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Just as the rugby squad's overall resilience clinched the World Cup, businesses need to embrace resilience in their connectivity to thrive
Driving SD-WAN Adoption in South Africa
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The backbone of South African businesses often rests on an IT infrastructure controlled by a so-called 'best practice' regimen that, paradoxically, falls short of ensuring optimal and practical operations. It's easy to critique government departments for their delivery woes, yet many businesses inadvertently mirror these failings closer to home.
Consider this: several governmental sectors and municipalities heavily rely on a single, well-known South African service provider for their last-mile communications. Shockingly, this configuration has failed to prevent downtime, resulting in numerous government shutdowns.
This trend isn't unique to the public sector. Many businesses in South Africa exhibit a similar reliance on a single point of failure. They invest in primary and backup systems from a solitary provider, guided by a flawed belief system. This approach stems from an inflated sense of confidence within IT departments, which often prioritize spreadsheets, incomplete tools, and cozy relationships with salespeople over robust communication links.
In essence, South African businesses are following the herd, resembling lemmings with a blind adherence to what's deemed standard. This conformity, however, is detrimental, especially when vendors tout their "Magic Quadrant" credentials, deceiving businesses for their self-interest rather than ensuring prolonged operational uptime.
The prevailing approach of employing a single provider for primary and secondary communications is fundamentally flawed. Businesses in South Africa must adopt a provider-agnostic stance, emphasizing service delivery by engaging multiple providers per site to significantly improve uptime.
Why, you may ask?
The myth of "business-grade" communication links has faded. In today's landscape, the distinction between consumer and business infrastructure is negligible. Businesses paying more for links experience an artificial cost hike with no substantial value. Moreover, purported "SLAs" don't translate to better service; often, business links suffer due to reactive fault reporting instead of proactive monitoring.
Tools touted as solutions often prove outdated, expensive, and insufficient in providing functional insights into last-mile communications. Training lacks applicability, leaving IT engineers without adequate guidance to fix network issues, as vendor training seldom extends beyond their product lines.
Resilience takes a back seat in purchasing decisions, leading to blame games rather than introspection when failures occur. Ironically, while businesses are vigilant about backup power sources, similar diligence isn't extended to communication infrastructure.
Why invest in a technical culture geared toward business resilience?
The cost of under-provisioned and unreliable communications is a loss that no primary income can offset. Embracing a technical culture focused on resilience ensures continuity amid challenges.
The way forward lies in solutions like Fusion—a connectivity option independent of operators and ISPs. Fusion promises reliability and resilience, offering businesses a chance to break free from single-provider constraints and forge a path toward uninterrupted operations. It's time for businesses to embrace resilience and drive their success in a world of interdependent connectivity.
Ronald Bartels ensures that Internet inhabiting things are connected reliably online at Fusion Broadband South Africa - the leading specialized SD-WAN provider in South Africa. 👉 Contact Fusion