Remember when the internet was spelled with a capital “I”—that is, the Internet? Today, we regard the internet as just another utility: electricity, city gas, water, etc. But like any utility, it can go down unexpectedly—whether due to internal or external circumstances. Internal, plant-related issues are under your control and should be mostly preventable, but unfortunately external interruptions can happen for most any reason (e.g., storms, politics, hackers, excess traffic, technical issues, etc.), and you should be prepared for these outages. With a little due diligence and careful planning, you can minimize the deleterious effects of internet outages to your business.
Over the last decade or two, the internet has generally not only improved in speed and performance, but also has become more reliable as connections evolved from dial-up modems to cable, satellite and fiber optic. But it’s still not perfect.