Why using a 2nd Redundant Business Internet Link is a smart move

Failover Internet is now a critical component of a business Internet network. You would not drive your car without a spare tyre? Or would you? Failover Internet is now an essential requirement for mission critical for business-grade Internet services to keep your business online and minimise any downtime in the event of an unscheduled outage.

Companies today rely heavily on their business internet for everything from their Phone System, Email, Cloud based applications, CRMs and Billing platforms just to mention a few. Software as a Service has been delivered in volume over the past 5 years, eliminating local onsite servers, means Business Internet is an essential service in keeping the doors open and the business running. No access to business internet means your business stops functioning and loses money.

No network is immune to the possibility of outages. A few years ago Telstra network went offline in parts of Sydney for 2 days. If your staff are offline and a branch office or a key operational site is not functioning for a day or 2, what would that cost your company?

For businesses that have a distributed workforce and are networked over remote and disparate sites, this is even more critical due to the distance that any network engineers may need to travel to resolve an outage. Employees need reliable business internet access to the mission critical online applications that keep your company running. If your business internet services go offline, the business ceases to function and productivity drops.

So how would my business build a network to protect from an Internet Outage?

It's not possible to build redundancy with a single internet connection running into your business premises. Installing multiple data links using different technologies, diverse routing and across different networks is the best method to ensure that you do not have network outages that put your SaaS services and communications offline. Multiple Business Grade Internet links, or even low cost base grade internet services like 4G and standard NBN offer a low cost option for failover traffic when the primary Business Internet service has an outage.

It's even possible to provide some form of redundancy with a basic 4G connection, where you have staff working from home (where the risks of outages are even greater) to ensure they can remain online while working from home.

Why multiple networks?

Most Business Grade Fibre services in Australia are reliable. But even still, the most reliable networks can be affected by factors out of their control (eg an excavator digging up a network conduit) and there is always a probability of service disruption within the network (this is why most providers do not offer 100% uptime SLAs). Without a major area wide disaster, it's unlikely that multiple networks or technologies would be effected at the same time. By using multiple networks and technologies and using an automatic failover network router or firewall, you can mitigate the risk of a full outage putting your business offline.

There is more benefit than just having an internet failover link

If you decide that you need a failover internet solution, it doesn't help much if the redundant Internet link is just sitting there waiting for a crash. Using modern technologies like VMWare Velocloud SD-WAN, the failover Internet service can be bonded to the primary link, helping the business by utilising the additional bandwidth on the failover link.

Increasing network efficiency using a business grade data link that is already in place, will assist with network and application performance. Many businesses have lower bandwidth capacity in the branch office than some staff have at home. Adding in a 2nd or 3rd link adds additional bandwidth and allows network application and SaaS applications to use all available bandwidth.

What type of failover internet is available?

The type of business grade Internet link you add in for failover will depend heavily on your business requirements, network load and of course, budgets always get in the way of dreams.

Our suggested failover is always based on your business requirements but here is a few combinations that we have delivered in the past few months with great results.

• Reach EA Fibre with 4G Integrated Failover - this uses a 4G connection that uses the same IP address as the Primary Internet connection. It's not as fast as a 2nd fibre connection but the failover to the backup link, using the same IP address is seamless.
• Fast Fibre with Reach EA, Reach WBI or Enterprise Ethernet used for failover - When the primary links needs to be super fast but with a high quality back up link.
• NBN Enterprise Ethernet with a Reach WBI failover. Primarily used in regional towns where NBN Enterprise Ethernet is the most cost effective primary link available bit another high grade fibre internet service is needed.
• Any fibre service with a standard NBN as failover. Where the primary internet link is vital but the client can accept lower performance in the event of an outage.
• Standard NBN with 4G failover - Some business cannot get fibre or the cost is out of reach so they use the fastest NBN they can get, combined with a 4G for failover.
• Dual Standard NBN services from different networks. Using 2 X NBN connections not ideal as a failover because ultimately the underlying network between your site and the POI is the same, but protects when there is an issue on only one network and the additional bandwidth can be bonded to give a better user experience.
• Fixed Wireless or Satellite Internet as a failover - Using a non terrestrial link can add another layer of redundancy. However high quality Fixed Wireless is not broadly available (with many networks closing down with the NBN roll out) and High Quality Satellite is an expensive option. Our recent experience is that we find that most requirements can be met with the above solutions.

Contact the Next Telecom team to find out more 1300 722 320

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