Why Should Your Business Have Two Internet Connections?

Needless to say, maintaining continuous internet access is vital for these business-critical systems to function. Nonetheless, many businesses continue to put themselves at risk by only having one internet connection.

The risk of relying on one internet connection

Being so reliant on the cloud has the potential to be a double-edged sword. You can run your business and access your data from anywhere, which is critical in a post-COVID world. The disadvantage is that you are entirely dependent on your internet connection.

The reality is that your business can’t afford to not have the redundancy of an additional internet connection should your ISP go out. An Internet outage can put your company’s access to important business data (such as email) in jeopardy, resulting in costly downtime.

If your primary broadband service is disrupted, the cost to your business can be significant. According to recent studies, each minute of downtime can cost a small business anywhere from $137 to $427.

Consider some of the critical business processes you use and what it would mean if they went down for even 30-45 minutes. Now consider how much it will cost if the average wait time for service to restart is six hours. Surprisingly, just 13% of firms have a backup strategy in place.

Larger businesses do, in fact, lose the most money and productive hours. The consequences of connectivity failure, on the other hand, affect all types of businesses, large, small, and micro.

The benefits of adding a second internet connection

An internet outage in your business can occur for a variety of reasons. Problems can range from inclement weather to a faulty cable or DSL line to a problem with your ISP’s server, and everything in between.

The truth is that you have no control over when or for how long your internet connection will be lost if your provider experiences a problem. As a result, it’s critical to have backup internet service to ensure that your office’s connections remain stable

ISP redundancy has a number of advantages. Let’s check some of them out!

1. If one connection breaks, there is redundancy/failover:
   When server updates or network infrastructure work is being done, internet service may go out intermittently. While these disruptions may only last a few minutes, they can cause aggravation and productivity loss. You must also factor in the typical time it takes a person to regain their previous level of concentration. According to studies, it takes about 23 minutes for a person to regain their level of focus after a disruption.

   Being able to switch ISPs on the fly can help you avoid downtime and keep your employees connected at all times. We’ve got you covered with Vivant’s SmartCONNECT technology. SmartCONNECT maintains your connection even if your Internet Service Provider experiences a service outage.

2. Efficient management of bandwidth demands:
   You may require more bandwidth than your internet connection can give at times. This puts everyone at the whim of a slow internet connection in order to complete a lengthy procedure. With an SDWAN, you may integrate both ISP connections into a single delivery pool (Software-Defined Wide Area Network). This allows you to prioritize bandwidth in order to satisfy the needs of users and processes.

   You end up with a considerably quicker network that can continue to function even if one of the ISPs goes down.

3. Enhances the customer experience:
   Customers may call your competitor if they are unable to reach you when they call or email. According to surveys, bad customer service causes 49 percent of customers to switch businesses. In today’s world, providing a great customer experience requires having a dependable internet connection. Customers demand prompt responses via phone, email, or website chat, and a poor internet connection might be frustrating.

   Using a secondary internet service provider like Vivant will help you keep your internet connection up and running. This can make a big difference in how many leads you convert to customers and how many customers you keep.

4. Segmenting your network gives you more security options:
   A company’s network contains a number of endpoints.  This includes those that require extra security and those that constitute a security concern. Consider visitors who connect to your company’s Wi-Fi. Their unknown devices could provide a security risk to your server, which is also connected to the same network.

   You can segment your traffic by using two ISPs. This means you can put sensitive information-holding devices on one ISP connection and guests and less secure devices on the other.

   Separation of traffic protects data from hackers and malware that may be transmitted from a less secure device.

A faster and more reliable network with Vivant

Vivant can assist your company in establishing a backup ISP connection. Partner with Vivant to get the most up-to-date and dependable solutions in the market. We’re continuously looking for new methods to save costs, improve efficiencies, and innovate. Get in touch with us today.