Extreme weather events in Ireland are becoming more frequent and severe. From storms and floods to high winds, these disruptions are impacting businesses across all industries, particularly when it comes to maintaining reliable connectivity. As weather patterns become more unpredictable, ensuring your business remains online during these challenges is no longer optional—it’s essential.
One powerful way to mitigate the risks of downtime is network diversity. By leveraging multiple types of internet connections, businesses can ensure they stay connected even when one network fails. Can your business afford to be offline, even for a minute? That’s why network diversity, specifically combining fibre connections with backup solutions is critical, especially as extreme weather events continue to disrupt Ireland’s infrastructure.
The Growing Threat of Extreme Weather in Ireland
Ireland has always been prone to unpredictable weather, but the intensity and frequency of storms, flooding, and power outages have been steadily increasing in recent years. For businesses, this means more frequent interruptions to internet and communication services, which can lead to lost revenue, frustrated customers, and diminished productivity.
The stakes are particularly high for businesses in industries like finance, e-commerce, and healthcare, where even a brief network outage can have serious consequences. But it’s not just the larger players feeling the impact—small and medium-sized businesses are also struggling with the consequences of unreliable connectivity, especially when the weather turns.
What is Network Diversity?
Network diversity is the practice of using multiple, independent internet connections to ensure your business says connected. The idea is simple: if one connection goes down—due to a storm, or infrastructure failure—the other takes over, keeping the business running without interruption.
In today’s business environment, where the internet is integral to almost every operation, relying on a single connection is a risky proposition. Network diversity means that your business isn’t putting all its eggs in one basket; you’re ensuring that your operations remain online, no matter what happens to your primary connection.
Network Diversity for Larger Businesses
For larger businesses, achieving the highest level of resilience involves a solution like Magnet Managed Failover, combining two entirely separate, dedicated internet connections. These businesses often rely on a fibre leased line for their primary connection, but to guarantee business continuity, they pair it with either a second dedicated fibre or wireless line—ideally using infrastructure that doesn’t rely on the same physical routes or data centres. This creates a robust, fail-safe system that ensures the business remains connected even in the face of extreme weather or physical disruptions.
Fibre DIA Line with Fibre Backup:
A fibre dedicated internet access (DIA) line is a direct, dedicated link to the internet exclusively owned by your business. It provides businesses with high-speed, dedicated, and reliable internet connectivity. However, to create true redundancy, larger businesses should consider pairing it with a second dedicated fibre connection that is routed through a different physical path or even to a separate data centre. This way, if one fibre link is damaged by a storm, flood, or local outage, the backup connection is already active, minimizing any disruption. Each operates entirely independently. So, if one is interrupted, your traffic automatically switches to the other until the first is operating again.
In this scenario, businesses could set up two separate fibre links to two different data centres. This setup ensures that even if one data centre becomes unavailable (due to a power outage, flooding, or physical damage), the other data centre remains operational, providing seamless access to critical applications and data. It’s a top-tier solution for large-scale businesses that require near-100% uptime and can’t afford to risk losing access to their digital infrastructure.
Fibre DIA Line with a Wireless DIA Backup:
An effective Managed Failover solution should match your business’s location, requirements and the specific demands you’ll place on your connection. A wireless DIA connection that is 100% yours, offers exclusive and dedicated internet access direct to the communications cabinet in your comms room. A separate wireless DIA connection is an effective and resilient solution to offer network diversity to large businesses.
Network Diversity for SME’s
For smaller businesses, network diversity is still possible, but on a slightly more cost-effective scale. Magnet Ultimate Business Broadband pairs a high-speed business broadband connection with a 4G backup can provide sufficient protection against outages without the complexity and expense of dual fibre or data centre setups.
Fibre with 4G Backup:
A fibre connection offers fast, reliable service for everyday business needs, from cloud applications to video conferencing. When paired with a 4G backup solution, businesses can ensure that if the fibre line goes down—due to weather, or network maintenance—the 4G connection automatically kicks in. While the 4G network offers lower bandwidth and higher latency than fibre, it provides a dependable backup solution that keeps operations running without significant interruptions.
The Business Case for Network Diversity
The question businesses often ask is, “Why invest in network diversity?” The answer is simple: downtime can be costly, both in terms of lost revenue and damaged reputation. Whether it’s lost productivity, missed sales, or frustrated customers, the impact of being offline can be far more damaging than the cost of investing in a secondary connection.
Here’s how network diversity pays off:
- Uninterrupted Connectivity: Having a secondary active connection—whether a separate dedicated fibre or wireless link, or 4G failover—ensures your business can continue operating even if one connection fails. This is particularly important in the face of unpredictable weather events that can disrupt local infrastructure.
- Cost-Effective Protection: While setting up multiple connections may seem expensive, it’s a small price to pay when compared to the revenue lost from extended downtime. Network diversity is an investment in continuity, productivity, and peace of mind.
- Customer Trust and Reputation: In today’s always-connected world, customers expect businesses to be available 24/7, even during adverse weather conditions. A business that can stay online during a storm builds trust with its customers and solidifies its reputation as a reliable service provider.
Real-World Impact: How Network Diversity Saves the Day
Imagine a scenario where a major storm hits Ireland, causing flooding and local infrastructure failures. A large business with a dual fibre setup—with one fibre line connected to one data centre, and a second fibre line to a completely separate data centre—experiences little to no downtime. While other businesses in the area are scrambling to restore their connections, this business’s redundant systems ensure that they remain fully operational, keeping customer-facing services running and employees connected.
For a smaller business with a fibre connection + 4G backup solution, the story is similar. When the fibre connection goes down due to weather-related issues, the 4G network takes over automatically, ensuring that email, communications, and other critical systems continue without disruption.
These businesses are able to maintain business continuity while others struggle to get back online proving that network diversity is a smart, long-term investment.
Is Your Business Ready for the Next Storm?
As extreme weather events continue to escalate in Ireland, businesses must prioritize network diversity to ensure they can stay online during disruptions. Whether you’re running a large enterprise with a separate fibre link to different data centres, a fibre DIA line with a separate wireless DIA line or a smaller company leveraging fibre and 4G backup, having a robust, fail-safe system in place will help you weather the storm—literally.
If your business isn’t yet prepared for weather-related disruptions, now is the time to act. Contact Magnet+ and our team will assess your current network setup, explore your options for secondary connections, and ensure you’re ready for whatever comes next. Because when it comes to staying connected, preparedness isn’t just smart—it’s essential.
