Why Designing for Failure Is the Secret to Reliable Network Infrastructure
When your business depends on staying connected, network failures aren’t just inconvenient—they’re costly. For Hamed Mazrouei, Founder and CEO of Milagro Corporation, building for failure is the only way to ensure success. In Episode 12 of Go Beyond the Connection, Hamed shares how he designed a network architecture that remains resilient, even in the face of multiple points of failure. And he did it for businesses that don’t have enterprise-sized budgets.
Resilience Isn’t Redundancy—It’s Strategy
Hamed’s approach to infrastructure is methodical: map every component in the network stack and ask, “What happens when this fails?” That’s how he developed Milagro’s HAFT platform—Highly Available, Fault Tolerant—which delivers real-time failover and continuity across firewalls, ISPs, and switches. This level of design used to be out of reach for most SMBs. Now it’s being deployed in restaurants and franchises across the country.
“People think redundancy means just two internet connections,” Hamed says. “But what about your firewall? Your switch? That’s where things really go wrong.”
How Bigleaf Powers the Backbone
To deliver seamless failover and true plug-and-play reliability, Milagro leverages Bigleaf’s SD-WAN. It provides automatic traffic prioritization, static IP failover, and a zero-touch install model—making it easier for Milagro to scale across distributed sites.
“We chose Bigleaf because it just works. There’s nothing for the customer to configure. We plug it in, and walk away.”
For locations that need consistent performance for payment systems, cameras, and cloud-based apps, that reliability is critical. Bigleaf’s dynamic path control ensures voice calls and real-time data flow smoothly—even during outages.
Scaling Enterprise Principles to Everyday Business
One of the most powerful parts of Hamed’s strategy is accessibility. He’s not building this for Fortune 500 companies. He’s building for the mid-market—multi-location brands that can’t afford downtime but also can’t afford a 10-person IT team.
This means affordability isn’t an afterthought. Every feature in HAFT was designed to provide enterprise-grade uptime at a cost structure that works for SMBs. It’s how Milagro turns a lofty concept—network fault tolerance—into practical business value.
What IT Leaders Should Take Away
- True fault tolerance means designing for every failure, not just ISP outages.
- Wireless-first strategies simplify deployment across multiple locations.
- Vendor accountability is business accountability. Choose partners that operate at a 10.
Conclusion: Plan for Failure, Deliver Resilience
Downtime is rarely planned—but it’s always possible. Hamed Mazrouei reminds us that resilience is not just a tech decision—it’s a leadership decision. By designing for failure, you ensure your business keeps moving, no matter what.
Based on a podcast interview with Hamed Mazrouei, Founder and CEO of Milagro Corporation
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