Recently I planned a switch to a new Internet Service Provider (ISP) for my apartment. It would be faster and cheaper – dreams do come true! Everything was great until my previous ISP shut off my internet before they were supposed to. This put me in quite a jam since I’ve also cut the cord on cable, and use the internet to watch TV. Not to mention, it was approaching the weekend during football season, which means I need to watch my fantasy team. Obviously, this had me scrambling to find a solution ASAP. And … it also got me thinking about the impact downtime has on businesses, and the problems those outages cause. Probably more important than watching my fantasy football team play.
These days, backing up your internet is no different from backing up your data, music and photos. Or having a plan in case of a power outage. An outage can cripple a business.
How much money would it cost your organization if your Internet went down for a day? Businesses are completely dependent on the internet for communication with clients and partners. We use email, VoIP phones, Cloud Services, hosted file servers, and more. Without these tools, imagine the loss of productivity. A backup line with another ISP will help eliminate the effects of an outage.
Competition in the ISP industry is at an all-time high, and shopping for a second internet line will allow businesses time to find the best deal that fits into their budget. The line does not have to be as fast as the primary, but at least sufficient enough to keep the lights (and internet) on. Buying a Dual WAN router or enterprise-level firewall will allow the failover to be seamless. Think of the lights flickering a little bit, and hearing a generator turn on. The outage is over that fast.
There are also some beneficial configurations to utilize, like using that second line for your guest WIFI. This will allow faster speeds in the office, as well as a more secure network.
These preventative measures in place allow my customers peace of mind that their businesses won’t be in the dark with an internet outage (unlike my football Sunday). And if it’s not in the budget right now, have a conversation about it. Get some quotes. Don’t be reactive when it comes to an issue of this magnitude.