When I talk about your business being completely online I am referring to having your company being completely reliant on the internet for your accounting system, access to all your company files, pos systems, eftpos and telephone system any other cloud base programs that your company is dependent on to operate.

There are many reasons why companies are now all online and there are risks that come with being completely cloud based.

When the NBN came into play it meant that the old copper network was being removed which than lead companies into having their phone systems, alarms and eftpos systems to cloud base technology.

Than as software and database programs started to evolve into cloud base applications and online file sharing the need for an on-premise server was soon phasing out which meant that the companies were completely online.

The risk to being completely online is if your internet provider was to go down your business would grind to a halt as all access to your information would stop which meant downtime for the whole company.

How can you mitigate this risk is not complicated and can be very simple to implement and can save you downtime while the main internet provider comes back online.

We suggest two options mainly and they are affordable when you evaluate the risk.

• Install a modem router with a 4G backup plan so if the main internet line goes down the 4G will run most of the company’s resources except online phone systems but you can easily divert your cloud base phone system to a mobile number until the internet is back online.

• Install a firewall with an additional NBN internet provider such as if you are with Telstra as your main internet company you would than add another NBN plan with another provider so when the main internet goes down it will switch over to the other provider.

It means that you have redundancy with your internet which can be the 4G option or an additional NBN plan with another provider to than lower the risk of complete outage of your company.

Another benefit of having two NBN connections and a firewall is that you can divide your internet traffic between both internet connections and one can handle you phone system and the other all internet traffic to your online applications.

Eventually, the time will come in your business where you will be reliant on the internet to handle most of your company’s day-to-day activities, so why wait, start planning now and avoid the potential risk which can easily be implemented by your trusted IT advisor.