Internet is no longer just another office utility
Not that long ago, an internet outage was inconvenient.
Employees might lose access to websites and email for a while, but much of the business could continue operating locally.
That’s very different today.
For many small businesses, an internet connection provides access to Microsoft 365, cloud accounting, line-of-business applications, payment systems, remote workers, cloud backups and even the business phone system.
When the internet stops, a significant part of the business can stop with it.
That’s why businesses should start treating internet connectivity as critical infrastructure rather than simply another monthly service.
What actually stops working during an internet outage?
The answer depends on how your business operates.
A modern business might rely on its internet connection for:
- Microsoft 365 and cloud applications
- OneDrive and SharePoint
- Microsoft Teams
- Cloud accounting and CRM systems
- VoIP business phones
- Remote access
- Cloud-hosted servers
- Online ordering and payment systems
- Offsite backups
- Access to supplier and customer portals
If most of these services depend on one internet connection, that connection represents a significant single point of failure.
A fast internet connection isn’t necessarily a resilient one
When businesses compare internet services, speed usually receives most of the attention.
How many megabits per second do we get?
How quickly can we download files?
What’s the upload speed?
Those are important questions, but reliability is just as important.
A very fast connection provides little value while it’s offline.
Businesses that depend heavily on cloud services should therefore consider both performance and resilience when choosing their internet solution.
Why internet connections fail
Internet outages can happen for many reasons.
There might be a fault with the NBN network or another carrier. Construction work could damage a cable. Network equipment might fail. There could be a power issue, configuration problem or fault further upstream with the service provider.
Some outages last only a few minutes.
Others can last hours or, in more serious cases, considerably longer.
The important question isn’t whether an outage will ever happen.
It’s:
What happens to your business when it does?
What is internet failover?
Internet failover provides an alternative connection that can be used when the primary service becomes unavailable.
For many small businesses, this might be a 4G or 5G mobile connection.
The business normally operates over its primary NBN or fibre connection. If that connection fails, appropriately configured network equipment can switch internet traffic to the secondary service.
When the primary service becomes available again, traffic can return to it.
Ideally, much of this happens automatically.
Does every business need a backup internet connection?
Not necessarily.
Just like backups and cybersecurity, the appropriate solution depends on the consequences of failure.
Consider a two-person business where employees can temporarily use mobile hotspots. An automated secondary internet service might not be necessary.
Now consider an office with 20 employees where the phones, email, Microsoft 365 and primary business application all depend on internet connectivity.
An hour without internet could potentially cost much more than maintaining a backup connection.
The decision should therefore be based on business impact rather than business size alone.
4G and 5G can provide practical backup connectivity
Mobile networks have made internet redundancy much more accessible to small businesses.
A dedicated 4G or 5G connection can provide sufficient connectivity to keep important cloud services operating during many fixed-line outages.
However, mobile connectivity has its own limitations.
Performance can depend on signal strength, network congestion, building construction and mobile coverage.
A backup service should therefore be tested rather than simply installed and forgotten.
Two internet connections don’t always mean true redundancy
This is an important consideration.
A business might purchase two internet services and assume it now has redundancy.
But if both services ultimately depend on the same physical infrastructure, the same network path or the same equipment, a single failure could potentially affect both.
True redundancy requires understanding where the possible points of failure are.
For some businesses, using different technologies — such as NBN plus 5G — can provide better diversity than two services relying on similar infrastructure.
Your firewall or router matters too
Having a second connection doesn’t automatically create failover.
The business network needs equipment capable of managing multiple internet connections and detecting when the primary service has failed.
A properly configured firewall or router can manage this process and determine how traffic should behave during an outage.
This is another reason why business network equipment should be selected based on requirements rather than simply using whichever router came with the internet service.
What about business phones?
Internet outages can have an unexpected impact on modern phone systems.
Many businesses now use VoIP or cloud-hosted phone services.
These systems provide significant flexibility, but office handsets still require internet connectivity to reach the cloud phone platform.
If the primary internet service fails and there is no alternative connection, employees may lose both their internet access and their desk phones at the same time.
A properly designed failover solution can help keep both services operating.
Don’t forget about power
Internet redundancy doesn’t help if the networking equipment turns off during a power interruption.
Routers, firewalls, network switches, wireless access points and other critical network equipment can potentially be protected using an appropriate UPS.
How much backup power a business needs depends on the equipment and how long it needs to operate.
For businesses where connectivity is particularly important, internet resilience and power resilience should be considered together.
Test your failover before you need it
There’s a simple way to find out whether your backup internet works:
Disconnect the primary connection.
A planned test can reveal issues that aren’t obvious during normal operation.
Do computers remain online?
Can employees still access Microsoft 365?
Do the phones continue working?
Does the network automatically return to the primary connection when it becomes available?
Finding these problems during a planned test is much better than discovering them during a real outage.
Start with the cost of downtime
Businesses sometimes look at redundancy as an unnecessary additional expense.
A better way to evaluate it is to consider the cost of being offline.
If ten employees can’t work effectively for three hours, what does that cost the business?
What happens if customers can’t telephone the office?
What happens if employees can’t access the primary business application?
Once you understand the potential impact of an outage, it’s much easier to decide how much redundancy is appropriate.
Building resilient business connectivity
At itX365, we help Perth businesses design internet and network solutions around how they actually operate.
That can include business internet services, managed network equipment, firewalls, Wi-Fi, 4G/5G failover, business phone systems and monitoring.
The objective isn’t to promise that an internet service will never fail.
It’s to make sure that when something does fail, one fault doesn’t unnecessarily bring the whole business to a stop.
How dependent is your business on one internet connection?
If losing your internet connection would also mean losing your phones, Microsoft 365 and access to critical business applications, it may be worth reviewing your current connectivity.
Talk to itX365 about business internet and connectivity options for your Perth business.