How to make your business more resilient to internet outages
Posted on 15 July 2024 by Rachael WhiteWhile it might seem counterintuitive coming from an internet service provider, the reality is that no form of connectivity offers total immunity to disruptions or failures. Connectivity can fail for various reasons, including external influences such as power cuts, cyber-attacks, extreme weather conditions, and cable damage. Internal issues like faulty kit can also cause loss of service.
Understanding this landscape of potential connectivity threats, we work with our customers to offer strategies to reduce the risk of internet failure and mitigate disruption and financial impact when it does occur:
1. Plan for downtime like other risks
Business resumption plan: Treat internet downtime with the same seriousness as fire, flood, and theft. Include it in your business continuity plan (BCP).
Insurance cover: Consider interruption caused by downtime when organising business insurance.
2. Review all kit
Identify critical equipment: Review if there is equipment absolutely fundamental to the functions of the business. Hold spares based on manufacturer-provided mean time to failure (MTTF) data, factoring in global supply chain issues that may impact the replacement speed.
Have essential kit on hot standby: For core assets like firewalls and Storage Area Networks, consider hot standby redundancy, where a backup system is running and ready to take over instantly if the primary system fails, for immediate failover during outages.
Successful equipment retirement: Implement a thorough asset lifecycle management process. Remove and securely destroy end-of-life equipment to ensure it is not inadvertently used again.
3. Address power vulnerabilities
Prepare for power outages: Power is a common cause of downtime for business-grade Ethernet fibre services. Evaluate your utilities and create a plan for external power outages out of your control.
Implement business continuity measures: While optimising power consumption, consider outage impacts. Assess on a site-by-site basis and what the plan for business continuity is in these circumstances.
Install an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS): Install a UPS device to safeguard equipment from damage in the event of a short-term power supply issue. This will prevent data loss and protect from damage due to surges.
4. Mitigate connectivity risks
Consider diverse routing: To ensure that key sites remain connected, businesses should consider diverse routing. This provides separate paths for dual fibre services to ensure critical functions remain operational even if one network experiences an outage. Be aware that different providers do not necessarily offer route or equipment diversity.
Install a connectivity backup: Consider alternative technology, such as mobile broadband, as a secondary emergency backup connection.
5. Safeguard data integrity and security
Maintain data security: whatever the reason for the downtime, it should not result in a loosening of security or the removal of processes used to protect the confidentiality of the data, such as access control. Be aware that cyber criminals sometimes use internet downtime as a distraction when pursuing a target.
Plan for data reconciliation: This scenario should be planned for if a site is isolated from the internet and work needs to be completed offline. It is not just a matter of considering system availability but also the integrity of the data processed in isolation. Once connectivity is returned, a manual input process or software reconciliation may be required to add the data back in to company databases and systems.
Boosting the resilience of your business to internet downtime is not simply a technical issue; it is a business issue that companies can mitigate through the right technology, good planning and picking the right business partners. By taking a little time to consider your options today, companies can enhance their resilience to connectivity challenges and save valuable time later by ensuring the highest levels of uptime and productivity, safeguarding against potential disruptions and financial losses.
Beaming pride ourselves on keeping our customers working, whatever disasters are thrown their way. Find out what strategies we can support you with. Get in touch