Cox Business today launched Net Assurance for small business owners to protect them from completely losing their internet connection during outages.
In the event of an internet disruption to wired and private Wi-Fi connections, Net Assurance will automatically failover to an LTE wireless network. And if the business experiences a power loss, an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) battery backup with surge protection provides around four hours of power to keep systems on.
Cox Business Net Assurance is always working in the background to provide backup. Cox has relationships with multiple wireless service providers, and the service automatically selects the best connection at any given time, so there is no need for customer intervention.
In some ways the service sounds like a software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) technology. And Cox Business does offer SD-WAN. But a Cox spokesperson said Net Assurance is targeted at smaller business customers who need a cost effective, business continuity solution for internet service. “SD-WAN has more advanced capabilities and is targeted at larger business customers,” he said.
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Net Assurance requires special customer premise equipment, which is provided by Cox. This includes the LTE router and UPS/battery backup. The service is managed at the device level via a basic overlay software technology.
According to the Cox spokesperson, the Net Assurance technology comes from a joint effort between Cox’s vendors and Cox’s in-house development teams.
The service provider already has some customers using the service, such as Marylou’s Coffee, with multiple locations in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.