Air Gapped Environments
Air-gapped environments are particularly challenging deployment targets for Software and AI companies. Serving air-gapped customers requires vendors to navigate a unique set of peculiarities and challenges inherent to these environments.
Difficulties of Air-Gapped Environments
Section titled “Difficulties of Air-Gapped Environments”- Updates cannot be delivered through public registries: Air-gapped environments block access to external networks, requiring updates to be distributed through offline methods such as portable storage devices or private registries.
- Limited communication channels: Since no internet access is available, troubleshooting and support must rely on offline diagnostics or highly secure, manual transfer methods.
- Compliance overhead: Vendors may need to adhere to strict regulatory or security protocols when providing software to air-gapped environments, adding complexity to the deployment process.
- Longer deployment cycles: Delivering software updates and patches often involves time-consuming manual processes, which can delay critical fixes or improvements.
- Monitoring limitations: Real-time monitoring tools often rely on internet connectivity, meaning vendors must provide alternative solutions for tracking performance and uptime in an air-gapped environment.
- Secure data transfer: Transferring logs, metrics, or error reports back to the software vendor for analysis may require special secure methods, such as physical media or encrypted file transfers.
- Training and documentation needs: Customers in air-gapped environments often require more detailed training and comprehensive documentation since direct vendor support may not always be immediately accessible.