The importance of backing up your network

In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to data retention in both corporations and businesses. Most companies, right now, have storage on-premises, off-site/cloud, or perhaps a hybrid.

What I find fascinating is that a lot of these same companies don’t support the one thing that gets them to that data, and that’s the internet/network. What’s even more amazing is the relatively low cost to create a backup network.

The vast majority of companies use VOIP over Ethernet or PRI in business and corporate environments. Some companies will run VOIP over cable, particularly in small/remote/home office environments.

Most “next generation” firewalls or “unified threat management” appliances contain features that allow not only the ability to fail over from one circuit (the primary) to a secondary circuit, but many can load balance . This provides additional benefits to a business for maximizing bandwidth.

To get started, let’s look at the ways to back up a network:

1. If your business has an Ethernet circuit for the Internet (10 Mbps-100 Mbps, etc…) from a provider, you can order a cable modem from your local cable company for less than $400/month on average. In fact (using Atlanta as an example), one of the local cable companies will provide a 100/7mbps cable modem for $180/mo.

As long as your firewall can provide automatic failover and load balancing, you can get the additional bandwidth of the secondary connection, as well as the benefits of redundancy.

2. If your business is smaller and uses a cable modem as your primary circuit, backup options include DSL (even if it will be phased out over the next few years) and 3G/4G wireless solutions. Both are very affordable, typically less than $100/mo.

A smaller company may think that they cannot afford the type of equipment to do failover and load balancing, but this is often a false belief. I have configured several clients with low-cost firewall solutions, such as Fortinet’s Wifi 60D*, which provides both features and the standard advanced features offered by security vendors.
*Full Disclaimer: I am a Fortinet dealer.

3. If your business is using basic analog phone lines, it’s only a matter of time until the incumbent phone provider phases out traditional phone service. Both AT&T and Verizon have stated that they will be leaving the local copper network by 2020, and that’s not that far away. Most likely, a local AT&T or Verizon representative will contact you and offer you a new package (U-Verse or FIOS, respectively).

In fact, I recently did some freelance work for a friend of mine who runs a telecom agency, and AT&T provided him with a list of their clients on traditional PRI, 1FB, and other digital services. The initiative is to convert all clients to Ethernet. So the story is, even if you’re on traditional POTS (Old Old Telephone Service), pretty soon you’ll be using VOIP.

The main advantages of backing up your network are as follows:

1. The data you have worked on to protect and recover would not be accessible without a secondary circuit in case the primary circuit failed.

Gartner estimates that the cost to a business ranges from $140K/hr and up. http://blogs.gartner.com/andrew-lerner/2014/07/16/the-cost-of-downtime/

What would be the cost to your organization if your network were down for one hour?

There are several “Outage Calculators” from consulting firms like Deloitte and Gartner, but as a business owner or CIO, you should already have a pretty good idea of ​​what the cost would be.

What would be the lost revenue per hour if your call center is down?
What would be the loss of revenue per hour if your ERP or card processing system were unavailable?
Would it be worth implementing the marginal costs described above to avoid that?

2. With load balancing, the network can run much faster by using a low-cost secondary circuit for additional bandwidth. Therefore, the expenses will be reduced.

For example, a 10mbps Ethernet circuit might cost $500/month. To add additional bandwidth, an upgrade to a 20 Mbps Ethernet circuit could cost an additional $300 or $800 per month. The same company could stick with 10 Mbps Ethernet as primary, add a lower cost cable modem (such as a 100/7 circuit) for $200 per month, and actually save money. This setup would not only be $100/month less expensive, but it would also provide much higher bandwidth and redundancy than simply upgrading the primary.

3. The reputation of the company and the brand is at stake. Anytime there is a known outage (or a company data breach), it reflects negatively on the company and leads to a loss of consumer confidence, possible financial repercussions due to service level agreements (if applicable). Loss of productivity and possible loss of employment.

Backing up your network allows a business the peace of mind that all major components are backed up, at minimal cost.

4. Last but not least, cloud applications continue to grow in popularity. Considering that an internet pipe is the only place to access your core hosted applications, a backup plan is vital. Core operations are compromised if the main internet circuit fails, effectively crippling a business. This may be the most important reason of all to back up a network.

So what are the keys to achieving this?

Evaluate the current situation:

What provider do you use for internet?
What kind of service do you have? Is it PRI, Ethernet, cable modem?
What is your contractual situation?
How much are you currently paying for the network?
What type of Firewall does your network use?
What are the technical limitations of that Firewall?

Evaluate options:

What options are available for network backup? (Cable/DSL/Fixed Wireless)
What is the cost to upgrade the Firewall if it does not provide failover?
What is the cost of upgrading the Firewall if it doesn’t load balance (if desired)?
What is your downtime cost per hour relative to these costs?

Implement the solution:
Who will do the implementation?
Usually this is my client’s data provider. When I have installed new offices, I use my own installer.

What is the implementation cost?
Typical data provider charges range from $100/hr to $200/hr and typical time is approximately 4 hours.

I hope this article has been informative for you and provides some guidance on the various ways your organization can improve its infrastructure at low cost and high performance. If you are interested in discussing the unique needs of your business, please email me at [email protected]

Thank you for taking the time to read this article.