Key Benefits of a Wireless Failover Solution

Paperless operations, globalisation, 24/7 businesses, software-based applications – world commerce operates on the internet. When wired connections go down – whether it’s from natural disasters, damage due to traffic accidents or construction, or any other unexpected element – it can be costly in both the short term and the long term.

1. Mitigate Unplanned Downtime

Unplanned downtime can be incredibly damaging, and the range of impact can vary depending use case. Gartner averages the cost of unplanned downtime as $5,600 per minute, which could be escalated depending on enterprise size or operations. Industrial manufacturing of military aircraft likely would face steeper consequences of unplanned downtime versus a small business, but financial or reputational damage nonetheless is still present when a network outage occurs.

2. Proactive Business Continuity

Business continuity plans for internet connections are a proactive way to guard against the costs of network outages. The cost of network outages can come in many forms.

• Financial costs: If operations come to a halt, this can certainly cost an organisation in either profitability or in loss of time. In the industrial manufacturing of government aircraft example, the costs can build up even if just a few hours are lost. Production would fall behind, and either costs could overrun in working overtime to catch up, or costs could come contractually if the manufacturer were late in delivery times. Either way, it could be very costly.
• Access to customer information: The ability to access information, such as through a Customer Relationship Management tool, or even patient files such as in a clinical setting, could result in the inability to deliver services during the network outage.
• Loss in employee productivity: If employees cannot perform their jobs due to a network outage, then the loss of productivity is a natural consequence.
• Reputational damage: If an organisation cannot deliver a product or service due to a network outage, customers might be displeased enough to take their business elsewhere or new prospects might make assumptions about the quality of the organisation’s service delivery.

A business continuity plan is a proactive measure to guard against these types of issues if a network outage were to occur.

3. Out of Band Management for Remote Access

A wireless failover solution provides another network to access the primary network in order to diagnose problems. This is called out-of-band management (OOBM) and it provides the ability to troubleshoot network issues on the fly with the potential to resolve the issue more easily or at least get an idea of how to move forward and timeline for rectifying the situation.

Wireless Failover with Cellular Networks

When choosing a wireless failover business continuity plan, organisations can choose between a wired or wireless failover solution. A wired solution would be identical to the primary wired network and most likely buried underground in almost the same location as the primary network. Unfortunately, this means that the likelihood that a physical cause for a network outage (inclement weather, accidents, or construction) would affect both networks.

A wireless solution leverages 4G LTE or 5G cellular networks that are not comprised of the same infrastructure as a wired connection. Not only does this provide a completely separate, secondary network to failover to, it also carries a few key benefits:

• Near 100 percent failover: When failing over to a cellular network, business continuity solutions can provide 99.99 percent uptime, which means there can be minuscule time between a network outage and switching to the secondary network.
• Quick installation: Because a secondary wired connection does not need to be wired, wireless failover solutions have the potential to be installed faster with the use of cellular routers.
• Network reality: 4G LTE and 5G solutions are going to have the bandwidth to support network reliability for your operations and your deployment can be strategised in a way that prioritises key business operations while restricting access to less important components of operations.

KORE Wireless Failover Solutions

When you’re ready for a business continuity plan that delivers 99.99 percent uptime leveraging industry leading cellular connectivity and routers, you’re ready for KORE. Our key partnerships with Mobile Network Operators and hardware providers means you can get your customised business continuity plan up and running so you do not have to worry about loss of productivity or an impact on your bottom line.

Watch our recent webinar, "Best Practices in Business Continuity: Getting the Most out of Your Tools", to learn more.