About 78% of all Americans use the Internet. But what would happen if they couldn’t?
We use the Internet in so many different ways and applications now that it’s hard to imagine our lives without it.
But when our Internet goes down due to inclement weather or other reasons, we get a taste of what it’s like to not have access to it. And the results can be pretty ugly.
Thankfully, there’s a simple, relatively easy-to-implement solution for businesses for this exact issue: network redundancy.
What is Network Redundancy?
According to Techopedia: “Network redundancy is a process through which additional or alternate instances of network devices, equipment and communication mediums are installed within network infrastructure.”
The purpose of network redundancy is so that businesses, homes, and communities can have a backup option in case their primary Internet connection goes down.
Businesses choose to implement network redundancy for the same reasons that they use backup generators for when the power goes out: as a proactive measure to prevent or allay future issues caused by a loss of power (or in this case, Internet connection).
That way, you won’t experience any hiccups or affects to your business operations, and everything can run as usual.
Top 3 Reasons to Implement Network Redundancy in Your Business
1) IT’S EASY.
If you’re not leasing your building(s), you most likely already have an automatic failsafe system on your switch or your router.
When you choose to implement network redundancy and work with another Internet service provider (ISP) for a secondary connection, your system will automatically switch to your other connection if, say, there’s a bad storm and your primary ISP’s connection goes down.
Then, when your primary ISP’s connection starts working again, your switch or router will automatically start using their connection instead of the backup connection.
The setup process is easy as well wherein your secondary ISP would connect to your facility in the same exact way that your primary ISP does.
2) IT’S INEXPENSIVE.
When a company implements network redundancy, they need to pay for a secondary connection, but though the fees vary from provider to provider, the fees generally are quite inexpensive.
For every month you don’t have to use your secondary ISP’s service, you will only have to pay a modest monthly fee that could be as low as $10-20 per month.
What happens when your primary ISP’s connection goes down, and you need to start using your backup connection? When your fail-safe system switches automatically to your secondary ISP’s connection, they will start charging you based on how much data you use.
Essentially, it’s quite cheap to just have a secondary connection as a backup, but you really only start to pay once your secondary ISP takes over from the primary.
3) YOU CAN ENSURE THAT PRODUCTIVITY DOESN’T GO DOWN AND THAT YOUR BOTTOM LINE DOESN’T GET AFFECTED.
Regardless of your industry, when your Internet goes down, your productivity usually will also go down. The costs can be both tangible and intangible: frustrated employees, frustrated customers, and frustrated prospective customers, and on the more concrete side, tens to hundreds to thousands of dollars lost from an inability to serve, produce, or perform.
But because of the seamless operations provided by implementing network redundancy, you don’t have to worry about your productivity going down because you have a backup option that kicks in immediately if/when your primary ISP’s connection is lost.
Conclusion
In today’s world, having a poor or lost Internet connection is something businesses can’t afford. But by implementing network redundancy in your organization and using a backup network, you can prevent negative consequences practically effortlessly without breaking the bank.
Independents Fiber Network offers several service selections for network redundancy including carrier Ethernet (carrier-to-carrier fiber-based services) and Ethernet Transport Service (ETS) with options for redundancy. Are you interested in learning more about our network redundancy services? Contact us today to get a quote!