Obtaining High-Speed Access To The Web in Charleston

Access to High Speed Internet in Charleston: Metro Ethernet Access, Organization Broadband Internet and Gigabit Internet

The lifeblood of Charleston, South Carolina companies doing organization in the current environment relies on reliable Internet access. All companies, from Fortune 500 to small companies, have functions that rely on easy, dependable and quick Internet access.

Our reliance on access to the web will become greater in the near and distant future.

From email to data sharing, video chat to VoIP, and data archiving to Internet commerce, the Internet is ubiquitous. What is the right solution to meet your needs? Can a cable modem suffice? Metro Ethernet may be what you need. You may need Gigabit Internet. Will your Charleston organization needs be met with a 50 Meg circuit, a 5 Meg circuit, 10 Meg access to The Internet or 100 Meg Internet access point?

Internet Access: Defining the Company Need

Before choosing an adequate or appropriate service, you must decide what your company really needs. Is the web primarily used for emailing or web surfing? Is connecting with cloud servers and sharing real time data the main use of the web? You may be hosting the data in Charleston, South Carolina and remote places rely on this.

Have you thought about what will happen to your business if your high-speed Internet is interrupted by an outage? What about the downtime that results? Can your business afford that? How much uptime is essential to your business? You must answer these questions before you buy.

Appraising Various High-Speed Internet Solutions in Charleston, South Carolina

Plainly stated, companies require high-speed Internet access. Deciding on the right broadband internet is not easy. It requires a thorough cost-benefit analysis. While many providers like to spout technical terminologies such as:

• High-speed Internet access
• Business Internet / Internet for business
• Broadband cable modems are our specialty
• Metropolitan-area Ethernet provider
• Gigabit Internet
• Multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)
• Services related to point-to-point circuits
• five Meg access to The net circuits
• 10 megabyte Internet access
• Fifty-megabytes-Internet access circuits
• One hundred Meg Internet access circuits provided
• Sip trunking experts
• Internet access dedicated to your needs
• … and more

… be sure not to forget what capability and technical solutions meet your business’s specific needs.

Business Internet access for Web Surfing

Companies in Charleston 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. Third party applications, business research or development and e-commerce are just several of the ways the net may be needed.

The number of workers you employ, may be the most important factor in your decision making process. If you only have a few workers, you may be fine with a smaller Internet circuit such as a 5 or 10 megabyte. If you have more than that, you may need more.

Perhaps most workers at your company use an intranet system with limited features. High- speed Internet may not be a priority in this case. However, employees who must often download documents, images and videos, need that speed.

Do you perform backups at your company? If, as recommended, you conduct remote backups from every single desk, you will need to support simultaneous connections out to the web. This will allow you to sync your backup data.

Does your organization use a file sharing service? DropBox? Google drive? 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.

You may consider high-speed organization access to The Internet if you location warrants it. Gigabit Internet and Metro Ethernet may be viable options for you. These can usually be found in Charleston in “lit buildings” that have already been wired. You may be surprised by how easy and affordable it is to add high-speed Internet to your organization.

Introducing Metro Ethernet to a new building can be expensive. Bringing a connection to a suite within the building is not. Metro Ethernet or gigabit Internet may provide you with high-speed Internet access in thirty days or less, depending on availability.

Web Applications Require Fast Internet Access

Do you have your own business servers that run APIs, websites or feeds for offsite offices or companies? Do fifty or so branch offices need access to a hosted application at your company headquarters? Does your office host the point of sale (POS) system for every single store in a large retail chain? Are you a legal practice hosting the data for three places?

If your company hosts its programs and information at a central location, people outside of that location need to have access in order to conduct company. People can’t work if you have no Internet connection. Is the intranet solution you are choosing sufficiently reliable? Is it stable enough to support simultaneous connections from different locations?

A cost friendly 10 Meg circuit or even a cable modem may satisfy the needs of a business with a single office that needs to surf the web. It is advisable that high-speed access to The web be available at the central company office or headquarters, including gigabit Ethernet, Metro Ethernet or some other high-speed dedicated circuits. While high speed is great, you also need support for your multiple diverse connections. The support you need could not be provided by a cable modem.

Cable Circuit Sharing in Charleston, South Carolina Versus Dedicated Bandwidth: What is Right For You?

In some situations, there is a high price to pay for bringing in an inexpensive circuit or cable modem. You may save money on your monthly bill but the bandwidth you get must be shared among many people. During peak use hours, you may not be able to reach proper speeds. Cable operators differ but many have prescribed limits on the bandwidth amount that they can deliver within a set community. Buildings, offices and tenants within the buildings all must share that amount of bandwidth, whatever it may be. Will you achieve 30-meg speed during the working day? Do you care if you only get 6 when you were set up to expect 30?

You can find a carrier who can provide dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth. If you want your very own bandwidth that is not used by anyone else, you should consider this. Notwithstanding the existence of tenants, offices or buildings in the area, you should have the full capability of your circuits at all times.

Five Meg, ten Meg, fifty Meg and 100 Meg circuits of guaranteed bandwidth are available with Metro Ethernet. Gigabit Internet providers offer gigabit speeds from your office to the internet.

