Chapel Hill, North Carolina High-Speed Internet Access

High Speed access to The Net in Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Business Broadband, Gigabit Internet and Metro Ethernet Access

Because of today’s environment, companies in Chapel Hill, North Carolina depend on the web. Reliable access to the web is the lifeblood of their company. All companies depend on reliable and quick access to The web. This is true irrespective of how large or small the company.

We’ll, in the months and years ahead, become more and more dependent on our Internet access.

From email messaging to information sharing, e-commerce to archiving data, and voice over IP to video conferencing, the web is omnipresent. What is the best fix to meet your needs? Is a cable modem enough? Your needs may point to Metro Ethernet as a solution. Is Gigabit Internet right for you? Your Chapel Hill, North Carolina company probably needs a 5 Meg Internet circuit, 10 Meg access to The net, a 50 Meg circuit, or a 100 Meg Internet access point but which one is best?

Access to the internet: Determining Your Business’s Needs

The needs of your particular company must be determined before you can select an appropriate service. Will web surfing and email be your primary use of the web? Is it used for real-time data connection with cloud servers? Perhaps you, in Chapel Hill, are hosting the data and remote locations rely on this.

How would an outage to your high-speed Internet affect your company? How much downtime can your organization withstand? Is the absence of uptime detrimental? Before making a purchase, these are several of the questions that you must answer.

Analyzing Assorted High-Speed Internet Solutions in Chapel Hill

High-speed access to the web is something all companies need. When picking the correct broadband internet, balancing the costs and benefits to your company is imperative. While many service providers throw around terminologies such as:

• High-speed Internet access
• Provider of Internet for Businesses
• We provide broadband cable modems
• Provider of Metro Ethernet
• Provider of Gigabit Internet service
• Multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)
• PPP- or point-to-point protocol
• Internet access circuits-5 Meg
• Ten megabyte Internet access
• Internet access- 50 megabytes
• High-speed access to The Internet circuits-100 megabytes
• Sip trunking providers
• Direct or dedicated Internet access
• … and much more

… focus on what matters: what does your organization need and what are the best services and solutions out there to meet those needs?

Surfing the Web: Organization Internet Access

Companies in Chapel Hill, North Carolina need access to the internet for their employees. Some companies may need it only for a few people and others may need it for the entire workforce. It may be needed for company research, to order office supplies or other reasons.

Your best course of action may be determined by the size of your work force. If you only have a few workers, you may be fine with a smaller Internet circuit such as a 5 or 10 megabyte. You may need more if you have more workers and those workers all need to be on the net during the same hours.

Your workforce may simply use an intranet system with limited video and graphics. If this is true, your need for high speed Internet be less than you thought. When employees are often downloading images, videos and documents, however, the need for speed increases significantly.

Does your business regularly conduct backups? Synchronizing your backup data after doing remote backups from every desk requires you to support simultaneous connections out to the web.

Are you using a service such as DropBox or Google drive to share files? When you save a file it is pushed to the cloud. Then it is synched to the computer or computers of someone else. Supporting file sharing, while supporting every other service, requires sufficient bandwidth.

High-speed company Internet access like Metro Ethernet and gigabit Internet may be viable options for you depending on your location. They are almost always found in “lit buildings” in Chapel Hill that are already wired by a carrier. Choosing to add high-speed Internet to your office is a tough decision but it can be less expensive and easier than you think.

While it may be the case that bringing Metro Ethernet into a new building can cause a big dent in your wallet, bringing the connection to a suite or offices within that building does not have to. Did you know that obtaining high-speed access to The web with Metro Ethernet or gigabit Internet can often take 30 days or less? Of course, this depends upon availability.

Web Applications Require Fast Internet Access

Your business may host its own servers. Do they run websites APIs or data feeds for external offices? Are your corporate headquarters with a hosted application utilized by 50 branch offices? Does your office host the point of sale (POS) system for every single store in a large retail chain? Are you a law firm? Do you host data for three or more external sites?

When data and programs are hosted centrally at one main site, people outside that location must gain access. For those people, no Internet connection means no work gets done. 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 company 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 access to The web is important. While fast access to The net is and important, they must also have the capability to handle assorted simultaneous connections. Do you think a cable modem is sufficient? It is probably not.

Cable Circuit Sharing in Chapel Hill Versus Dedicated Bandwidth: What is Right For You?

There is a price that comes along with choosing a cable modem or other lower cost circuit. 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 bandwidth branches off to different buildings and then to various tenants within those buildings. During crucial working hours, you may not get to the 30-meg speed you have been capped at. What will the consequences be if you expect 30 but only get half that? What if you get even less?

Some providers offer customers dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth. In this situation, your bandwidth is not shared but is fully allocated to your company. You should receive full capacity of your circuits during all hours. This is true even though you may have many buildings, businesses and tenants nearby.

As an example, look at Metro Ethernet. They provide guaranteed bandwidth in various increments. You can receive guaranteed bandwidth in increments of 100, 50, 10 and 5 megabytes. Gigabit Internet providers offer gigabit speeds from your office to the web.

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.

