High Speed Access To The Web in Ames

Ames, Iowa High Speed Internet access: Organization Broadband Internet, Metro Ethernet Access and Gigabit Internet

Today’s environment demands that companies in Ames have reliable Internet service in order to run their organization. The organization functions of all companies, from Fortune 500 to small companies, count on fast and reliable Internet access.

access to The net will become increasingly essential to us in the coming months and years. Our dependence on Internet access will only grow as time goes on.

Our uses of the net reach far and wide. From data sharing, video calls, and shopping to VOIP and email, the internet has a broad presence. What can best meet your needs? Is a cable modem enough? Metro Ethernet may be what you need. Gigabit Internet may satisfy your needs. Does your business in Ames need one of these: 10 Meg access to The net, a 100 Meg access to The Internet point, a 50 meg circuit or a 5 meg circuit?

Internet Access: Defining the Company Need

Prior to selecting a service, your organization must figure out its needs. Perhaps the internet is only used for a few things such as email communication or surfing the web. Is connecting with cloud servers and sharing real time data the main use of the net? Perhaps you, in Ames, are hosting the data and remote places depend upon this.

Have you thought about what will happen to your business if your high-speed Internet is interrupted by an outage? Will your company suffer from the lull? Is the absence of uptime detrimental? Prior to making any purchases, you must determine the answers to these questions.

High-Speed Internet Solutions in Ames, Iowa: Evaluating Differences

Speaking broadly, all companies need high-speed access to the internet. Choosing the correct broadband for your company requires a cost benefit analysis. Don’t be distracted by terminology. While you may hear service providers throw out words and phrases like:

• High-speed Internet access
• Business Internet / Internet for business
• broadband cable modems
• Metro Ethernet service
• Gigabit Ethernet services or Gigabit Internet
• Multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)
• Point-to-point circuit protocol
• 5 Meg Internet access
• 10 megabyte Internet access
• Internet access-50 Meg
• We provide 100-megabyte Internet access circuits
• Leading SIP trunk authority
• Direct or dedicated Internet access
• … and then some

… the real issue is understanding what capability and technical solutions best meet your needs.

Business Internet access for Website Surfing

Workers for most companies in Ames, Iowa have some need to access the net during the course of their job. Third party applications, company research or development and e-commerce are just some of the ways the internet may be needed.

The best solution may rely upon how many employees you have. A 5 or 10 megabyte Internet circuit may be perfect if you only have a few employees. If you have 50 employees who are using the net simultaneously, you may need more.

Your need for high-speed Internet may be lessened if your workers are just accessing an intranet systemOn the other hand, if your company requires that its employees download many documents or images and videos, Internet speed becomes more important.

Do you routinely backup? It is recommended that you do remote backups from every desk. If you are, you will need to support simultaneous connections out to the web to synchronize the backup data to collect.

Does your company require employees to share files using a service like Google drive or DropBox? As people save files, those files are pushed to the cloud and then synchronized back to other people’s computers. You need to have sufficient bandwidth to support this function while also supporting every other service.

You may consider high-speed business access to The Internet if you location warrants it. Gigabit Internet and Metro Ethernet may be viable options for you. “Lit buildings” that have already been wired by a carrier, are commonly the site for these. It may be shock you to know that installing high-speed access to The net may not be particularly expensive or inconvenient.

If you have to bring Metro Ethernet into a new building, it can be expensive but bringing that connection to an office or suite within the building is usually not. Metro Ethernet or gigabit Internet may provide you with high-speed access to The Internet in thirty days or less, depending on availability.

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

Does your company host its own servers running websites, APIs or data feeds for other offices or companies outside of your own four walls? Do fifty or so branch offices need access to a hosted application at your company headquarters? Are you hosting the point of sale (POS) system for 15, 000 retail chain stores? Does your legal practice host all of the data for 3, 4 or 5 offices in different locations?

When data, programs, or information is hosted centrally, those outside your office must gain access. Those people are not able to do their work if the internet connection fails or is unreliable. Make sure that when you choose your intranet solution it is reliable enough to support your need for multiple and simultaneous connections for many different places.

An inexpensive 10 Meg circuit may be enough if you have one office that needs to surf the net. A cable modem may also be sufficient in this situation. Company headquarters should have high-speed Internet access such as gigabit Ethernet, Metro Ethernet or some other high-speed dedicated circuit. All offer quick speed but they must also be able to support diverse and multiple connections. A cable modem would probably not be enough.

Shared Cable Circuits V. Dedicated Internet Bandwidth in Ames, Iowa

Bringing in a less-expensive circuit like a cable modem often comes with a price. You may save money on your monthly bill but the bandwidth you get must be shared among many people. If you subscribe to a cable modem with a 30-megabyte connection, you would expect to always be able to reach that high speed. However, it is possible that during peak hours, you won’t. Cable operators differ but many have prescribed limits on the bandwidth amount that they can deliver within a set community. That amount of bandwidth must be shared with different buildings and with the tenants housed within. Will you achieve 30-meg speed during the working day? Will there be trouble if your expectation is set at 30 but you only get 8 or 10?

Some providers are available who offer dedicated bandwidth and guaranteed bandwidth. In this situation, you do not have to share bandwidth. The bandwidth is all yours and is fully allocated to the needs of your company. Regardless of neighbors, or other tenants, you should have the full capacity of your circuit at all times.

Metro Ethernet provides guaranteed bandwidth in increments as follows: 5, 10, 50 and 100 Meg circuits. With gigabit Internet providers, you can reach gigabit speeds in your office out to the net.

