Is Your Network in the Cloud? What Do You Do with No Internet?

Virtualization is changing the way that businesses access information, to the point where many organizations simply choose to store their data infrastructure in the cloud and access it as needed. While this is extremely convenient and helps to keep your in-house wiring to a minimum, it also puts you at the mercy of your business’s Internet connection. You don’t need us to tell you that this is a precarious situation to be in, and the slightest Internet hiccup could cause a world of trouble.

Imagine this scenario; you have your entire IT infrastructure hosted in the cloud, including your mission-critical applications and data. This information is required in order for operations to continue. Now, imagine that your local Internet service provider has suffered a catastrophic outage for your region due to some unforeseeable circumstance. Now, your office is left high and dry with no Internet access.

This presents a problem with no clear resolution, especially if most of your infrastructure is only accessible via the cloud. Unless you also have a backup of your infrastructure stored locally on your in-house network (which isn’t a bad idea), you won’t be able to access any information stored on the Internet.

One simple way to bypass the problems associated with a downed Internet connection is to equip your office with 4G-enabled laptops or smartphones that can act as temporary hotspots. However, if you do this, you better be sure that your phone carrier supports this immense amount of data expenditure. In many cases, it’s better to just let your team work remotely if they’re capable of doing so.

The most reliable choice would be to have any team that can work remotely do so until the problem is resolved. Working remotely during the incident might be a valid opportunity to eliminate downtime associated with your Internet access. As reported by ZDNet, “It's true that businesses are increasingly allowing for remote work and disaster planning is a good argument for it. It may even be worthwhile as an exercise. Require employees to have a plan for working offsite and schedule a day for everyone, or perhaps one department at a time, to do so. You might learn something about productivity while you're at it. 9/11 proved that it's possible your offices may be out of commission for a while. Do you really want to have to make up your plans on the spot when that happens?”

If your business needs help implementing technology to keep your team connected at all times, you can count on Macro Systems to find a solution. We can work out ways to help your employees access information regardless of the circumstances, all so you can keep downtime to a minimum. Furthermore, we can provide your business with the technology solutions required to ensure that your team can work off-site when needed.

For example, a virtual private network (VPN) allows your team to securely access your business's sensitive information from any wireless connection, allowing your team to access mission-critical files even if the in-house wireless network is down.

If you’re concerned about not being able to communicate with your team while they’re off-site, we can make it much easier by helping you implement a unified communications solution that’s designed to work seamlessly, as long as you have an Internet connection. You can communicate in real time with both instant messaging and Voice over Internet Protocol telephony solutions that will make you feel like your team is right next door, even if they aren’t.

For more information about how Macro Systems can help bring your business back from the brink of downtime, give us a call at (703) 359-9211.