By Fulton May Solutions
Downtime in a dealership network is more than an IT problem — it directly reduces revenue, extends repair cycles, and damages customer trust. Sales teams lose e‑sign access and credit approvals, service advisors can’t open repair orders, parts teams can’t pick or price, and phones and guest Wi‑Fi go quiet. For groups with multiple rooftops, these failures compound: an outage at one location can ripple through centralized services and create a string of missed opportunities.
This blog, written from a practitioner’s perspective, outlines a practical, actionable blueprint to design, deploy, and operate a resilient, multi‑rooftop IT environment. The guidance focuses on predictable outcomes: continuous DMS access, voice reliability, consistent Wi‑Fi across showrooms and lots, and measured response to incidents. Below you’ll find explanations of the core components, recommended actions, and an implementation roadmap with clear owners and KPIs.
The Zero‑Downtime Blueprint: Principles and Goals
Design each rooftop as part of a single, resilient estate rather than a set of isolated locations. That means standardization, layered redundancy, prioritized traffic, and telemetry that surfaces user impact — not just device status. The primary goals are:
- Protect revenue systems (DMS, e‑signature, credit/finance flows) from interruption.
- Ensure service workflows (RO creation, technician tools, OEM diagnostics) remain online.
- Deliver a consistent customer experience across showrooms, service bays, and lots.
- Detect and remediate problems before customers or staff notice them.
SD‑WAN at the Core
SD‑WAN should be the central control plane for routing, policies, and failover. Beyond simple uplink redundancy, modern SD‑WAN provides application‑aware steering, session persistence, and centralized policy enforcement — all necessary to keep sales and service tools usable during link degradation.
Action items:
- Deploy SD‑WAN with active‑active links to primary services (DMS, OEM portals, cloud finance apps) and configure application‑aware path selection.
- Enable session persistence for VoIP and e‑signature flows so calls and transactions survive failover.
- Centralize policy templates so every rooftop enforces the same traffic priorities and security controls.
Redundant Connectivity: Diversity is the priority
Redundancy is effective only when links are diverse. A single cabling conduit or service provider creates a single point of failure. Mix physical entrance paths and technologies (fiber, cable, fixed wireless) and keep an out‑of‑band LTE/5G modem for last‑resort continuity.
Action items:
- Provision at least two ISPs with separate physical entry points where feasible; document last‑mile and backhaul differences in supplier contracts.
- Include an out‑of‑band LTE/5G modem configured for automated failover and remote access for technicians.
- Install UPS and tested graceful shutdown/startup sequences for critical network gear; document recovery steps and owners.
QoS That Protects Revenue
When a link is saturated, revenue‑critical traffic must continue to flow. Define and enforce end‑to‑end QoS across WAN and WLAN so DMS, VoIP, e‑signature, and finance traffic receive priority. During business hours, delay or throttle bulk downloads and noncritical updates.
Action items:
- Map critical applications and their bandwidth/latency needs, then create prioritized classes in SD‑WAN and edge switches.
- Implement rules to throttle large OS and application updates during business hours; move heavy transfers to maintenance windows.
- Continuously validate QoS with synthetic voice and transaction tests; include QoS metrics in rooftop dashboards.
Segmented, Purpose‑Built Wi‑Fi
Wi‑Fi in dealerships must serve many functions: sales kiosks, customer guest access, service tools and IoT (diagnostic scanners, cameras, EV chargers). Treat Wi‑Fi as a service with clear segmentation, strong authentication, and site‑specific designs for showrooms, service bays, and outdoor lots.
Action items:
- Use separate SSIDs/VLANs for corporate, service tools, IoT, and guest traffic; enforce WPA3 and 802.1X for managed devices and captive portals for guests.
- Conduct wireless site surveys and create heatmaps that consider glass, mezzanines, and open lots; validate AP placement and channel plans for each rooftop.
- Inventory and classify IoT devices, then apply strict access controls and network segmentation to limit lateral movement risk.
Standard Builds That Scale to Every Rooftop
Consistency reduces mean time to repair and simplifies operations. Define golden images for kiosks, advisor tablets, and parts workstations; enforce MDM and endpoint security policies; and automate patching with rollback plans. Standardized builds make it faster to recover a location after hardware failure and simplify audits.
Action items:
- Create role‑based golden images and maintain them in a versioned image repository.
- Enforce MDM/endpoint policies for encryption, USB controls, and Wi‑Fi profiles; require MDM enrollment before network access.
- Implement EDR across endpoints and servers, and require MFA and SSO for all critical applications.
- Define change management workflows with auditable approvals for configuration changes at both rooftop and central levels.
Observability You Can Act On
Observability is the difference between reactive firefighting and proactive prevention. Collect centralized logs and metrics from firewalls, switches, APs, servers, and cloud apps. Instrument synthetic transactions to critical endpoints (DMS, OEM portals, finance APIs) so you can detect functional degradation before users do.
Action items and operational notes:
- Centralize logs and metrics in a single observability platform with defined retention and role‑based access.
