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What Is Failover

What Is Failover

Failover Explained

In computing and networking, people use the term failover to describe a backup operational mode during which the functions of a system switch to a redundant or standby system. In the event of a system malfunction or scheduled maintenance, implementing failover helps prevent service disruption. When a system is in failover mode, the standby system can operate vital system components such as the computer server, processor, database, hardware components, or network. For our purposes, we will focus on network failover: the process by which online connectivity is maintained even though the network a business depends upon may go down.

Why Is Failover Important?

Failover is an integral part of mission-critical systems which makes these systems more fault-tolerant. Automatically offloading tasks to a standby system creates a seamless operating experience, and the effect trickles all the way down to the end-user experience. We are increasingly integrating voice, data, and video with cloud-based storage, email, CRM, and other network infrastructure components (sometimes over a single IP network). Thus, failover has become increasingly critical to online operations. Without failover systems in place, access to critical data could be lost or compromised. Communication with customers, suppliers, and employees becomes disrupted. In more practical terms, commerce-focused businesses that do not have failover in place may lose the ability to process credit card transactions — an obvious detriment.

Downtime Can Be Expensive: Here’s How You Can Protect Your Business

Maintaining a vital online presence is integral to conducting business and communicating with customers, partners, and employees. Networks are required to be high-performing and available with minimum downtime. In day-to-day operations, network downtime can result in loss of productivity, money, and damage to a company’s reputation.

The Cost of Downtime

When a company’s online presence is interrupted, the downtime can be quite costly. According to a 2019 international survey on the average hourly cost of critical server outages, 25% of respondents reported downtime costs ranging from $301,000 to $400,000 per hour. Similarly, Gartner estimated the average cost of network downtime to be around $5,600 per minute (around $300,000 per hour). For small businesses, per one estimate, it takes over an hour to recover from a crashed network, costing a business on average $10,000 for every hour it is down.

Whatever the cost of downtime, you likely don’t want to incur it. So, how do you safeguard your business data and maintain seamless operations? How do you minimize the impact of downtime?

Enter failover.

What Can Disrupt the Network?

A variety of issues can adversely affect a network’s performance. Issues including but not limited to cybersecurity attacks, poor infrastructure, component malfunction, human error, and natural disasters. In order to stay in business during service-provider interruptions, businesses must ensure they have the protection they need. Allocating funds to anticipate and prevent problems should be among any company’s priorities.

Do You Need Failover?

Examples of businesses that need to implement a failover strategy run the gamut from SMBs to giant enterprises with multiple global branches. From VoIP to email to ecommerce applications, companies need secure and reliable data communications. If you host any Web services, access any data online, or use a CRM or any other business software in the cloud, you can benefit from implementing a failover strategy.

Choosing the Failover That’s Right for You

When you evaluate your failover options, look for a cost-effective solution. Be sure that it also ensures high-availability, network uptime, and optimal network performance. Many IT professionals agree that failover to LTE is the most reliable and robust internet business continuity solution, but because monthly costs are unpredictable and surprise overages could happen at any time, this option has simply been too risky — until now.

UptimePlus by CyberReef is an unlimited wireless failover solution with a low, set monthly fee and no overages. CyberReef is able to provide this fixed low-cost service because, during wireless failover, UptimePlus blocks non-business traffic such as social media, streaming media, and gaming. In addition, UptimePlus immediately alerts businesses when in wireless failover mode. This notification gives the IT organization timely notice so that it can address its network outage situation.

For more information, contact sales@cyberreefsolutions.com or call (318) 497-7230.