Back up to a main internet connection is important for businesses as it ensures you do not have any downtime as downtime = loss of revenue/profit and customers. It also damages reputation.
Flotek are passionate about provide “Always On” solutions. As part of our solution, we offer a back internet service with auto failover or a mobile data sim that can also be used as a auto failover.
We can offer dual routers so you have redundant hardware or dual connections into the same router but ultimately this is providing redundancy against any carrier/network failures.
Ninety-nine percent of companies surveyed use the cloud somewhere in their business, and 50% of a company’s workload is done in the cloud….. This means an active internet connection is critical!
Unforeseen network outages can happen at any time, it could be due to power outages, natural disasters, network maintenance, or malicious software attacks on your primary connection. A secondary “backup” broadband connection would eliminate downtime for your business if this was to happen.
Maintains Productivity
When your business connectivity fails, your employees are unable to do any work. This can also lead to stress and less productivity within your operations. A secondary broadband connection will give you a backup plan, taking care of your business and employees.
A Better Customer Experience
Keeping customers happy and connected to your business is a necessity in any business operation. If your primary broadband connection fails, this can have a huge impact on your current customer and potential customer base, as they are unable to contact or get a response from your business via online platforms (emails, customer relation platforms). If your business operates a VOIP telephone service – downtime on your connectivity means your phone system is down also. Your business really ends up a closed box for all communications. A secondary “backup” broadband connection would give you a smooth failover (no downtime)-keeping your customers connected to the heart of your business at all times.
Auto Failover
An auto-failover is the best thing you can think about implementing into your business IT operations. Once you have a secondary “backup” connection in place, an advanced firewall or router can automate the switch instantly between your connections.
Avoids Revenue and Profit Loss
No business wants to lose revenue or profit. Downtime in your broadband connectivity can cost your business a significant amount of loss. In respect of this, a secondary broadband connection is an added value and peace of mind for your business. The secondary “backup” broadband connection can also be utilised alongside your primary connection and does not have to be a dormant connection. Your internal IT team can implement the following with the secondary “backup” connection
- Critical traffic can be routed through the fastest connection in your business
- Instantaneous failover between lines can be implemented
- The business teams’ essential projects and operations can be run on an isolated connection
- Create a guest network using your “backup “secondary connection
- Capitalize on your connection by load balancing the bandwidth between both connections
Cost Calculations
To estimate how much downtime costs your business, we recommend starting by calculating the internet outage losses for every hour your internet connection is out:
- Revenue. Multiply your average sale amount by the average number of sales per hour.
- Staff productivity. When the internet is down, how many of your employees can’t work? Don’t forget to include the hours IT spends managing the crisis and repairing the damage instead of doing their scheduled tasks.
- Money owed to customers. Include not just any compensation but also fees dictated by service-level agreements and possible government fines. To get an hourly rate, divide the cost per outage by the number of hours of the outage.
- Hidden costs. Did you need to hire outside consultants to repair and prevent another outage? To complete customer orders or otherwise catch up on work? What does lost data cost you? Again, divide the total hidden costs per outage by the number of hours the internet was out.
Add them together, and you’ll get the per-hour cost for an internet outage. And don’t forget soft costs. Chaos and stress will urge good employees to find work elsewhere, while a frequent inability to order from you will push customers to buy from someone else.
Failover and Redundancy Can Save Your Business
When issues occur, being able to switch to a reliable backup or redundant system is key. Failover is the method of switching between your primary and secondary systems as seamlessly as possible. With redundancy in place, a standby internet service is ready whenever your primary service is unavailable. It can come online manually, with a member of IT making the switch, or automatically, based on the type of failover process you use.
This redundant system ensures that if your internet connection drops out—your business and your customers are still able to access your product or service.
Sounds Great – What are the next steps?
If your ready to back up and get started with Keeping Your Business Internet On – contact our team here or call us on 02921 508000
