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Tips For Selecting The Best ISP And Failover ISP For A Business

For a small company just getting started, which could include a family run business finally coming online or a start-up or tech entrepreneur, choosing a top ISP and then a secondary failover ISP is an important decision.

There are few differences in choosing the two, but there are some important considerations we would like our customers to have. At ZeroOutages, we can then work with you to provide a system that integrates your primary and failover ISP to ensure you can stay connected and online should one or the other fail.

Sometimes, and depending on how depended your business is on the internet, either through use of cloud-based applications, VoIP services or direct online services through payment processing and e-commerce, we may even recommend more than one failover option, especially as you grow and expand the business.

Basic Considerations

Within the basic considerations for any business ISP, there are several things that come into play. We can talk to you about your options, but the decision on which types of services you choose is really up to you and your needs.

To get started, we recommend you consider and compare the following with the different ISP options available in your area. These include:

Connections most businesses will use broadband, cable or DSL connection, which is typically very reasonable in cost. Most of these providers will offer a 99.99% uptime per year. This translates into about 2 hours per year where there will be no internet service, but when these interruptions occur can be critical.

More expensive but more reliable are connections such as fiber optics or, in some areas, the older option of a T1 connection. These have very limited downtime, less than 2 hours per year, but they can and do happen as well.

Cost as mentioned above, cost does impact connectivity, and a cheap internet connection is more likely to have technical problems and downtime than a more costly. However, by using our service you may want to consider a high-quality or high uptime primary ISP and a lower cost and 99.99% failover ISP. If you need complete 100% uptime, then two high availability options are the best combination.

With our ability to bond the two ISP services, you will actually get the benefits of both your primary and your failover ISP all the time. However, should one fail the other automatically handles the traffic, ensuring you have the essential connectivity you need.