My company went to a fractional DS3 several years ago. Recently a prospective vendor came by to give us a competitive quote for consideration when the contract for our existing service comes up for renewal. After reviewing our current setup, the vendor also suggested the installation of a backup T-1 to be implemented when our DS-3 service is out of service for any reason. My question: Do we really need this and how useful would it be? — Via the Internet
How much you need a T-1 backup depends on several things. First, how often have you have problems with your DS-3 since installation? If you haven’t had a lot of problems, then a T-1 backup may not be worth much. You also need to look at how long you can afford to be without internet access and what “costs” there are to your company to be without internet access, being able to send/receive e-mail, etc. Those costs could make a backup worth it. Another question to consider is will just a T-1 for backup use be sufficient when you are used to a fractional DS-3?
Check with your existing ISP to see what options it has for you in terms of a backup connection. They may be able to provision an additional fiber pair for backup use and be able to provide close to or exactly your current speed on a backup connection. The one thing a backup connection for the same or possibly other carriers will be the “last mile” – the part of the connection that goes from your location to the Central Office (CO) nearest you that services your particular type of connection. The only way you can insure from this type of failure is to arrange for a fiber pair to come from an alternate CO. This type of connection, if available, might be expensive to implement.
When implementing a backup Internet connection, you also need to think about how long it will take to switch over, change DNS server entries, etc. In most of the outages I have experienced over the years, by the time you can switch over to the backup connection, the other connection may already be back up. To help make the DNS change as quick as possible, you may need to think about having either offsite DNS server, use a 3rd party DNS service or keep a DNS server permanently placed on the backup connection. In either case, you should expect some type of inbound disruption in terms of being able to receive email or having external access to your web sites or other internet services until the DNS changes get propagated out over the Internet.
This is another area that you can check with your existing ISP and prospective ISPs as to what types of services they can offer in this area. Depending on your exact situation, there may be more than what I have outlined here to consider in implementing a backup internet connection but this should get you started to be able to evaluate if the costs and/or hassles of implementing a backup internet connection is the right step for your company to take.
