December 2007 / December 2007 - Best Practices For Internet Redundency

A Closer Examination at Integrating a Second Internet Circuit Into Your Environment

Internet connectivity has become the most essential utility in today’s business world. Crucial business processes such as email, web-based applications, VoIP, and E-commerce depend entirely on a reliable connection to the internet. When organizations update current business continuity plans or look to implement one for the first time, it is surprising how frequently internet redundancy is overlooked. When faced with a wide range of choices with regards to internet service providers, how does an organization determine the best policy and get the most return from its investment into internet bandwidth? In this month’s tech brief we will take an in-depth look at the current options on the market for redundancy, discuss advantages to each option, and also examine the various benefits associated with different hardware options for your business.

Business Benefits

Without question, a redundant internet connection is often first considered when developing a business continuity plan. The ability to failover to a secondary circuit in event of an outage to the primary circuit can be critical for some organizations, and should be considered by all businesses operating in today’s internet driven economy. However, it is important to note that to arrive at true redundancy, the secondary connection typically should not be of the same type of connection as the primary circuit. An organization will get diminished benefit having two lines from the same provider, particularly if they are the same circuit type (for example a second T1 from the primary T1 provider). If that carrier experiences any type of outage on their backbone, or if the wires in the street are dug up by a rouge backhoe during street maintenance, what seemed like redundancy when purchased suddenly does not provide the failover and uptime desired. To hedge against this, it is always ideal to consider an alternate circuit type for a secondary connection, and having that circuit provided by a different carrier than the primary circuit is often beneficial.

A great example of this is using a cable provider for a secondary line. With a cable based internet line, not only is it an inexpensive business solution, but an organization can also access the services of a cable provider like television access. In financial organizations such as hedge funds or alternative asset management organizations, having programming on televisions relating to the stock market is crucial to this industry. A service like this is usually not offered by a typical ISP.

Another overlooked benefit is that internet redundancy can provide consistent delivery of service to clients, especially if as a business you offer a guarantee or SLA associated with your product or organization. If an outage occurs, there is no quicker way to lose a client’s confidence then to be unable to help them, or be unreachable. The embarrassment an organization can face when a client sends an email and it bounces back as undelivered can be detrimental to the corporate image of your organization. A redundant line ensures that the lines of communication remain open between you and your customers.

Furthermore, having a secondary circuit may be necessary to keep an organization in regulatory compliance depending upon the industry. Currently there are several industries in the process of updating their policies with regards to information technology. If you are unaware of what your industry requires for security and business continuity, feel free to contact Staples Network Services by Thrive’s Strategic Consulting Division to help you explore and understand your industry’s regulatory and compliance standards in more detail.

Finally, internet redundancy can aid in increasing worker productivity. End users who work remotely and perhaps on a different time zone can be severely impacted if connectivity to the corporate infrastructure goes down, especially during off hours. If no proactive tools are installed on a network to alert IT management of connectivity outages, remote users can find themselves helpless and lose several hours of productive time. As the demand for ubiquitous access to data grows, the age old saying “time is money” rings true more now than ever before. Depending upon the needs of your organization’s end users and their physical locations, adding a second line can serve as a sound insurance policy to ensure they meet internal and external project deadlines.

Viable Business Options for Secondary Circuits

Currently there are several choices for businesses regarding “alternate circuit type” internet circuits: Cable, DSL, Wireless, and Fiber. Most small and medium businesses use a full or fractional T1 circuit as their primary internet connection, and all of these options offer an alternate circuit type to that primary connection. Each alternate method of connectivity has its own share of benefits and deficiencies:

Fiber Connections
Positives

• Can get very high bandwidth 100Mbps to 1Gbps
• Can be very cost effective (high “bang for the buck”) if you are in a fiber ready building
• Very dependable connection with generally resilient carrier backbone

Negatives

• Prohibitively expensive if your building is not already “lit”
• Has been peering issues between fiber carriers and conventional ISPs which has caused service disruptions but not full outages

