Leased line: Protect your business operations with a backup connection
Trusted Advisor for IT & Telecommunications Sourcing
Why backup connections are business-critical
Leased line with a backup connection: what counts
Why backup connections are business-critical
A leased line failure can bring business operations to a standstill. Even with 99.5 percent availability, over 40 hours of downtime per year are possible. Companies therefore protect themselves with a second line depending on their budget, location and risk. Anyone planning the right WAN and network strategy factors in redundancy from the start.
In a nutshell:
- Recognizing risk: 99.99 percent availability means a maximum of 52 minutes of downtime per year
- Plan redundancy: Automatic switching keeps data traffic stable in the event of failures
- Select backup medium: Fiber optic SDSL or LTE depending on location and budget
- Use separate paths: Different carriers and house feeds avoid single points of failure
- SAVECALL consulting: vendor-neutral, provider-independent and cost-optimized for companies of all sizes
The solution: A redundant backup connection over a second medium and a second path absorbs failures of the main line and keeps your business productive.
What this article covers: which backups are possible for a leased line, how to read availability figures and what matters when it comes to bandwidth, medium and provider choice. The key question: how long could your company remain productive without the Internet, and would your current line be prepared for this?
Redundant leased line: which backups are possible
A dedicated line failure to the Internet is a disaster for most companies. Short-term outages cannot be completely avoided, even in redundant carrier networks. As a company, you can assess the risk via the availability guaranteed by the provider. An availability of 99.5 percent allows downtimes of 43 hours per year (for 24/7 operation). Genuine high availability starts at 99.99 percent, where 52 minutes of downtime is the maximum. Where such a high-availability connection is not possible, you can minimize the risk by renting a backup line. The costs for such a backup solution are determined by the following factors: Bandwidth, runtime and availability of the solution as well as the effort required to implement it.
Continue working thanks to a dedicated backup line
With backup Internet connections, you can prepare for problems and prevent your business from being paralyzed. Rely on redundancy. In the event of a failure, a backup connection automatically takes over data transport, both incoming and outgoing. Its bandwidth and the choice of backup medium, i.e. copper, leased line or glass, depends on the budget. This should be determined by the cost of an outage of the main line. If your company is particularly hard hit by a line failure, the backup solution should also be of a correspondingly high quality. We at SAVECALL will be happy to assist you in answering the questions that arise.
The decisive questions about your backup connection
What bandwidth and quality must my backup connection have? A suitable backup solution and the required bandwidth will vary depending on the business-critical applications, company and location. It’s not just about the speed itself, the connection quality also counts, for example if VoIP or video calls are essential.
What alternative carrier media and connection options are available at my location and at what price? Ideally, backup systems use other line media, nodes, house feeds and separate hardware to ensure a “no single point of failure”. This minimizes the risk of most causes of failure. In terms of connection media, you can choose between fiber optics, radio relay, (copper) SDSL or in exceptional cases mobile communications such as LTE. We will be happy to work with you to find out which provider offers which price for which medium.
Which provider should I choose? It can be advantageous to choose different providers in order to minimize the risk of failure of the carrier or its network or its network sections (with separate routing). Take advantage of the practical experience of our SAVECALL experts in designing redundant network and Internet connections. We are familiar with a wide variety of solutions and will find the one that best suits your budget.
How SAVECALL supports your backup strategy
Talk to us. We will help you select the right backup strategy independently of any specific manufacturer. Based on more than 80 carrier partnerships, we determine the bandwidth, the medium and the sensible provider combination, derived from the outage costs of your main line. Whether as pure protection or as part of an SD-WAN or MPLS concept, we design the redundancy to match your location, risk and budget.
Conclusion: redundancy protects your business
No carrier network is completely failure-proof. Anyone who depends on their leased line for business-critical operations should assess the risk via the guaranteed availability and secure it with a backup connection. What matters is separate media, separate paths and, in case of doubt, a second carrier. This keeps your business productive even when the main line fails.
Written by
Frank Frommknecht
Key Account Consultant, SAVECALL
Has supported companies for over 20 years in selecting and optimizing their connectivity solutions. His focus: making complex telecommunications understandable from the customer’s perspective and finding the right solution strategically.
Why
Telecom & IT sourcing. Worldwide. Carrier-independent.
Selection & operation of worldwide connectivity & cloud infrastructure. Without vendor risk & unnecessary costs.
- 80+ carriers worldwide
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25+
years of experience
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Employees
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Partner
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Sources
- Uptime Institute: availability tiers and downtime expectations
- ENISA: guidance on network redundancy and business continuity
- SAVECALL: WAN and network solutions for companies
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions about backup leased lines
A leased line failure can bring business operations to a standstill. Even with 99.5 percent availability, over 40 hours of downtime per year are possible, around 43 hours in 24/7 operation. A second line absorbs exactly these outages and keeps data traffic stable. How high-quality the backup solution needs to be depends on the cost that an outage of the main line would cause your business.
Guaranteed availability states the maximum permitted downtime per year. 99.5 percent allows around 43 hours of downtime per year in continuous operation. Genuine high availability starts at 99.99 percent, where a maximum of 52 minutes of downtime per year is possible. This figure lets you realistically assess your own risk and decide whether a backup line is necessary.
Possible connection media include fiber optics, radio relay and SDSL over copper, and in exceptional cases mobile communications such as LTE. Which medium fits depends on location, required bandwidth, connection quality and budget. What matters is not just raw speed but also quality, for example when VoIP or video calls are business-critical. SAVECALL compares providers, media and prices together with you.
Ideally, backup systems use other line media, nodes, house feeds and separate hardware. This creates a setup with no single point of failure and minimizes the risk of the most common causes of failure. An excavator that severs one feed will then not take down both lines at once. Separate routing is therefore a central principle when designing redundant connections.
Often yes. A second carrier additionally minimizes the risk of failure of the provider network or individual network sections, especially with separate routing. If one carrier fails completely, the second connection remains reachable over an independent network. SAVECALL knows the different solution approaches from practice and finds the combination that best suits your budget technically and commercially.
SAVECALL advises vendor-neutral, provider-independent and cost-optimized. Based on years of practical experience in designing redundant network and Internet connections, we determine the right bandwidth, the right medium and the sensible provider combination. We derive the budget from the outage costs of your main line. This results in a backup solution that fits your company size, location and risk.
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