Imagine this: a dental clinic. A patient is waiting, but the staff member can't check their medical history. Registration and payment are down, and all appointments have to be canceled…
A network outage paralyzed this small business, as nothing worked without internet. Frustrated patients leave the clinic and, on the way home, leave unfavorable reviews of you online.
Fortunately, there are ways to minimize the risk of such scenarios. We've written this guide for business owners who refuse to accept situations that shouldn't arise in an age where internet access is as essential as electricity and running water.
Some data
In Europe and around the world, the costs of downtime already amount to billions:
– According to an article published on the IT Proin 2023 over £3.7 billion due to internet disruptions.
– Catchpoint/Forrester study 2025 $500,000 in a single month.
– Moreover, global enterprises lose billions annually – because 10 hours of IT failure costs US companies nearly USD 26.5 billion, and in Europe the losses are often even higher.
This data shows that internet outages are not a whim – they are a real threat to your product, reputation, and revenue.
“Good planning, higher bandwidth services and expert support are now essential to reduce the risk of internet outages and the associated financial losses.”
– Sonia Blizzard, managing director at Beaming, a leading telecoms operator in the UK
How to prepare your business for internet outages?
First: renegotiation of terms with the operator
It's worth starting your contract renegotiation by examining whether the provider offers an SLA, or Service Level Agreement. This is simply a contractual provision that specifies the guaranteed level of connection availability and the rules for responding to outages. A well-designed SLA should clearly define the minimum level of service availability per month or year (e.g., 99.5% or 99.9%), specify the maximum response time to a request, and predict the time it will take to resolve the outage. Contracts typically range from a few hours on weekdays to 24 hours for more serious issues. For more demanding customers, providers may also offer faster repair times, such as up to 4 hours from the time the request is submitted, as well as contractual penalties or financial compensation if the guaranteed level is not met. If your current ISP doesn't include an SLA in the agreement or proposes very long response times, it's worth considering renegotiating your contract or switching to a provider that will better protect your business against downtime.
We'd also like to point out that SLA parameters are typically unavailable in service options targeted at individual customers. This service is typically offered in business subscriptions, so it's worth exploring the company-specific service offerings.
Second: backup link
An effective way to avoid business disruptions during a power outage is to ensure a backup internet connection. It's crucial that it doesn't rely on the same infrastructure as your primary connection. In practice, this means that if you're using fiber optic, it's worth ensuring the backup fiber enters the building from a different direction or comes from a different provider. Experience has shown that providers can clearly show the route their cables take into the building, for example, in a screenshot of Google Maps. This is usually enough to determine whether such a backup connection will provide real redundancy.
An alternative might be a radio link, provided you have the ability to install an antenna on the roof, or LTE or 5G mobile access, which in many cases works perfectly as an emergency solution. However, if the GSM signal in your location is weak, you can ask your mobile operator to install a signal booster. This approach makes a backup link a real safeguard for business continuity, not just a theoretical solution that will fail at a critical moment.
Third: professional router
Simply having two internet connections is only the first step – the key is how they are connected. A standard modem from an operator isn't enough, as it can't handle seamless switching between connections. This requires a business-class router or firewall that supports failover and link balancing mechanisms. The idea is that when the primary connection fails, switching to the backup connection is automatic and virtually delayless, so that users don't even notice the internet interruption. This is precisely how the Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, which we implement for our clients during network security projects. These devices enable not only instant connection switching but also intelligent traffic management – application prioritization (App-based QoS), load balancing between operators, and connection optimization with Provider Optimization. As a result, the company gains stability that no standard off-the-shelf router can provide.
Does investing in security pay off?
The easiest way to answer this question is to calculate the real costs of downtime. Simply estimate how much a company loses per hour when the internet goes down—whether due to inability to serve customers, team delays, or lost transactions. Then consider how many hours of downtime you can afford per month. It may turn out that even a few hours of downtime generates losses greater than the investment in reliable infrastructure. From this perspective, purchasing a professional firewall and a second connection isn't an expense, but rather a security measure that can pay for itself within the first month of operation.
Comments are closed