How to Quantify Reliability
Here at Millennia Technologies, we get asked all the time about how we can deliver the same kind of reliability that phone lines offer through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. We understand the concern because running your phone service over the internet simply cannot offer 100% reliability. We can get very close to it, but there are simply no providers out there that can realistically offer VoIP service and promise no downtime at all.
When Redundancy Works
Redundancy in VoIP is an alternative route for data to use in case the main route experiences a failure. These additional routes help to minimize complete outages.
To help clients understand the VoIP reliability factor better, providers usually publish their uptime percentages, which represents the amount of time their users experienced downtime over the course of a year. For the most part, providers have uptimes between 99.99% and 99.999%. However, even though those numbers may seem very close, it makes a significant difference in the amount of downtime a customer will experience. The ideal number is “five 9’s” or, 99.999%.
For example, this chart identifies the vast differences these downtime percentages can create:
Understanding All-Inclusive Percentages
How do you know how your provider stacks up? Ask them. Any reputable provider should be able to provide you with this information as well as information and some clarity as to why they experienced the unscheduled downtime. Additionally, you should be aware of if the projected percentages are “all inclusive.” All-inclusive figures are the unscheduled …