Redundant High Speed Company Internet in Chapel Hill: Why More Circuits?

While certain providers offer superior Internet bandwidth products in Chapel Hill, the reality is that it is possible for a circuit to go down. How can you lower the chances that you will experience some kind of outage?

Try using redundant circuits.

There are, in essence, two types of redundancy.

The first is where you get multiple circuits from one carrier. These redundant circuits help protect from certain failures, for example, router port issues or physical line trouble. It is possible for both circuits to go down. If your carrier has a regional problem like a widespread outage, or there is a broken line outside your building, even your redundant circuits may fail. While there is some security in this, you are still vulnerable under some circumstances.

You can also achieve redundancy by utilizing different providers to bring in and establish your circuits. Advanced routers and IP address allocations can be utilized to make it look to your users and the public that you have a single circuit. You know the truth: that they are individual circuits and are there to back each other up in case one goes down. Diversity redundancy offers far greater protection. When one carrier has a problem like an outage or some other failure, you have another one that works.

You want maximum redundancy. In order to achieve this, look for redundant circuits from different providers with different physical geographic pathways in Chapel Hill. Alternatively stated, try to have your circuits enter the building on different sides from one another. Ideally, the circuits will be going in different directions and toward various central company spaces or data centers. If you can accomplish this, you are protected from a major catastrophe. For example, if a there is a fire or some other accident that negatively affects circuits in a region, you have redundancy in a physically different direction.

What Are the Costs Associated With Not Adequately Protecting Your Business High-Speed Internet access?

While Internet access is not free, it pales in comparison with the cost of not having reliable Internet access. Consider these scenarios:

Does your organization rely on Voice-over Internet Protocol for telephone service?

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 less available bandwidth affect your telephone calls? What happens to the quality of that phone call? Will calls be arbitrarily dropped? Perhaps you will sound choppy or will be inaudible.

Is your organization the central data location for multiple offices?

Your office is the center of your company. You may be a law firm that does file sharing or a retailer operating a POS system. Your primary Internet connection is solely responsible for smoothly granting access and sending data to all of your sites whether you have two or two thousand. How will you be affected if your circuit goes down? Would it annoy you or destroy you? Are remote offices able to work at all? What about 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. Perhaps you operate a service where other systems speak with yours via an API to calculate freight rates, commodity prices, collect current weather data or receive any other information that you serve up. It is possible they will not be able to connect to your servers. If you have repeated outages, how long will they remain a customer?

Your call center uses VoIP

What if your business could not function at all without the internet? Maybe your business depends on it completely. Your employees or representatives will not be able to make outgoing phone calls if your circuits go down. Your reps have no way of answering calls, if they even know they are coming in. You are essentially out of company. Even for the most reputable call centers that already know of and use redundancy, is it sufficient? Are your current carriers as dependable as you would like? Is the quality of service sufficient? Are your calls clear and reliable?

Select the Chapel Hill High-Speed Business Access Circuits Best Suited for Your Company

You have several different options to pick from. Your business needs and budgets will drive your decisions. To recap:

Your Small Business and Access to the Internet

If you are a small company, with just one location and not concerned about redundancy, a single five meg, 10 meg or 50 meg access to The net circuit may be adequate. Metro Ethernet service or gigabit service may also be a reasonably priced option if you are in a lit building. Because prices can vary based on the location of your company and the availability of circuits, speak with our engineers to learn your options.

Internet Access-One Location- Medium Sized Business

Having a medium or mid-sized company in Chapel Hill requires that you have higher-speed access to the internet. Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet and other higher-speed Internet circuits are your options. Multiple circuits utilizing multiple providers would, ideally, provide you with maximum redundancy. Achieving this may cost extra but it won’t double your costs. Two smaller circuits may be cheaper than one. For instance, you may use two 50 meg circuits instead of a single 100 meg circuit. As a reminder; availability and costs may vary. In order to find out the options available for you, in your location, you need to speak with one of our seasoned experts.

Access to the web for the Mid-Sized Organization with Several Offices

Companies with different locations, whether 5 or 50, are at the highest risk. Redundancy is extremely crucial to them. Multiple providers would be great. 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 carriers and services can maximize the productivity and efficiency of your company.

If you are a larger company, an enterprise company or a are in the organization of providing services using 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. If you want to ensure your valuable uptime, have redundant circuits from multiple carriers as well as redundant hardware. Spikes or sudden increase in usage can result in Internet slowdowns or disruptions in service. You can decrease the risk of these events by having sufficient bandwidth. 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.

Receive a Free Internet Need and Demand Analysis

Do not risk having failing circuits or not enough bandwidth. It is imperative that the circuit or circuits you choose meet your needs but also keep you within your allowable budget. Choosing the right combination of hardware and circuits can be complicated and confusing.

Our engineers will take the pressure off and develop a free action plan for you by analyzing your needs. You want your company to run smoothly. We will look at your current usage levels and demand levels and design a plan that meets your needs at a cost that makes sense for you.

Please click here to complete the contact form on the right side of this page or call our office to schedule an appointment for an assessment. We do assessments quickly. It can take as little as 48 hours to complete your analysis.