitive, seamless experience that maximizes productivity and efficiency. This future is no longer a distant vision but a reality being crafted by the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence ...

Enterprise data sprawl already challenges companies' ability to protect and back up their data. Much of this information is never fully secured, leaving organizations vulnerable. Now, as GenAI platforms emerge as yet another environment where enterprise data is consumed, transformed, and created, this fragmentation is set to intensify ...

Image
Crashplan

OpenTelemetry (OTel) has revolutionized the way we approach observability by standardizing the collection of telemetry data ... Here are five myths — and truths — to help elevate your OTel integration by harnessing the untapped power of logs ...