24 Nov Business Disaster Recovery Planning: How a Backup Internet Service Can Keep Your Operation Online & Connected
When outages hit, whether it be from storms, fiber cuts, or cyber incidents, operations grind to a halt. The business impact is real: about 98% of organizations say one hour of downtime costs over $100,000. For many sectors, that figure climbs fast, making connectivity a core pillar of disaster recovery.
Why Internet Redundancy Belongs in Your DR Plan – Does $6,000/min in Downtime Costs Get Your Attention?
Most teams back up data and harden apps, but if the network goes down, none of that matters. Industry benchmarks show downtime can run $5,600-$9,000 per minute in many environments, and the hit isn’t just revenue. Downtime cost = minutes of downtime x cost per minute, plus customer impact, productivity loss, and even higher employee turnover if outages become chronic.
What Causes Internet Outages?
Visibility into root causes helps you plan the right safeguards. Common outage causes include:
- Equipment failure
- Human error
- Weather
- Cyberattacks
- Power outages
On the threat front, DNS (domain name system) remains a top attack vector, frequently used to disrupt or redirect traffic at a scale.
How Backup Internet (Failover) Works
A resilient network uses a secondary path that takes over instantly if the primary fails. A backup internet connection is a secondary service designed to activate automatically if your primary goes down, keeping critical workflows live. Technically, this is a failover: the ability to switch automatically and seamlessly to a backup system, often orchestrated by dual-WAN routers or SD-WAN.
Common Commercial Internet Backup Options
- Cellular (LTE/5G) failover: Quick to deploy, widely available, and ideal for keeping point-of-sale, VoIP, and cloud tools online during fiber/cable incidents.
- Satellite: Useful in remote sites, with latency considerations.
- Secondary wireline provider: Strong performance when truly diverse from the primary path.
For multi-site or high-uptime needs, SD-WAN with intelligent traffic steering enables true seamless failover across diverse links, so users often won’t notice a switchover. Some providers also note nationwide 4G/5G coverage reaching ~98%, making cellular an increasingly dependable safety net.
Choosing (and Proving) the Right Redundancy
- Assess impact: Which apps must never drop? Size your backup to support those loads.
- Diversify paths: Use different carriers/mediums to avoid single points of failure.
- Automate failover: Configure health checks, routing, and policies for instant cutover.
- Test regularly: Conduct planned failover drills and document results for audits.
- Scale smart: As you add sites, consider standardized gear and centralized management.
Bottom Line
Every hour offline risks revenue, customer trust, and team momentum. Adding an automatic backup connection transforms your disaster recovery plan from reactive to resilient, protecting continuity when it matters most.
New Connect designs and manages primary and backup business internet solutions that keep you online, even when the unexpected happens. Contact us today to build a continuity plan tailored to your needs.
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