The internet plays a key role in pretty much any line of business today and as more services move to the cloud, staying “connected” becomes even more important than ever.
A day in the office without access to email, the internet or any cloud-based systems would be a pretty unproductive one, right? Throw in to the mix that many UK businesses now rely on the internet for their telephony services and I think it’s fair to say that being offline for any significant period would be nothing short of a disaster.
The cost of business grade internet connectivity services is going down rapidly. Many organisations are upgrading from broadband services to something more robust and with some guarantees. However, even the most high-end connectivity can fail, all businesses should plan for that possibility.
So, what can you do to ensure that your business is never completely offline? At Bluecube we always encourage our clients to invest not only in a strong primary connection but to implement a secondary back up connection too. The price of Business Ethernet has come down so dramatically over the last few years that having a fast, symmetric and guaranteed bandwidth has become something most businesses can now justify.
Having a fit for purpose back-up connection is essential. Saving money on a slow ADSL connection is all very well but when the time comes to use it you’ll wish you had invested in a faster plan B! Many businesses utilise their back-up connection on their network so it’s not a redundant cost 99% of the time. For example, some clients run their Wi-Fi network over their back-up line whilst using their main line bandwidth for everything else.
We’ve found line of sight and 4G connectivity provides a good back-up plan too. If your local exchange has a fault and you have Ethernet backed up by broadband, in theory both connections could fail. Using line of sight or 4G broadband as your back-up means your back-up plan is not linked to the telephone exchange and gives you the best chance of staying online 24/7 and 365 days a year.
My last words of advice would be not to wait until you’ve had a problem before you act. Many of our clients came to us for advice having already suffered crippling internet outages, act before you suffer the damage a long-term outage can have upon your organisation.
Posted in: Market Insight. Tagged: Connectivity
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