Summer 2019 – Inside Outdoor Magazine

Inside Outdoor | SUMMER 2019 32 national parks and wilderness. In simple terms, failover solutions utilize an around- the-clock network monitoring system that automatically scans a network for a disruption. If an internet connection goes down, whether by natural disaster or hu- man error, or is otherwise below service quality thresholds, all business traffic, data and applications automatically flip to a wireless 4G LTE wireless connection that’s waiting on standby. When the pri- mary, wired connection is up and strong again, traffic switches back. The wireless connection only comes into play when something happens to the primary, wire- line connection and a backup is needed, so costs can be lower than a full-time connection or the service can get bundled into other solutions. Nationwide business communica- tions provider nexVortex, for one, built LTE failover into its managed voice (VoIP) service. Internet-based voice traf- fic is particularly susceptible to poor con- nectivity, so nexVortex’s managed voice solution monitors the connection and automatically flips traffic to LTE if the wired connection is too poor to sufficient- ly carry real-time voice and video traffic. As a bonus, all data and internet traffic also move to the LTE connection until the normal wired connection returns. Whereas a wireline cable or DSL connection can run between $70 and $150 a month, an LTE failover service can run just under $20 a month plus the purchase or monthly payment for a small LTE modem. The service typical comes with a set amount of data includ- ed for free (i.e. 1 gigabyte per month) with overage charges per gigabyte if that limit is exceeded. “With the cost of a small to medium business being down potentially running $8,000 to $74,000 per hour, the insur- ance policy of having LTE at the ready is nearly a no-brainer,” said Chuck Harris, vice president of marketing at nexVortex. One retailer that successfully imple- mented 4G LTE failover is Eastern Shore Cycles, based in the town of Spanish Fort, Ala. Up until recently, Eastern Shore Cycles was suffering from an erratic internet connection that made running credit cards unreliable and caused the bike shop’s POS sys- tem to frequently go out of service. The company was left with three options, none of which were favorable: refuse non-cash payments and lose sales when connectivity is down; have employees call for credit card approvals during each transaction, a tedious and lengthy process; or accept cards without autho- rization if below a certain amount, which leaves Eastern Shore on the hook for any losses due to accepting lost, stolen or overdrawn cards. Needless to say, all three outcomes could lead to lost sales and frustrated customers, as well as reputation damage to the store’s brand. Eastern Shore Cycles decided that the only way forward was to improve its connectivity, and so it implemented a multi-service router from a com- pany called BEC Technologies. BEC’s 6300VNL multi-service router included an AT&T 4G/LTE M2M card to handle wireless failover along with a dual-WAN (wide area network) interface, a four-port gigabit Ethernet switch, a Wi-Fi access point, VoIP capabilities, dynamic traffic routing and a firewall, all in one, easy-to- install device. Now, when primary con- nectivity failure occurs, traffic is automat- ically routed over the secondary wireless WAN interface in just a few seconds. The 6300VNL will then also fallback to the wired connection when the primary interface connection is restored. In other words, the solution now al- lows the company to continue operating normally when an internet outage oc- curs, resulting in faster customer service and fewer abandoned carts. According to Eastern Shore Cycles, since installing the device there has been no instances of downtime when their primary DSL connection fails. Let’s be honest, failover may not seem like the most important invest- ment, especially if a company is looking to tighten its belt and reduce expenses. On the other hand, during Memorial Day weekend alone, an estimated 52 torna- dos touched down across eight different states, no doubt leaving countless busi- nesses without internet connectivity. What’s more, downtime isn’t always caused by natural disasters. More of- ten than not, it’s the result of human error, backend network malfunction or simply the spotty service on the less- than-reliable public internet. And when considering connectivity’s role in multiple mission-critical retail operations, even a short outage can be disastrous to the bottom line. Wireless 4G LTE failover solutions offer an affordable insurance policy for all-important business commu- nications and connectivity. m Impacts of Internet Downtime on Retailers Percent of retailers that experience downtime at least once a year 81% Percent of retailers that wait up to four hours when an outage occurs 87% Percent of retailers that cannot process credit cards while disconnected 61% Percent of retailers that lose sales during network outage 72% Percent of retailers that cannot utilize digital signage with network connectivity 70% Source: 2018 Accelerated Concepts Retail Survey Product Market Showcase | WINTER 2019/2020 Tech Savvy BEC’s 6300VNL multi-service router