In my opinion, these are all decisions that each company and it's management and IT departments must reach for themselves. There are no universally right or wrong answers. There are tradeoffs either way, and, evaluating those tradeoffs is a big part of why an IT department and managers get paid. For some companies, a single connection might be all they need. For others, multiple circuits to a provider they think is reliable enough may do the trick. Many companies may feel they need more than that, so, they may choose to go to BGP and true multihoming. Any of those answers can be the right answer. There are other possible "right" answers too. The important thing is for the IT department to do their homework on ALL the tradeoffs associated with each possible scenario, and, help their management reach a decision that is right for the company. As you mentioned, there are other risks to BGP and multihoming, and, additional responsibilities that come with it. As such, the staff to meet those responsibilities should be factored in as an additional cost in that solution. Owen