How Resilient is Your Network

Let’s face it, when your Internet is down, your business is down.

Cloud computing, applications, collaboration software, video conferencing, accounting systems, file sharing, email, nearly all our work today requires a connection to the Internet.

When these vital connections are interrupted it is more than a productivity stopper, it is a momentum killer.

How long will it be down?

Will it be back up in 10 minutes or down until lunch?

Will it take a few hours before it comes back up?

Your team hits refresh a few times before uncertainty sets in.

If you are lucky, people will grab coffee, make a hot spot, and find a way to continue to work while the Internet is offline. Unfortunately, even if your employees can find a way to reconnect during an outage, downtime can mean your customers can not place orders, contact your team, or work with your company.

Internet failover is not a luxury in today’s world, it is a necessary component of a thorough network design.

Having a diverse Internet strategy means that when something bad happens to your connection, you can sit back and relax because your backup Internet will take over and business will continue.

55% of enterprise workloads are expected to be in a public cloud within twelve months.

Diversity Done Right

As the migration to the cloud continues, connectivity is more critical than ever before.  According to the Flexera 2021 State of the Cloud Report, “92 percent of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy; 80 percent have a hybrid cloud strategy.”  Furthermore, as public cloud adoption continues to accelerate, “55 percent of enterprise workloads are expected to be in a public cloud within twelve months.”

This cloud-hosted, essential data is accessed through a secure Internet connection(s), if that connection is down, it can completely stop the ability to do business. To ensure that Internet service is always available, companies are turning to diverse Internet providers for redundancy.

SYSTEMS THAT REQUIRE INTERNET ACCESS

Because today’s business model doesn’t work without Internet connectivity, all businesses should incorporate Internet failover as a necessary part of their network strategy.

DON’T LET YOUR INTERNET BRING YOU DOWN

All over the world, Internet outages happen daily, and one outage can domino into other outages.

The top culprits may not be what you think

SQUIRRELS

Rodents and chewing animals are one of the top causes of fiber cuts.

PEOPLE

Humans with trucks, back hoes, and shovels accidentally cause outages.

WEATHER / MOTHER NATURE

Weather causes power outages.  Routers, switches, and modems can’t run without power.

EQUIPMENT

All equipment has a lifespan.  Sooner or later your equipment will fail.

TRAFFIC

Just like traffic on the highway can slow you down, network traffic will slow down your Internet speeds.

AGE

Often slow-downs on networks can be traced to old cables connecting the ISP.

 UPTIME IS MONEY

Regardless the details of your business, an outage of any kind is likely to be significant.

For a small business (less than 100 employees), Carbonite estimates that the hourly cost could be as high as $25,000 or $427 per minute.

Downtime costs depend on a variety of factors, including the severity of the outage, usage metrics, and company size.

DOWNTIME COST:

1. SALES REVENUE – Multiply your average sale amount by the average amount of sales per hour
2. PRODUCTIVITY – If the Internet is down, how many employees can’t work? What is their hourly wage?
3. IT HOURS – Number of hours IT spends managing the outage and cannot accomplish scheduled tasks
4. CUSTOMERS – Include SLAs (service level agreements) and fees due to customers due to outage
5. HIDDEN COSTS – Any other fees associated with an outage, including hiring an outsourced company to repair/ inability to complete orders / data lost

In addition to the hard costs associated with outages, there are also soft costs that are harder to determine.

• Momentum lost by employees as they refresh their screens and wonder when the Internet will be back up.
• Frustrated customers unable to complete orders or reach your team can become ex-customers quickly.

Establishing a redundant provider can be far less expensive than the losses incurred during an outage.

Just as companies have insurance for fire, you can have a backup for your Internet

Investing in a redundant Internet provider is just like paying for insurance.  When you need it, you are sure glad it is there.

MORE OF THE SAME

Before calling up your nearest DIA provider and purchasing a secondary connection to the Internet, do some homework.

Not all providers are diverse

If you enlist two separate providers that share some of the same elements, you could likely experience a simultaneous outage of both networks. For truly diverse Internet, review the specific design of each Internet provider to guarantee redundancy.

There are thousands of service providers but a small number of “last mile providers.” Only a few have their own fiber, conduit, and are fortunate enough to build their own entrances into buildings.

True redundancy requires a capable expert who has experience designing resilient networks.

If you are solving the diversity problem, we would be happy to help. Our engineers have diversity expertise and a long history of designing custom networks that protect against network outages, failures, and fiber cuts.

Start your needs assessment today.