How Wireless Internet Could Save Your Investment Firm

Posted by Kaleigh (Brousseau) Alessandro on Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

This is a story about a New York City investment firm and how it was affected by Hurricane Irene (You didn’t think we were done talking about Irene yet, did you?).

When Irene struck New York on Sunday, August 28, most people were fortunate enough to find shelter in their homes. And while financial markets were closed, many businesses were still concerned about the technology infrastructure in their offices and the potential loss of power and/or data as a result of the storm.

This particular firm, based in midtown Manhattan, had a primary Internet line that ran through its building’s basement level. Several telephony circuits also ran through this space. Due to the heavy rains from Irene, this basement quickly flooded, damaging Internet service and creating packet loss and uneven traffic.

Upon notification of the situation, this firm chose to run their traffic over their wireless Internet 10 megabit (mbps) circuit, which operates via a point-to-point microwave connection to a fiber-connected building located in the heart of the city. While other businesses were scrambling to deal with the repurcussions of Irene come Monday morning, this firm was able to operate seamlessly knowing they would have network availability in their office.

The wireless connection had been previously tested and proven to withstand disruption from all elements – even those as vicious as Irene’s. Understanding the severity of risk involved in a primary, landline connection going out of service, the firm chose to purchase a wireless Internet connection as well to maximize network availability and minimize downtime. And it’s a good thing they did!

Following the success of the wireless Internet, the firm has also opted to purchase a hosted voice solution as a backup to their telephony circuits, which were also damaged during Hurricane Irene.

It just goes to show – even the Internet is susceptible to inclement weather! To learn more about how your firm can prepare for inclement weather, view our presentation or download our ECINet Wireless Datasheet:

Weather Related Business Continuity Planning

Eze Castle Integration’s ECINet Wireless service provides more than 100 times the bandwidth than a conventional T1 line and offers increased redundancy by avoiding contact with landline-based infrastructure. It offers up to 100 megabits per second (mbps) by using the rooftops of a number of strategically-placed hubs to beam bandwidth to clients. ECINet Wireless is currently available to firms in the New York City and Stamford, CT regions. Please contact us directly for more information.