High-Speed Albany, Georgia Access To The Internet

Business Broadband Internet, Gigabit Internet and Metro Ethernet: Albany High Speed Internet Access

In today’s world, Albany companies need dependable access to The Internet. It is the lifeblood of their business. Fortune 500 companies to small companies and everything in between, count on reliable and fast access to The net.

Our dependence on access to The web will continue to grow in the coming months and years.

The net is ubiquitous. From email to data sharing, archiving to commerce and VOIP to video conferencing, the internet is everywhere. What do you need? Can a cable modem suffice? Metro Ethernet? You may need Gigabit Internet. Does your business in Albany, Georgia need one of these: 10 Meg Internet access, a 100 Meg Internet access point, a 50 meg circuit or a 5 meg circuit?

Internet Access: Defining the Company Need

Your organization must assess its real needs. This must be done before an appropriate service can be chosen. Is the internet only used for web surfing and email? Will real-time data connection with servers in the cloud be the primary use of the web? Perhaps you, in Albany, Georgia, are hosting the data and remote sites depend upon this.

What if there is an outage and your high-speed Internet is interrupted? How might the downtime cause problems for your business? Is your success reliant on uptime? Before buying, these are a few of the questions that you need to answer.

Analyzing Assorted High-Speed Internet Solutions in Albany, Georgia

In all-encompassing terms, businesses need high-speed Internet access. You need to analyze and balance the costs and benefits to your company before choosing the right broadband. While many providers throw around terminologies such as:

• Fast Internet access is for you!
• Business Internet service provider
• Broadband cable modems are our specialty
• Metro Ethernet service provider
• Gigabit Ethernet
• MPLS network
• point-to-point circuits
• Internet access circuits-five megabyte
• Internet access circuits- ten megabytes
• 50 Meg Internet access circuits
• Internet access circuits- One hundred megabytes
• Sip trunking experts
• dedicated Internet access
• … and that is only a few

… do not lose sight of the real issues: what are the capabilities and technical solutions you need to best serve your company?

Surfing the Web: Organization Internet Access

At any company in Albany some employees, if not all employees, need some type of access to the internet if they are to properly perform their job duties. Whether it is to speak with shippers, do research or place orders, access to The web is required.

The number of workers you employ, may be the most important factor in your decision making process. A five or ten megabyte Internet circuit may be all you need if employ a small workforce. If you have 50 employees who are using the net simultaneously, you may need more.

You may not need as much high-speed access to The net if your employees work primarily on an intranet system with limited graphics and video. On the other hand, Internet speed becomes dramatically more important when they are required to regularly download things like documents or videos.

Do you backup information? When you do remote backups from every workstation, which you should, you must support multiple and simultaneous connections to the web in order to sync your backup data.

Does your company require employees to share files using a service like Google drive or DropBox? As a file is saved, it is pushed to the cloud and then synced back to other people’s computers. You must have sufficient bandwidth if you are to successfully support every service including file sharing.

High-speed company access to The net like Metro Ethernet and gigabit Internet may be viable options for you depending on your location. “Lit buildings” that have already been wired by a carrier, are commonly the site for these. The ease and affordability of adding high-speed Internet to your office may surprise you.

Unless you are bringing Metro Ethernet into a new building, it does not have to be an expensive proposition to connect it to a suite within a building. Did you know that obtaining high-speed Internet access with Metro Ethernet or gigabit Internet can often take 30 days or less? Of course, this depends upon availability.

Internet-based Applications That Need Access to High-Speed Internet

Does your organization host its own servers to run information feeds, websites or application program interfaces (APIs) with companies or offices located outside of your four walls? Are your company headquarters with a hosted application accessed by 50 branch offices? Are you hosting the point of sale (POS) system for 15, 000 retail chain stores? Are you a law firm hosting data for multiple office sites?

When data, programs, or information is hosted centrally, those outside your office must gain access. People can’t work if you have no Internet connection. Are you choosing an intranet solution that is sufficiently reliable and stable to support multiple simultaneous connections from varied sites?

For one office or a small business with just one or two people surfing the web, a less expensive 10 Meg circuit or a cable modem may meet your needs. Metro Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet or other high-speed dedicated circuits is advisable for the headquarters where high-speed Internet access is important. While fast Internet access is and important, they must also have the capability to handle assorted simultaneous connections. A cable modem would probably not be enough.

Dedicated Bandwidth Versus Albany Shared Cable Circuits

Bringing in a less-expensive circuit like a cable modem often comes with a price. Your low monthly bill may mean that the bandwidth is shared among multiple tenants. While you may subscribe to a cable modem with a 30 Meg connection, you may be unable to reach those speeds during peak hours. Cable operators are only permitted to establish a certain amount of bandwidth within communities. That amount of bandwidth must be shared with different buildings and with the tenants housed within. You might be capped at 30-megabyte speed, but may never be able to actually reach that speed during the important hours of your company day. What will the consequences be if you expect 30 but only get half that? What if you get even less?

You can find a carrier who can provide dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth. In this case, your organization receives full allocation of bandwidth. There is no sharing with any outsiders. Notwithstanding the existence of tenants, offices or buildings in the area, you should have the full capability of your circuits at all times.

Metro Ethernet provides guaranteed bandwidth in increments as follows: 5, 10, 50 and 100 Meg circuits. You can reach gigabit speeds with gigabit Internet providers.

In these situations, each tenant receives their contracted high-speed. The carrier delivers enough so they can split their circuit and provide enough to each tenant.

Incorporating Redundancy Into Your High Speed Company Internet Circuits in Albany, Georgia

While certain carriers offer superior Internet bandwidth products in Albany, the reality is that it is possible for a circuit to go down. How can you decrease the chance of an outage?

Redundant circuits.

