OrbComm looks at some potential advantages to enterprises engaging wireless network failover systems to protect against operation disruption
If we examine what keeps the gears of an enterprise turning, we’d probably look to the people. From people come the innovative ideas, planning, strategies and execution of business objectives. People are the face of the company to the customers. But no matter how good the people are, a modern business cannot operate while its network is down.
Most businesses with branch offices, distributed kiosks or remote digital signage know a network outage can cause at minimum a mess, if not a full-fledged disaster. According to Gartner, the cost of network downtime averages $5,600 per minute or more than $300,000 per hour. For Amazon.com, 49 minutes of downtime in 2013 cost a whopping $4 million in lost sales. While 99% of retailers are smaller than Amazon, uptime is just as crucial.
Network downtime can also damage a brand and knock the wind out of customer satisfaction. Nothing good comes out of someone walking away from a cash register empty-handed because a gift card can’t be processed. Just as annoying is getting stuck with a cart of grocery items only to find out the credit card information won’t go through on the first, second or even third time. As frustration rises, so does the perception of poor customer service. Customers will be apt to blame the business rather than the hardware manufacturer or network provider.
We live in a connected world with expectations of 100% uptime from business owners, employees and customers. Nevertheless, wires do fail. Regardless of the type of disruption, a traffic accident, severe weather or heavy network congestion, the inability to communicate in real time hurts operations, sales and profitability. Reliable network connectivity is essential to business continuity. Having a safeguard for a primary connection in place, such as a LTE wireless failover solution, is essential.
There are three key reasons to integrate a wireless failover solution to keep your business processes running and revenue streams flowing when a network outage happens.
It’s preventative
The trouble with most forms of insurance is that the claim needs to be made after calamity strikes. Wouldn’t it be great if insurance would help us prevent bad things from happening? That’s essentially what an automatic LTE failover will do for your business. Network outages happen instantaneously and unexpectedly. A wireless failover solution will immediately detect a break in the network and take over to keep your business and revenue rolling, while mitigating risks to your security and customer satisfaction.
It’s cost-effective and easy to manage
There are other alternatives to a wireless failover – costly technology upgrades can improve, but not guarantee, network uptime. For instance, a T1 or T3 line can increase internet availability, but it is expensive. A wired redundancy also is an option, but this option can suffer physical damage at the same time as the primary wired connection. Wireless failover offers a reliable, cost-effective way to ensure continuity of business in the event of a network outage. It also promises ease of management for organizations with limited information technology resources by offering scalability across distributed locations, fast time to deployment and remote management and monitoring, further saving money by limiting the number of personnel needed for on-site technical maintenance.
It’s secure
A good wireless network failover is able to integrate seamlessly with an organization’s existing security structure. With all the sensitive information traveling to and from distributed enterprises, a backup network needs to have strict measures in place such as Payment Card Industry compliance for credit card security. In a competitive world where everyone is looking for that extra edge, a good LTE wireless failover solution enables a business-as-usual environment regardless of circumstances.
As an accompaniment to wireless failover, out-of-band management functionality helps boost network uptime further. We all face the perennial business imperative to cut costs, and one way to do that is by having an out-of-band management system in place. OOBM makes a business’ IT department more efficient while saving it money and ensuring a higher degree of network uptime. So what is OOBM?
Simply put, out-of-band management:
• Provides IT departments a secure way to manage remote network devices without going through the primary network or a costly separate telephone line.
• Reduces costly truck rolls (having technicians drive to remote sites to diagnose and fix equipment).
• Allows for remote troubleshooting, configuration and rebooting of firewalls, routers, bridges, switches and servers.
As a result, out-of-band management helps to:
• Increase network uptime;
• Cut costs;
• Keep your staff at ease and your customers happy; and
• Ensure a higher level of IT infrastructure integrity.
Out-of-band management makes remote upgrades and other vital tasks possible without disrupting the primary network connection – all while saving costs and time. It’s quickly becoming a crucial solution for any business looking to save on IT costs and improve IT efficiency and effectiveness – especially for businesses with multiple locations.
Business continuity demands a solution that combines wireless failover with OOBM functionality. Fortunately, world-class connectivity, hardware and management capabilities along with network and deployment support is now within reach for businesses of any size.
If people are the gears to any successful organization, the network is the oil that keeps the gears running smoothly. Wireless failover with out-of-band management is a great way to keep the oil flowing.
Bill Molesworth is OrbComm’s VP of wireless services and manages the company’s terrestrial wireless business. His career spans a broad range of technology industries with extensive experience in the consumer electronics manufacturing, telecommunications, wireless IT solutions and machine-to-machine communications markets.
Editor’s Note: In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers we have created this Reader Forum for those with something meaningful to say to the wireless industry. We want to keep this as open as possible, but we maintain some editorial control to keep it free of commercials or attacks. Please send along submissions for this section to our editors at: dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