Cable
Positives

• Other vendor benefits such as television and voice over internet protocol for extremely small businesses
• Extremely cost-effective means of getting high download speed/bandwidth if upload speed is not critical to the business

Negatives

• Speed can slow down depending upon density of users in area and time of day
• Lower level of account management service and response to outages

DSL
Positives

• Operates via a secure, dedicated copper line
• Consistent bandwidth, speed not affected by area’s density

Negatives

• Often, providers do not guarantee bandwidth
• Bandwidth is affected by physical distance from your office to your provider
• Often DSL circuits receive lower priority for issue response from ISPs particularly if the ISP focuses on T1 / frac T1 customers primarily

T1+T3 Lines
Positives

• A dedicated line which provides guaranteed upload and download bandwidth
• Flexible service options in terms of speeds you can purchase
• Reliability with a guaranteed level of continuous uptime
• Dedicated account management with higher service level

Negatives

• Higher cost of service

Wireless
Positives

• Data transfer not reliant on physical wire and therefore not subject to damage of lines
• Faster provisioning time than T1 and T3
• Dedicated SLA and account management

Negatives

• Dedicated wired connections are slightly more secure
• Can be subject to weather and interference
• Have distance limitations, not available in all areas

Options for Managing Redundant Internet Lines

Once you have selected the redundant connectivity appropriate for your business, it is important to select the proper device to manage your redundant internet lines. Currently, there are several affordable solutions on the market which work with two or more internet lines. Purchasing this hardware component is a necessity to get the maximum benefit out of having redundant lines – namely failover and load balancing. It is important to note that most firewalls do not have the built in functionality to provide more than failover between internet circuits, which is why purchasing this hardware is important to get the most from your bandwidth investment. These devices allow you to utilize the bandwidth available on both circuits (load balancing) which means that instead of paying for a second circuit “just in case”, you can actually increase the internet bandwidth to your user community as well by using both internet lines simultaneously.

Radware

Linkproof

• A more enterprise class, all-in-one device
• Provides complete, inbound and outbound ISP failover and load balancing
• Provides highly-granular classification of Internet traffic enabling intelligent bandwidth management
• When implemented with a Linkproof Branch device, provides end-to-end data compression to optimize bandwidth usage between offices
• Provides integrated Intrusion Prevention
• High level of performance for larger, enterprise class networks

Linkproof Branch

• A lower end version of the Linkproof for branch offices and SMB’s
• Provides the same feature set as the Linkproof, but is limited to the amount of bandwidth it supports
• The bandwidth supported is more than adequate for almost any small to medium business

F5

Big-IP Link Controller

• Like the Radware Linkproof, this is an enterprise class device providing a high level of performance and a wide range of features
• Provides complete, inbound and outbound ISP failover and load balancing
• Resistant to several types of common Internet based attacks
• Highly scalable to meet a broad array of traffic management needs

Astrocom

PowerLink Pro 100

• An affordable and comprehensive redundant Internet access solution
• Provides complete ISP failover on both inbound and outbound traffic
• Provides intelligent load balancing over multiple ISP’s (up to 15 links)
• Provides protection against certain types of Internet based network attacks

Cisco

ASA 5505

• Targeted to the SMB market
• >Allows connectivity of two internet lines and provides basic failover only
• One line acts as your primary, the other as the secondary
• Device simply fails over from primary to secondary line
• No load balancing

Want More Information?

Internet redundancy is more than just a component of a disaster recovery plan. As the demands of the SMB market place continue to increase, a viable connection to the Internet has transformed into the backbone of small businesses productivity; whether it is a dependency associated with a software application or remote access needs of a mobile workforce, both physical and opportunity cost continue to rise with any internet outages that occur. There are several options available to small businesses for choosing a second line. It is important to be familiar with what your current business goals, budget, and current connection are. More importantly, it is also essential that your infrastructure be configured properly with the adequate hardware to ensure that you take full advantage of a redundant connection. If you have any questions on the implementation of a redundant line and how to integrate into your current computing infrastructure, please contact a Staples Network Services representative for further information. Contact Us