Ensuring Business Continuity: Why ISPs Need to Rethink Their Approach

Traditional internet service models fall short as businesses now demand robust internet connectivity to thrive in the digital economy. ISPs must transform their offerings, moving from merely selling internet links to delivering comprehensive, high-performance services that shield their customers from network disruptions.

Internet outages are no longer a minor nuisance. Recent studies reveal that downtime costs businesses an average of $9,000 per minute, with larger enterprises facing losses of over $16,000 per minute, according to Gartner's 2022 Global Server Hardware Security survey. For instance, Virgin Media UK’s outage in April 2023 caused widespread disruption across the UK for several hours, and a regional outage in Africa in March 2024 -- caused by damaged subsea cables -- disrupted services for multiple carriers, impacting users in seven countries. These incidents highlight the vulnerability and substantial impact of relying on traditional, single-link internet services.

Businesses relying on legacy internet services face significant risks. Inconsistent network access and single points of failure can lead to considerable revenue losses, damaged customer trust, and decreased productivity. Globally, companies suffer an average of 27 hours of downtime annually, according to the Uptime Institute's 2023 Global Data Center Survey, leading to significant financial losses and operational disruptions.

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Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) was born out of a need to provide better network last-mile connectivity. However, SD-WAN’s complexity and high costs have limited its adoption primarily to large enterprises. Many small and midsize businesses (SMBs) find SD-WAN too expensive and complicated to deploy and manage. Also, ISPs have seen limited success reselling third-party SD-WAN services to their customer base. It is now time for ISPs to productize their own Software Defined Networking services as a core feature in their modern access solutions.

Software Defined Internet Access (SD-IA) has emerged due to its accessible license model and core feature set. SD-IA provides critical features such as session persistence and link bonding, which are essential for real-time applications like internet voice, video conferencing, and environmental monitoring. Unlike traditional failover solutions that can result in 2-5 minutes of downtime, SD-IA ensures continuous, uninterrupted service, making it a vital tool for modern businesses.

Looking forward, the standard for internet connectivity will include a minimum of two internet connections, either both active or one as a pure backup, to eliminate single points of failure. This resilience, combined with application management and stability at the last mile, will become the norm.

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A look to the future: ISPs will pivot from selling standalone internet access to integrating software-defined capabilities within their primary services. By embracing this approach, ISPs can enhance their offerings, reduce the risk of outages, and deliver reliable, high-performing internet access. Those who successfully navigate this market pivot will gain significant market share in an increasingly connected world.