Route Diversity and Why It Matters

An Internet outage is costly. It’s bad for your customer experience and for employee productivity too. Yet network outages are a fact of digital life. Whether weather related, the result of human error or something else, they’re difficult to avoid entirely.

That’s why your business needs a backup plan.

A backup — or redundancy — connection will keep your business running smoothly even when your Internet goes down. Or at least that’s the dream. But to ensure you’re truly covered for the next emergency, you need to know what to look for in a redundancy connection. And you need to ensure your backup plan isn’t going to suffer the same fate as your primary connection.

That’s why route diversity is key.

What Is Route Diversity?

The route your Internet takes to get to your business differs depending on the network you’ve signed up for — whether it be through fibre optic cables, satellite transmissions, cellular towers or something else entirely.

And each network comes with its own vulnerabilities that make it susceptible to a different type of emergency outage. Terrestrial-based networks like cellular and cable, for instance, are more vulnerable to a natural disaster like a hurricane or flood. And while all may be susceptible to outages caused by something like human error, different networks aren’t likely to be affected by the same issue at the same time.

Route diversity, then, takes those differences into consideration to ensure business continuity. With a backup connection that relies on a different network than your primary connection, your business has two unique routes to rely on. If one goes down in an emergency, the other will more likely stay safe.

That way, your business can continue, as usual — keeping productivity up and your customers happy.

4 Things to Look For

So what should you look for in terms of route diversity, to make sure your backup connection is ready for anything? Here are a few things to consider as you choose the right plan for your needs:

Is it “redundant” or “diverse”?

While route diversity may be an integral part of your redundancy plan, it’s important to know that redundancy and diversity aren’t the same thing. For instance, there may be redundancies built into your fibre network that makes it a robust connection most of the time. But if an emergency — a tornado, for instance — damages the fibre-optic cables that transport that Internet to you, those types of redundancies may not help, and it can take days or even weeks to repair. Having route diversity, on the other hand, means that you’re able to switch to an entirely different network when those emergencies happen.

Are you covered for any type of emergency?

There are different reasons your Internet might go out — from human error and cyberattacks, to natural disasters and even animal interference. It’s impossible to predict what might affect your Internet network in the future — but it is possible to cover your bases. For instance, consider the weather-related emergencies and natural disasters most likely to affect your area, and prepare for them. With that in mind, a non-terrestrial satellite connection may be a good backup to a terrestrially based fiber or fixed wireless connection when natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, fires and floods are a concern.

Are you relying on the same equipment?

Of course, your emergency may happen closer to home, in the equipment, cables or technology that delivers Internet from the main network into your own business. If your backup connection relies on the same equipment, then, you're out of luck. That’s why finding a redundancy solution that uses different connection points and equipment is key — as is having 24/7 customer support if your equipment does fail.

Will your backup network meet your performance needs?

Finally, you’ve likely chosen your primary network for its performance capabilities. After all, it has to be fast and reliable enough to meet your business needs. So it makes sense that you’d want to choose a redundancy connection that’s just as reliable. Otherwise, how can you be sure you’ll be able to keep up business as usual?

Conclusion

To stay online and maintain productivity during an Internet outage, you need a backup connection that’s going to stack up — even in an emergency. For that to happen, you have to think ahead and choose a redundancy plan that isn’t prone to the same concerns your primary connection is.

That’s where route diversity comes in.

Find out more about Xplore Business Backup Plans.