Delivering Near-Zero Downtime Connectivity for a National NFP Organisation

Case Study: Delivering resilient WAN and near-zero downtime connectivity for an NSW-based not-for-profit organisation with a national footprint

Industry: Not-for-Profit (NSW Head Office & National Presence)
Organisation Size: 200+ sites across Australia
Solutions: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Ericsson Cradlepoint E1850 5G adapters, dual-carrier redundancy, resilient WAN design
Partner: CyberAgency Group

Background

This large not-for-profit organisation, headquartered in New South Wales and operating more than 200 sites nationally, depends on reliable connectivity to support critical services, staff collaboration, cloud applications, and communications across metropolitan, regional, and remote locations.

The organisation had already invested in a Cisco Meraki WAN environment to simplify network visibility and management across its distributed footprint. However, as the network scaled and service expectations increased, connectivity resilience became a growing concern.

Although a secondary internet service existed at many locations, the organisation continued to experience outages that affected operational continuity. For a non-profit delivering essential services across Australia, even short periods of downtime created unnecessary disruption for staff, local teams, and the communities they support.

The Challenge

Prior to engaging CyberAgency Group, the organisation’s primary challenge was not simply internet availability — it was the lack of true redundancy.

The existing WAN design had several limitations:

• The primary internet connection was vulnerable to service interruptions.
• Secondary links often relied on the same or closely related fixed-line infrastructure, reducing the value of failover.
• When there was an upstream carrier or infrastructure incident, both the primary and backup services could be impacted at the same time.
• Sites had limited protection against last-mile failures, fibre issues, or broader ISP disruptions.
• The organisation needed a scalable solution that could be deployed consistently across a large national footprint without adding excessive complexity.

In practical terms, the business had backup links on paper, but not always diverse backup paths in reality.

This left the organisation exposed to avoidable downtime, particularly where service continuity was essential for day-to-day operations.

CyberAgency Group’s Solution

CyberAgency Group designed and delivered a more resilient connectivity architecture by combining the client’s existing Cisco Meraki environment with Ericsson Cradlepoint E1850 5G adapters and dual-carrier mobile redundancy.

The objective was to create true WAN diversity by introducing an alternative access method that did not depend on the same physical infrastructure as the fixed-line services.

Solution Components

Retention of Cisco Meraki as the primary WAN platform
Rather than replacing the existing environment, CyberAgency Group worked with the client’s Cisco Meraki infrastructure as the primary WAN and policy platform, preserving centralised visibility, management, and traffic control.

Deployment of Ericsson Cradlepoint E1850 5G adapters
Ericsson Cradlepoint E1850 5G adapters were introduced to provide enterprise-grade wireless WAN backup at distributed sites. These adapters enabled rapid transition to mobile data services when fixed-line connectivity degraded or failed.

Dual-carrier redundancy for greater resilience 
To reduce carrier dependency, the Cradlepoint solution was configured with dual-carrier capability. This meant the backup architecture was not reliant on a single mobile provider, adding another layer of resilience and improving service continuity during carrier-specific issues.

Separation from fixed-line infrastructure risk
The key design improvement was the move away from backup services that shared similar infrastructure with the primary circuit. By using 5G-based connectivity with carrier diversity, the organisation gained a genuinely independent fallback path.

The Outcome 

The new connectivity model gave the organisation a far more robust WAN environment across its national footprint.

When a primary internet service experienced disruption, traffic could fail over to the Cradlepoint-enabled 5G path with minimal interruption. Where required, dual-carrier capability added another safeguard to maintain uptime.

This resulted in a network environment with:

• significantly improved resilience
• reduced dependency on shared fixed-line infrastructure
• faster recovery from outages
• better support for distributed sites
• a stronger foundation for business continuity

Most importantly, the organisation moved from a vulnerable backup model to one built on diverse access technologies and dual-carrier redundancy.

Key Results & Benefits

Near-Zero Downtime

By introducing Ericsson Cradlepoint E1850 5G adapters as a genuinely diverse secondary WAN path, the organisation achieved almost zero downtime across many of its locations. Outages that previously caused significant disruption were now mitigated through rapid failover.

True Redundancy

The previous setup suffered from “backup links” that were still exposed to similar infrastructure failures. The new design delivered true redundancy, combining fixed-line WAN with wireless 5G failover.

Greater National Consistency 

With over 200 sites nationally, the client needed a repeatable and scalable solution. The architecture deployed by CyberAgency Group made it easier to standardise resilience across a large and geographically dispersed environment.

Reduced Operational Risk

For a not-for-profit organisation delivering essential services, connectivity issues do more than inconvenience staff — they can impact service delivery. The new WAN strategy materially reduced the operational risk associated with internet outages.

Improved Carrier Diversity 

The addition of dual-carrier support meant the organisation was no longer overly dependent on a single mobile network during failover scenarios. This improved reliability and strengthened continuity planning.

Impact on Service Delivery

This project delivered more than a technical uplift — it improved the organisation’s ability to operate with confidence.

With a more resilient WAN in place, teams across Australia could maintain access to critical systems and communications even during primary internet outages. That meant fewer interruptions, stronger continuity, and a more dependable digital foundation for frontline and support operations.

For an organisation serving communities at scale, connectivity resilience is not just an IT metric. It is an enabler of service delivery.

Why the Solution Worked 

CyberAgency Group approached the project with both a network engineering lens and a business continuity mindset.

The success of the engagement came down to several design principles:

• keep the proven Cisco Meraki environment in place
• eliminate false redundancy created by same-infrastructure backup links
• introduce wireless WAN diversity using Ericsson Cradlepoint E1850 5G adapters
• reduce carrier dependency through dual-carrier failover
• deliver a solution that could scale nationally across 200+ sites
• The result was a WAN design aligned to the real-world needs of a complex, distributed non-profit organisation.

Conclusion

CyberAgency Group helped this NSW-based not-for-profit organisation transform its network resilience by augmenting its Cisco Meraki WAN with Ericsson Cradlepoint E1850 5G adapters and dual-carrier redundancy.

The outcome was a more robust, scalable, and resilient connectivity solution delivering almost zero downtime across a national footprint of more than 200 sites.

For organisations where uptime matters, true redundancy requires more than a secondary link — it requires diverse infrastructure, smart design, and carrier independence.

Need a more resilient WAN strategy for your multi-site organisation? 

CyberAgency Group helps organisations design secure, scalable, high-availability connectivity solutions that reduce downtime and strengthen operational continuity.

Talk to our team about resilient WAN, 5G failover, Cisco Meraki, and Cradlepoint solutions.