Internet Resiliency: Should Your Business Have an Internet Backup Plan?

Today’s businesses are increasingly reliant upon their Internet connectivity to communicate with customers and prospects, process transactions such as credit card payments, support voice communications, and to deliver a wide range of other services. While business-class Internet connectivity comes with business-class SLAs, they do allow some room for service disruptions, some more than others depending on the service type.

If your business can’t afford even a minimal service disruption, you should consider a cost-effective internet failover solution to maintain critical operations in the likely event a primary data connection will be interrupted at some point.

Fusion Connect’s Managed Failover services give organizations the flexibility to select the backup service best suited for their business, including Wireless, Ethernet, T1, DSL and Cable. These Failover services provide customers with a high-availability, cost-effective business continuity solution for maintaining critical business operations in the event that their primary data connection will be disrupted.

What’s Your Backup Plan?

You probably seldom notice it: the spare tire in your trunk. If you are lucky, you’ve never needed it. But the moment you experience a flat, you realize the immense value of that spare tire.

Like the spare tire, Internet resiliency services are there if you need them, even though you may not give them much thought. Here’s a quick overview of these services and why adoption among businesses is increasingly common.

The Fusion Connect Internet Backup Plan

Today, many businesses simply can’t afford even a slowdown of their Internet connection, much less an outright outage. So, having the right service for your business from the right provider at the right price is paramount. Businesses located in buildings served by fiber, sit in the driver’s seat because they have all the best options. Yet even the most resilient, business-class Internet connections can fall victim to spikes in network traffic, or a natural disaster, or a cut fiber line. Increasingly, businesses are adopting services that keep their network optimized and their internet connection on—continually—so they can stay connected to customers, partners, and remote locations.

First, do you have the best service option for your business today? Have you looked at your options? Big bandwidth, amazing prices, and additional services like VoIP and Wi-Fi are things to consider. Should your business also have a backup Internet connection? What happens if you lose your Internet connection for a few hours? Maybe employees can use their mobile devices to respond to email and make calls, and you can carry on. If your business is dependent on applications and data hosted in the cloud or housed in one of your locations, however, you might have to send employees home because they can’t get their job done without Internet access. You could lose significant sales, revenue, and customer trust.

Fusion Connect’s Managed Broadband Failover services alleviate internet backup concerns, providing business continuity through a variety of options.

With failover internet service in place, two things take place to avoid business disruption:

1. Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) actively monitors primary and backup broadband connections to detect a disruption and initiate the failover automatically, rerouting services smoothly to the backup circuit.
2. Fusion Connect’s Proactive Monitoring services react to the loss of the primary circuit by initiating the troubleshooting and repair process through our Network Operations Center (NOC).

These processes work simultaneously to protect businesses from experiencing loss of service by instigating an alternative service while problem solving to reinstate the original circuit. Once the original service is restored, all connections are routed back to the primary circuit and business continues as usual - all without presenting discernible work flow disruptions.

Proactive Monitoring

A proactive monitoring service will check the status of your Internet connection. When considering such a service, make sure it provides all of the following features:

• Monitors your public IP addresses 24/7/365.
• Notifies you automatically if an issue is detected. Email or text notifications ensure that you’ll learn about issues even if you are away from the office.
• Allows multiple people to be notified.
• Immediately creates a trouble ticket. That way the provider’s support team can start work immediately to resolve the issue.
• Gives you control of whether (and when) you wish to be notified.

Providers have started including Proactive Monitoring with selected Internet access services.

As a side note, a Hosted Voice over IP phone system like Fusion Connect Hosted PBX has built-in resiliency of its own. That’s because in case of power or Internet connectivity issues, users can make and receive calls at their business number using other devices such as a smartphone, home phone, or softphone running on a laptop or tablet.

Circuit Redundancy

Most companies spend 80 to 90 percent of their overhead on human capital, and people need Internet access to do their jobs. When you look at a redundant circuit as the price of worker productivity insurance, it becomes an asset rather than one more overhead expense. Access resellers like Fusion Connect can find the right mix of affordability and speed for each location. And we can make sure that your access circuits use different providers and/or technologies, to ensure true redundancy. Paired with load balancing and failover (see below), a redundant circuit becomes your lifeline—your spare tire, if you will.

Load Balancing & Failover

Sometimes, you experience a slowdown that can affect network traffic. Real-time applications such as VoIP are particularly vulnerable. Load Balancing and Failover works with a redundant circuit, balancing your network traffic between two circuits and failing over to one circuit should another fail. Typically, the redundant circuit comes across a different technology type and from a different provider. Load Balancing and Failover adds value to your second circuit, because it enables you to actively use both circuits.

The service increases both performance and uptime of your Internet connectivity. It ensures a resilient, continuous connection so you can access your data, support your applications, process your transactions, and serve your customers in the event of a slowdown or outage. Load Balancing and Managed Failover ensures continuity of business-critical applications and operations.

Benefits of Broadband Failover

The business world of today relies on networks in order to complete daily business, connecting both with customers and with colleagues. If a business can’t afford to be without connectivity, it’s essential to have a back up.

Using a business broadband failover system will:

• Maximize network availability in the event of even the most minor disruptions in service
• Prevent loss of revenue from interrupted transactions or missed deadlines
• Maintain productivity by not disrupting workflow, and eliminate concerns of deleted data or misplaced information
• Reduce security risks as a result of loss of primary system protection
• Offer flexible service options - Wireless, DSL, Cable, T1, or Ethernet
• Keep customers from being subjected to loss of functionality, allowing them to still access sites and communicate freely
• Provide peace of mind when it comes to business concerns about system failure

Managed Broadband Failover is a business continuity service that offers redundant network connectivity. A small investment in this service means peace of mind that your business will have a safeguard against unexpected circuit disruptions, allowing you to avoid disruptions that can impact communications, customer experience, critical transactions, and ultimately, your bottom line.

Is it Worth It?

The finance department may not jump for joy at the prospect of spending money on a secondary circuit or the resiliency services discussed in this post, especially if the last outage has faded from everyone’s memory. But it’s important to consider the costs related to a prolonged outage, such as lost productivity and lost revenue.

These services can help you make your business more resilient, keep your people working and productive, keep sales flowing, and help you maintain the loyalty of your existing customers. And ultimately, protecting your business reputation is one of the best investments in your future.

Fusion Connect offers superior service and a more diverse set of standard features than alternative solutions. Our 24/7/365 customer care, self-service management portal, and trouble-free installation make Fusion Connect a compelling choice for your communications.