- Monitor ISP health, latency, packet loss, and client Wi‑Fi experience 24/7 and escalate via documented on‑call paths.
- Use synthetic checks for DMS logins, credit verification transactions, and VoIP quality tests; surface failures as high‑priority alerts.
- Maintain rooftop dashboards and a monthly review cadence to track trends, backlog items, and vendor performance.
A Simple Maturity Ladder
Use a clear maturity model to prioritize investments and measure progress. Each level has specific deliverables and measurable KPIs so leadership can tie spending to reduced outage risk.
- Level 1 – Reactive: Single ISP per rooftop, ad‑hoc fixes, limited logging. KPI: Mean time to repair (MTTR) > 8 hours; frequent business impact incidents.
- Level 2 – Stable: Dual ISPs, SD‑WAN deployed, basic QoS and segmentation. KPI: MTTR < 4 hours; reduction in total outages.
- Level 3 – Proactive: Standard images, automated patching, synthetic monitoring, defined SLAs. KPI: Percentage of incidents detected by monitoring before users report them > 70%.
- Level 4 – Resilient: Fully redundant infrastructure, tested failover, SIEM insights, continuous improvement processes. KPI: Zero customer‑impact outages due to local network issues over rolling 12 months.
Practical Tools and the 12‑Point Checklist
The checklist below is intended as a prioritized deployment and verification tool. Use it during assessments, proof‑of‑concepts, and regular audits.
- Two diverse ISPs per rooftop with documented and tested failover procedures.
- SD‑WAN with active‑active links and application‑aware routing.
- End‑to‑end QoS prioritizing DMS, VoIP, and finance systems.
- VLAN and Wi‑Fi segmentation for corporate, tools/IoT, and guest networks.
- Wireless site survey and heatmaps for each location with AP placement validation.
- UPS and power redundancy for core network equipment and servers; tested graceful shutdowns.
- Golden images for common device roles; MDM enrollment required before network access.
- Automated patching schedule with maintenance windows and rollback plans.
- EDR, MFA, and SSO enforced for critical systems.
- Centralized logging with defined retention and alert thresholds tied to SLAs.
- Synthetic checks to DMS/OEM/finance endpoints; alerts on latency and functional failures.
- Documented incident runbooks, escalation paths, and on‑call rotations.
Standard Rooftop Bill of Materials
The bill of materials below reflects what a single rooftop deployment typically requires. Quantities and specific SKUs will vary by footprint and device counts.
- Enterprise firewall with SD‑WAN and application visibility.
- Two ISP handoffs (primary fiber/cable + secondary fiber/wireless) and LTE/5G modem for out‑of‑band access.
- Layer‑3 PoE switch stack for core and access with redundant supervisors where applicable.
- Ceiling‑mounted Wi‑Fi 6/6E access points and outdoor APs for lots, with appropriate mounting kits.
- Racks, PDUs, and UPS with network cards to enable graceful shutdowns and alerts.
- Structured cabling, labeling, and patch panels with documented maps in an asset management system.
- Environmental sensors for temperature, humidity, and door status in network closets.
- Endpoint management/MDM and EDR licenses sized to device counts across rooftops.
Implementation Roadmap: 30/60/90 Day Plan
Here’s a pragmatic short‑term roadmap to move toward zero‑downtime readiness. Assign an owner for each item and track progress in weekly leadership reviews.
- 30 days: Complete a risk assessment across rooftops, document ISP diversity gaps, enable centralized logging for core network gear, and schedule wireless site surveys.
- 60 days: Deploy SD‑WAN pilot at a high‑traffic rooftop, implement QoS classes, and roll out golden images for one department (e.g., sales kiosks).
- 90 days: Validate failover with live tests, enable synthetic transactions for DMS/finance, extend MDM enrollment, and formalize incident runbooks and on‑call rotations.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to Watch
- Mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to repair (MTTR) for network incidents.
- Percentage of critical transactions (DMS logins, credit checks) that succeed under degraded network conditions.
- Voice quality MOS and percentage of calls dropped during failover events.
- Percentage of locations with two physically diverse ISPs and documented failover tests.
Next Step — Assessment and Working Session
Ready to remove slowdowns across every rooftop? Request a 30‑minute zero‑downtime assessment and we’ll tailor the checklist and bill of materials to your environment. The assessment delivers:
- A prioritized gap analysis against the 12‑point checklist.
- A rooftop‑specific bill of materials and estimated costs for remediation.
- A proposed 90‑day implementation plan with owners and KPIs.
We can also facilitate a working session with your sales, service, and parts leaders to align priorities, agree on acceptable risk thresholds, and set timelines. If you’d like to proceed, request the 30‑minute assessment and we’ll schedule the review.
Key Takeaways
- Treat each rooftop as a node in a resilient estate: standardize builds, diversify connectivity, and centralize policy.
- Prioritize visibility and synthetic checks so you know about problems before staff or customers do.
- Start with a focused 30/60/90 plan, measure progress with clear KPIs, and iterate toward Level 4 resilience.
— Steve Liss
