We have all been there, you swipe your credit card to complete a purchase and you wait and wait for the approval to come back. The cashier usually just shrugs and says that the systems have been slow all day.
These delays are usually caused by heavy traffic. The kind of traffic that comes around the 
holiday shopping season. Without a doubt, this is the most important time of the year for retail focused businesses. With the roaring economy and expected increase in average gift purchases and holiday entertainment, this year’s shopping season is expected to be BIG!!!
Are your telecom systems ready to do uninterrupted business? What is your business continuity plan for when your main telecom systems are dropped or degraded?
One thing that you should consider is a failover communication solution to cover any network outages or slowdowns.
A failover option that is rapidly gaining acceptance for its ease of implementation and low cost of ownership is an SD-WAN solution. Specifically, 4G LTE Failover-as-a-Service (FaaST) which provides an alternative internet connection in the case where the primary is dropped or slowed. The cutover is automatic when the primary connection is lost or degraded.
Compared to the 30 to 90 days it takes to provision an MPLS circuit, a wireless 4G solution can be in up and running in as fast as 24 to 48 hours. All it takes is a readily available 4G LTE modem to be installed.
A good FaaST solution allows for cross carrier pooling. This where the 4G LTE modem supports multiple sim cards, allowing connections to the best cell Wi-Fi signal available at the time.
There are carriers offering a reliable backup internet connection for a little is $74.95 per month. That’s is the cost of just a few sales lost because your merchant bank connection is down.
Bottom line: SD-WAN is the ability to provide a business with an “Always on” internet using two independent internet service providers just in case one telecom provider has a network outage. Next time you’re checking out at your local store and they tell you their credit card machine is not working, tell them they should look into an SD WAN solution to make sure their business stays up and running.
We will talk in a future blog about how to use SD-WAN so you never have your VoIP phone call be cut off because your internet connection goes down.
John Hagan is President of TeleData Select, a Telecommunications Consultant located in Atlanta, Ga serving customers throughout the US and overseas. His company provides business solutions for voice, data, mobile and cloud solutions for both large and small businesses. Contact John or their team for a complimentary telecom audit to make sure you’re getting the best value for communication services. The savings you receive could offset the cost of purchasing a new Hosted or Premise VoIP phone system.
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