Building a network that stays online: a resilience checklist
A practical checklist for resilient business connectivity: diverse routes, backup lines, automatic failover, monitoring and a tested continuity plan.
- Resilience comes from diversity: different routes, different lines and automatic failover.
- Monitoring around the clock means issues are fixed before customers notice.
- A continuity plan is only as good as the last time it was tested.
For most organisations, connectivity is now as essential as electricity. Payments, cloud systems, customer service and operations all depend on it. A resilient network keeps the business running whatever happens.
1. Map what matters most
List your critical sites and services: head office, data centres, busy branches, payment systems and customer-facing applications. Decide how long each can tolerate an outage.
2. Add a second, independent path
For critical sites, use two connections that do not share a single point of failure:
- Diverse fiber routes that enter the building from different directions.
- A backup line from an independent technology or path.
3. Automate failover
Backup is only useful if it takes over by itself. With SD-WAN or automatic failover routers, traffic moves to the backup line in seconds, and back again when the primary returns.
4. Monitor around the clock
A 24/7 network operations centre watches every link and responds to issues proactively. Ask for:
- Real-time alerts.
- Clear fault-response times in the SLA.
- Monthly availability reports.
5. Protect against attacks
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks can overwhelm a connection. DDoS protection filters malicious traffic before it reaches you.
6. Test the plan
Schedule regular failover tests. Confirm that applications, payments and voice keep working on the backup path.
Resilience checklist
- Critical sites and services identified
- Diverse primary and backup connections
- Automatic failover tested
- 24/7 monitoring with clear SLAs
- DDoS protection for internet-facing services
- Continuity plan reviewed at least yearly
How Telxer can help
Telxer’s business continuity solution combines diverse Fiber routes, Extel backup broadband, automatic failover and a 24/7 NOC under one SLA.
Frequently asked questions
What is diverse routing?
Diverse routing means two connections to a site follow physically separate paths, so a single cable cut cannot take both down.
How fast is automatic failover?
With a well-designed setup, traffic moves to the backup line within seconds, often without users noticing.
Which sites need a backup line?
Any site where downtime stops sales, payments or critical services, such as head offices, data centres, busy branches and stores.
Want help applying this? Our team can review your setup and recommend next steps.
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