The providers in this situation deliver high-speed to a particular building in sufficient quantity to split their circuit among various tenants. Of course, they must ensure that they each get the specific amount of their contracted speed.

Backup With Charleston, South Carolina High Speed Organization Internet Circuits

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

Try using redundant circuits.

Redundancy in this situation comes in two forms.

A single carrier, providing multiple circuits, to one customer, characterizes one form of redundancy. In this situation, the redundancy helps protect you from port issues or physical line issues. 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. There is some protection that comes with this but there is risk as well.

The second way to set up circuit redundancy is by using two different providers to bring in your circuits. 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. You know the truth: that they are individual circuits and are there to back each other up in case one goes down. This redundancy, referred to as diversity redundancy, offers much greater protection. In the event that one carrier goes down, the other will still be alive.

You should look for redundant circuits from carriers in Charleston that do not have the same physical geographic pathways, in order to get the most redundancy. If at all possible, you want to obtain circuits entering the premises on different sides. The circuits would be attached underground or to telephone poles, in various directions. The circuits would go to different data centers or central offices. 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 is the Price of Not Having Adequate Protection for Your Business High-Speed access to The Internet?

Even though Internet access comes with a cost, you will save money if you make sure it is dependable. Unreliable access will end up costing you more in the long run. Contemplate these situations:

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

The carrier you use for your cable modem also provides circuits for a dozen or more tenants in the office building. Any of these tenants may be taking many calls, conducting huge downloads or streaming video during your regular office hours. How will less available bandwidth affect your telephone calls? How will the quality of that phone call be affected? Maybe calls will randomly drop? Perhaps you will sound choppy or will be inaudible.

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

Whether you are a law firm doing file sharing, an accounting practice sharing databases or a retailer operating a distributed point-of-sale system, your office is the hub for your enterprise. Your primary Internet connection is solely responsible for smoothly granting access and sending data to all of your places whether you have two or two thousand. If your circuit goes done, what happens next? Is it simply an irritation or a catastrophe? Can your satellite or remote office do any work at all? Process new orders? Share essential information with anyone? Make sure you completely understand your needs before you pick a solution. Perhaps you are a software company, running a hosted solution used by 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. You may find that they are unable to reach or connect with your business servers. How will repeated outages affect your customers? Will they remain customers?

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

Your company is entirely Internet based. No calls can go out if your circuits fail. They are also unable to answer calls. You are essentially out of company. While most reputable call centers are already aware and using 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? Is the quality of service sufficient for your calls to be clear and reliable?

Choosing the Right Charleston, South Carolina High-Speed Business Access Circuits for Your Company

Obviously, there are a variety of choices. Your choices will largely rely on your budget, in addition to the other requirements of your organization. In review:

Your Small Business and Access to the Internet

If you are a small business, with just one location and not concerned about redundancy, a single five meg, 10 meg or 50 meg Internet access circuit may be adequate. Find out if you are in a lit building. If so, the price of Metro Ethernet or gigabit service may be affordable. The availability of circuits and your location determine prices; speak with one of our engineers to learn what your best options are.

Mid-Sized Company access to The Internet: One Location

You will need higher speed Internet access if you have a medium sized organization in Charleston, South Carolina. You may choose between gigabit Internet or Metro Ethernet. You may also look into other higher-speed Internet circuits. Multiple circuits utilizing multiple providers would, ideally, provide you with maximum redundancy. Achieving this may cost extra but it won’t double your costs. For example, you may use 2 fifty meg circuits instead of 1 one hundred meg circuit. As a reminder; availability and costs may vary. Call one of our experts to learn what is available in your specific area.

Midsized Businesses with Multiple Sites: Internet Access

The greatest risk of failure belongs to companies that have multiple places of business or offices. Redundant circuits are essential. Multiple providers are highly desirable. You can increase redundancy with switches or routers. Having redundant equipment can also minimize risk. Here also, examine the Ethernet access services, gigabit Internet and Metro Ethernet providers. Take a careful look at other high-speed Internet access circuit providers before choosing the right one. The right mix can help. If you can figure out the best combination of providers and services for your organization, you will benefit.

Clients who provide services delivered via Internet, large corporate and enterprise clientele

If you fall into this group, you must have Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet circuits and point-to-point High-speed Internet circuits. Having redundant hardware as well as redundant circuits from different providers will ensure your needed uptime. You need to provide sufficient bandwidth to handle usage spikes without slowdowns or interruptions. Be sure to have the right circuits and hardware. They both must be able to support multiple, fast, concurrent connections.

Free Internet Demand and Need Analysis

There is great risk of failing circuits or insufficient bandwidth. Your demand and budget constraints should both be considered when you decide what circuit or combination of circuits you must have. It is important to choose the correct mix of hardware and circuits. Figuring out exactly what to put in the mix, can be a daunting task.

We have engineers that will analyze your needs, look at your business requirements and develop an action plan for you… for free!After reviewing your current usage and demand levels, we will generate a cost effective plan that provides your company with the resources it needs.

If you would like to arrange for an assessment, please click here to complete the contact information form to the right. You can call our office as well. We can often provide assessments within 48 hours.