In these scenarios, providers deliver a large quantity of high-speed to a building. The quantity must be enough so that it can split the circuit and deliver to every tenant. Whatever amount has been guaranteed in each tenant’s contract is the amount they receive.

Redundant High Speed Organization Internet in Ames: Why More Circuits?

Circuits can go down in Ames even though certain carriers offer superior Internet bandwidth products. What can you do to minimize the chance that you will experience an outage of some kind?

Consider redundant circuits.

We are primarily talking about two kinds of redundancy.

With the first type of redundancy, you receive multiple circuits from the same carrier. In this situation, the redundancy helps protect you from port issues or physical line issues. However, if that carrier has a regional outage or physical line damaged outside of your building, both circuits may go down. While offering some protection, it is not without risk.

The second way to set up circuit redundancy is by using two different providers to bring in your circuits. By using IP address allocations and certain routers, you can bind your connections. By doing this, it appears and behaves as a single circuit. In fact, they are totally redundant and separate. You will get more substantial protection from this diversity redundancy. You will still have a live, fully functioning carrier if one fails.

If you want to maximize redundancy in Ames, Iowa please consider the following question: Do the providers I am considering use the same physical geographic pathways? Basically this means that you want your circuits to enter your building on different sides or paths. The circuits would be established either underground or on telephone poles and would be set up in different directions and lead to different offices. Having redundancy in different physical directions can protect you if there is a serious incident at a data center or some accident that causes a regional circuit issue.

What is the Price of Not Having Adequate Protection for Your Company High-Speed Internet access?

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

Your business telephone utilizes voice-over Internet Protocol, or VoIP as it is commonly known

Your company is on a cable modem and your carrier provides circuits to 20 other offices in your building. During your working day, those tenants could be conducting massive downloads of information, processing a large amount of calls or streaming endless video. How will your telephone calls be affected as the amount of available bandwidth decreases? What about phone call quality? Maybe calls will randomly drop? Will the calls be choppy?

Maybe your business acts as a data center for various other locations

You may be an accounting firm that shares databases, a retail chain company utilizing a point of sale system or a law practice sharing files. Regardless of the specifics, your office is the hub for your enterprise. Every single one of your offices, stores and locations rely on you and your primary Internet connection to retrieve data. What happens in the event of a circuit failure? Would it cause mere annoyance or utter disaster? Are your other offices able to do any work? Process new orders? Dispense and receive data? Do you know what your organization needs? Be sure to fully understand your requirements. It will help you choose the correct solution. You have a software company, and are running a hosted solution for dozens, maybe hundreds, of customers. Perhaps you operate a service where other systems communicate with yours via an API to calculate freight prices, commodity prices, collect current weather data or receive any other information that you serve up. What if other systems can’t connect to your office servers? Will your customers remain loyal to you if they have to withstand multiple outages?

The telephone system at your call center relies on VoIP

Maybe your organization depends entirely on the web. Should your circuits go down, your representatives cannot make outbound calls. Your representatives would also be unable to answer calls. You are now officially out of business. While many of the most reputable call centers are already aware and using the advantages of redundancy, is it sufficiently meeting their needs? 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 Ames, Iowa High-Speed Business Access Circuits for Your Company

You have several different options to pick from. Your decision will be based on different factors including your company needs and your budget. To summarize:

Internet Access for the Small Organization Owner

If you are a small organization, with just one location and not concerned about redundancy, a single five meg, 10 meg or 50 meg access to The Internet circuit may be sufficient. If you are in a “lit” building, Metro Ethernet or gigabit service may be reasonably priced options. Costs vary with location and the availability of circuits so speak with our engineers. Together, we can find the best option for you and your organization.

Medium Sized Company in One Location: Access to the Internet

Mid-sized businesses in Ames should be equipped with higher-speed Internet. Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet and other higher-speed Internet circuits are your options. In a perfect world, you will achieve maximum redundancy by utilizing multiple providers to provide and service different circuits. Achieving this may cost extra but it won’t double your costs. Two 50-megabyte circuits may be more cost effective than a single 100 circuit. Do not forget that you will find variations in price and availability. You need to speak with one of our experts to determine your options in your specific location.

Mid-Sized Businesses Internet access – Multiple Locations

If your company has several places or offices, you are at great risk for failure. They require redundant circuits. Different providers are desirable. You can minimize the risk of downtime at if you also have redundant equipment like routers or switches. 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 best mix of providers and services can maximize the productivity and efficiency of your company.

Larger corporations, enterprising clients and clients who provide services that are delivered via the Internet

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 must have redundant circuits for multiple providers as well as redundant hardware in your office to ensure your uptime. You need to provide sufficient bandwidth to handle usage spikes without slowdowns or interruptions. Having both your hardware and your circuits capable of supporting many different, fast, and simultaneous connections is essential. It cannot be one or the other.

Free Internet Demand and Need Analysis

Do you understand how great the risk of failing circuits and insufficient bandwidth really is? You need to have the right circuit or circuits to meet your demands while staying within your budget. The pressure involved in selecting the proper mix of hardware and circuits can be overwhelming.

Our engineers can analyze your needs and create a free action plan for you. We will examine your current usage and demand levels then create a design that provides you with the resources you need to keep your organization running smoothly at a reasonable cost.

An appointment for an assessment can be made by calling our office or clicking here to complete the contact form on the side of this page. It can take as little as 48 hours to provide a complete assessment.