Essentially, there are two different ways to look at redundancy.

A single carrier, providing multiple circuits, to one customer, characterizes one form of redundancy. If there is a problem with a line or a port in your router, circuit redundancy can offer some protection. However, if that carrier has a regional outage or physical line damaged outside of your building, both circuits may go down. This is not foolproof, but does offer some protection.

Bringing in circuits using two distinct carriers is the second form of circuit redundancy. For users and the public, you can make it look like you have one cohesive circuit. You can also make the connections act as a single circuit. You can do this with various advanced routers and IP address allocations. However, despite appearances, they are actually very much separate and are redundant to each other. Diversity redundancy offers far greater protection. In the event that one carrier goes down, the other will still be alive.

The carriers you choose for your redundant circuits should have different physical pathways in Albany. This is an important consideration when trying to obtain the most redundancy. Essentially, this just means that you do not want both of your circuits to enter the building on the same side. They should come in on different sides. Ideally, the circuits will be going in different directions and toward various central business spaces or data centers. In this way you have redundancy in different physical directions. If there is an event that causes a regional circuit problem, you have an alternative that is unaffected.

What is the Cost of Not Having Adequate Protection for Your Business Class High-Speed Internet access?

The cost to your company if you do not have reliable Internet access will be far greater than you may realize. Consider these scenarios:

You use VoIP for your organization telephone service

Your business is on a cable modem and your carrier provides circuits to 20 other offices in your building. What if any or all of those tenants are huge call centers taking in a massive volume of phone calls, are company that perform large file downloads or stream many videos? As the amount of accessible bandwidth decreases, what happens to your needs? What will happen to your phone calls? What happens to the strength and quality of that call? Are the calls going to be dropped? Will you sound muffled or choppy to your customers?

Your office is the main data point for various other offices

Your office may be the working center of an entire organization enterprise. The kind of business does not necessarily matter. You may be a law firm doing file sharing, an accounting practice sharing databases or a retailer operating a distributed point-of-sale system. All of your locations, whether 2 or 2000, rely on your primary Internet connection to access and retrieve data. What happens in the event of a circuit failure? Is it simply an irritation or a catastrophe? Is work even possible at your other locations? Process or take new orders? Circulate necessary data? Do you know what your company needs? Be sure to fully understand your requirements. It will help you choose the correct solution. Maybe you are a corporation that designs and sells software and you run a hosted solution that is used by hundreds and hundreds of customers. You operate a service that utilizes API in order to grant access to other systems. They may use this to collect whatever data you are offering such as commodity prices, weather data or freight calculations. What happens when there is a problem connecting to your servers? Customers do not enjoy repeated outages. How long with they put up with them before looking to take their organization elsewhere?

Your business call center utilizes voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP)

Does your business completely rely on the web? Should your circuits stop working, imagine your people being unable to make any outbound phone calls. In addition, they will be unable to answer incoming calls. Looks like you are now out of business. While most call centers that are reputable use redundancy, is it enough? Are the providers you currently use as reliable as they should be? Are they as reliable as you need them to be? You should be getting high quality service that ensures your calls are consistently clear and reliable.

Choosing the Right Albany, Georgia High-Speed Business Access Circuits for Your Company

You have several different options to pick from. Your organization needs and budgets will drive your decisions. As a high-level summary:

Internet Access for the Small Company Owner

If your business is small, with one location or office, you are likely not concerned about redundancy. For you, a single 5, 10 or 50 megabyte access to The net circuit may suffice. If you are in a “lit” building, Metro Ethernet or gigabit service may be reasonably priced options. The availability of circuits and your location determine prices; speak with one of our engineers to learn what your best options are.

Medium Sized Company in One Location: Access to the Internet

Mid-sized businesses in Albany, Georgia should be equipped with higher-speed Internet. Gigabit Internet, Metro Ethernet and other higher speed Internet circuits are options to consider. In a perfect scenario, multiple circuits from different providers will give you the most redundancy. This may be attainable without doubling your costs. For example, you may use 2 fifty meg circuits instead of 1 one hundred meg circuit. Again, costs vary. Availability also varies. Call one of our experts to learn what is available in your specific area.

Mid-Sized Businesses access to The web – Multiple Locations

Any company with more than one location suffers the greatest risk of problems. They need redundant circuits. Different providers are desirable. In addition, consider redundant equipment. Redundant routers and switches can minimize risk also. Have you looked at Metro Ethernet providers, gigabit Internet providers and other high-speed Internet access circuit providers? You should do so before making a decision. The right combination of services and providers can positively impact the efficiency of your business.

What about enterprise clients and large corporate clients? What about clients who provide services that depend on the internet for delivery of said services?

To run efficiently and effectively, corporations and businesses that fall into this category must use point-to-point high-speed Internet circuits, gigabit Internet circuits and Metro Ethernet circuits. You absolutely need redundant circuits from different providers as well as redundant hardware. This is essential to ensuring uptime. You need enough bandwidth. The bandwidth must be sufficient to handle spikes in usage with no slowdowns or interruptions. It is crucial that not only your circuits have the ability to support a vast number of multiple and simultaneous connects, but your hardware must have the ability to support them as well.

Free Internet Demand and Need Analysis

There is great risk of failing circuits or insufficient bandwidth. You need to have the right circuit or circuits to meet your demands while staying within your budget. Selecting the appropriate mix of circuits and hardware can overwhelm you.

Our expert engineers will review your requirements and needs and create a free action plan for you. After reviewing your current usage and demand levels, we’ll generate a cost effective plan that provides your business with the resources it needs.

You can complete the contact form on the right side of this page by clicking here. If you would prefer, please call our office to set up an appointment for an assessment. Assessments are completed in as little as 48 hours.