The term redundancy is generally associated with technology, but the concept applies throughout our everyday lives.
For example, you likely have a spare tire for your car just in case you get a flat.
Personally, I bought a backup stuffed sloth for my son once I realized his daily routine depended on it.
The concept of redundancy is critical — not just convenient — with technology, where the ramifications of not having a spare or backup plan could mean hours of downtime and loss of productivity.
Best IT practices indicate you should have redundancy and backup implemented throughout your IT environment, but an often overlooked area where redundancy is critical is your internet connection.
Take a minute and think of all the ways your business relies on the internet each day.
For example, at The KR Group, we need the internet to check our emails, update customers on ticket status, post this article, make and receive phone calls, etc.
And we know other organizations are even more reliant on a stable internet connection.
- If you’re a manufacturer, what happens when your internet goes out?
- Can you pull up your patients’ virtual charts without the internet if you’re in health care?
- As an educational institution, what are your students missing out on when they can’t log into the internet and complete assignments?
Regardless of what your business does, an internet connection is no longer a luxury. Instead, it’s something you need during all of your business hours.
How Do You Implement Internet Redundancy?
When it comes to a redundant internet connection, this is more than extra bandwidth — although that’s important, too. It’s ensuring if an outage occurs that you stay connected to the internet and continue your operations. 
At home, if your internet goes out, you can turn on a mobile hotspot or maybe even spend your free time reading the book that’s been sitting on your nightstand for three months while you scroll social media each night.
You’re not paying your employees to read a book, and mobile hotspots aren’t sufficient, stable, or secure enough to replace your business internet.
Instead, you need a redundant internet circuit.
The most logical way to do this is by contracting for multiple circuits and balancing your business applications among them.
This still leaves you with many questions, such as
- How many circuits do you need for redundancy?
- What are the best kinds of circuits?
- How should I use multiple internet circuits?
- How does redundancy affect the cost?
You’ll find the answers to these questions below. However, you should remember that this is generalized information, and your specific internet connection needs may vary.
The best way to get personalized answers to each of these questions is to talk with an IT consultant, like The KR Group, directly.
Number of Circuits for Business Internet Redundancy
As you start to realize the importance and urgency of implementing redundant internet circuits, you’re probably wondering, “Ok, so how many circuits do I need?”
Most organizations will only need two internet circuits to meet their bandwidth needs and provide redundancy.
However, to ensure this will be adequate, conducting a layer 7 analysis will give you the best insight.
Types of Circuits for Redundant Internet Connection
These two circuits should be different types of internet connections. 
If available, a fiber connection is the best choice. However, it can be more expensive than other options. For your second redundant connection, you’ll typically want to choose a different medium, like a broadband connection.
Keep in mind that it’s common for fiber to use cables from major ISPs for the “last mile” of the connection. If you desire a second fiber connection you’ll want to make sure separate ISPs own the physical cables. This will prevent you from experiencing a simultaneous outage of your internet connections.
We know that fiber isn’t available everywhere, and the above example may not be right for you.
If this is the case, your next best option is to find two broadband ISPs. Again, you’ll want to ensure they use separate infrastructure. Then, they’ll provide you with the redundancy you want.
Load Balancing between Your Business’s Internet Circuits
It’s a common misconception that when you implement a redundant internet connection that it just needs to be on standby or each one should share 50% of your bandwidth.
However, the best way to utilize dual internet circuits is through load balancing.
This term refers to assigning specific workstations or applications to each circuit.
For example, having a 3-second delay on emails loading is a minor inconvenience compared to the same lag in a VOIP call.
A layer 7 analysis can also help you see which of your organization’s applications require the highest amount or most stable connections so that you can assign them to the stronger circuit.
Multiple Internet Connections Isn’t Always Expensive
With load balancing your redundant internet circuits, you can lower your internet cost. 
Instead of paying for expensive fiber bandwidth for all of your applications, you can supplement it with a broadband connection for less sensitive applications to slower speeds.
Of course, you still need to ensure each circuit could handle your entire internet requirement in the case of an emergency.
However, planning for redundancy has another aspect of cost savings in the sense that avoiding internet downtime means continual production and operations of your business.
For example, suppose you have 30 employees and the payroll cost is $4,000 per hour. Two hours of downtime means you’ve lost $8,000 directly. Plus, you have to account for financial losses of not making a call to close a deal or causing delays to your customers.
The Importance of Internet Redundancy
Implementing redundancy for your internet connection should be a top priority.
Not only do you ensure you continually have a way to connect to the internet, but you could potentially lower your internet cost along the way. In addition, you’re guaranteed to see ROI if you ever have an outage since your users can keep on working.
The specifics of internet connection redundancy do vary from business to business. But in general, you should have two circuits, preferably one fiber and one broadband.
You can then balance your business’s internet load between the two, so the applications that need a fast, reliable connection have prioritized access to fiber.
It’s one thing to understand this information, but it’s another to implement it into your IT environment. You don’t have to go through this process alone.
This process reviews your current internet usage, identifies any problems, and reveals the best practices for managing your circuits.
