Understanding the need for route diversity is key to ensuring you have the most effective network redundancy strategy to minimize business disruption from internet outages.
For most businesses today, having a reliable internet connection is more important for business continuity than having power to keep the lights on. With cloud-based applications and digital services defining how we work and live, the moment that internet connection goes down, businesses start losing money.
That’s not to say that most business internet service isn’t reliable, but just like electricity, chances are that at some point, there will be a hardware failure, a patching glitch, or an accidental fiber cut, so for any network that requires maximum uptime, proper redundancy is a must.
The rapid widespread adoption of SD-WAN is proof that IT leaders are increasingly adopting a redundant approach by having two internet providers to ensure business continuity in case of an outage of either provider. The SD-WAN market continues to explode with 92 percent of companies surveyed in the process of evaluating SD-WAN services and software, according to next-gen research company, Futuriom.
While SD-WAN helps manage links from multiple carriers for carrier diversity, it is also critical to incorporate route diversity to ensure maximum business continuity. Most buildings only have one route, or conduit, for all telecommunications providers to use to bring service into the basement of the building. When a backhoe or other physical event cuts the line, all circuits go down together and the business loses internet connectivity. Smart IT leaders are increasingly looking at route diversity as a key element of their redundancy strategy to ensure business continuity. Fiber, coax, and copper usually use the same conduit in the ground to reach the building in the basement, but only the fixed wireless link comes into the building at the rooftop to provide true route diversity.
REDUNDANCY WITHOUT MISSING A BEAT
Route diversity — internet access achieved through two or more different types of connections – one a wired connection entering in the ground and the other a wireless connection at the roof—is the only way to create effective network redundancy and ensure 100% business continuity so users are not even aware of a service interruption to either link.
In short, the best and most logical business continuity plan combines a terrestrial wired service in the ground with an enterprise-grade fixed wireless link to the roof to eliminate downtime and avoid lost revenue.
FIXED WIRELESS FOR PRIMARY OR SECONDARY SERVICE
Key to implementing a sound strategy for internet redundancy with route diversity is selecting the right wireless internet provider. Businesses need enterprise-grade internet service backed by strict service level agreements (SLAs) to ensure maximum business continuity. When evaluating fixed wireless services as part of a redundancy plan, there are several key things to consider:
- The most reliable and high-capacity enterprise-grade fixed wireless service uses the latest millimeter wave radio technology for direct FCC licensed point-to-point links.
- A mesh deployment model provides multiple paths from the rooftop to the two geographically diverse datacenters, ensuring maximum reliability.
- The fixed wireless provider must verify that it also employs battery backup to minimize any negative impact from power outages.
- SDN (Software Defined Network) dynamic intelligent routing, and advanced network monitoring ensure that the wireless route from the rooftop to the data center is even more reliable than terrestrial circuits.
The cost of internet outages can be enormous, especially when you factor in revenue loss, productivity decrease, and damage to reputation. Fortunately, creating a more reliable solution that leverages true route diversity by combining a terrestrial wired link in the ground with a wireless link to the rooftop is now more affordable than ever.
- At least two internet links for carrier diversity
- Combination of a terrestrial wired link and a fixed wireless link for true route diversity
- Enterprise-class service with strict SLAs
THE WILINE ADVANTAGE+
WiLine has been delivering ultra-fast, scalable, secure, and reliable internet service for businesses since 2002, making it an ideal option as a primary or secondary provider in a redundant configuration. We understand the importance of route diversity, and we connect businesses directly to our fully redundant, high-speed private metro Ethernet network with industry-leading SLAs. This includes 100% throughput with up to 99.999% service availability, less than 10-millisecond latency, and less than 0.0001% packet loss.
WiLine also can customize your bandwidth from 50 Mbps to 10 Gbps to suit your specific needs. All our plans are symmetrical, and our prices are very competitive when comparing like-for-like services.
For more information on how WiLine can help your business protect its operations and maintain business continuity, contact us today.
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