High-Speed Access to The Net in Elgin

Elgin, Illinois High Speed Access to The Internet: Metro Ethernet Access, Gigabit Internet and Company Broadband Internet

These days, companies in Elgin depend on reliable access to The web as the lifeblood of their organization. All companies, big and small, need fast and reliable access to The Internet.

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

The Internet is ubiquitous. From email to data sharing, archiving to commerce and VOIP to video conferencing, the internet is everywhere. How can your needs be met? Is a cable modem enough? Do you need Metro Ethernet? Would Gigabit Internet suffice? What does your Elgin, Illinois organization need? Does it require 10 Meg Internet access, a 100 Meg access to The web point, a 50 Meg circuit or a 5 Meg circuit?

Internet Access: Defining the Organization Need

You must, before selecting a service, assess the actual needs of your business. Will web surfing and email be your primary use of the net? Is it used to network with cloud servers? Are you hosting data in Elgin, Illinois? Do remote sites rely on you?

How would an outage to your high-speed Internet affect your company? Will your organization suffer from the lull? Is uptime essential to the success of your organization? You must answer these questions before you buy.

Evaluating Different High-Speed Internet Solutions in Elgin, Illinois

High-speed Internet access is required by all businesses. An analysis of the costs and benefits should be done prior to choosing the broadband that is correct for your company. You will hear providers use terms like:

• High-speed access to the Internet
• Business Internet service
• Broadband cable modems are our specialty
• Provider of Metro Ethernet
• Gigabit Ethernet
• MPLS service provider
• Point to point data circuits
• 5 Meg Internet access
• 10 Meg access to The Internet circuits
• Internet access-50 Meg
• 100 Meg Internet access circuits
• Sip trunking experts
• Personal, specific and dedicated Internet access
• … and countless others

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

Surfing the Web at Work: Organization Internet Access

At any company in Elgin, Illinois some employees, if not all employees, need some type of access to the net if they are to properly perform their job duties. It may be needed for organization research, to order office supplies or other reasons.

The number of workers you have may be the factor that drives your decision. A 5 or 10 megabyte Internet circuit may be perfect if you only have a few employees. If you have a larger workforce, you may want to consider more. This is especially true if they all need to use the web simultaneously.

Do your employees primarily use an intranet system? If so, you may not need much high-speed Internet service. On the other hand, Internet speed becomes dramatically more important when they are required to regularly download things like documents or videos.

Do you perform backups at your company? You may need to support simultaneous connections to the web in order to sync your backup data. If you conduct remote backups from every workstation, which is advisable, this will be important.

Do you use a file-sharing service? Perhaps you use Google drive, DropBox or a different service? When you save a file it is pushed to the cloud. Then it is synched to the computer or computers of someone else. The right amount of capacity or bandwidth is necessary to support this function in conjunction with every other service you have.

Are you interested in high-speed company Internet? Depending on where you are located, you may want to look into the viability of gigabit Internet and Metro Ethernet. Usually, you can find these in “lit buildings” in Elgin, Illinois that have been previously wired by a carrier. 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. Also, securing high-speed Internet access using gigabit Internet or Metro Ethernet often takes less than 30 days, depending on its availability.

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

Does your business host its own servers running websites, APIs or data feeds for other offices or companies outside of your own four walls? Do your headquarters have a hosted Internet application that must be accessed regularly by 40 or 50 branch offices? Is your company retail? Do you have thousands of stores? Do you host the point of sale system for the entire chain? Does your legal practice host all of the data for 3, 4 or 5 offices in different sites?

If you host programs, data or information centrally, people outside of the central location need to have access. If your Internet connection goes down, those people are unable to work. Are you choosing an intranet solution that is sufficiently reliable and stable to support multiple simultaneous connections from varied locations?

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 Internet access is important. Multiple diverse connections require support, in addition to high speed. A cable modem would not be able to accomplish this.

Cable Circuit Sharing in Elgin 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 have to share bandwidth in order to secure that low monthly rate. It is possible that you have a cable modem with a 30 Meg connection but cannot reach proper speeds during peak hours. Often, within a given community, cable companies may only deliver a particular amount of bandwidth. The bandwidth branches off to the multiple buildings, offices and tenants within them. With a 30-megabyte connection, you may not get to that speed during the working day. Will there be trouble if your expectation is set at 30 but you only get 8 or 10?

You can sign up for dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth from some carriers. In this scenario, the bandwidth is fully allocated to you and your company or organization. No one else uses it. Regardless of neighbors, or other tenants, you should have the full capacity of your circuit at all times.

With Metro Ethernet, for example, you can receive a guaranteed bandwidth in various increments including 5 and 10 Meg circuits, and 50 and 100 Meg circuits. If you want to reach gigabit speeds from your organization out to the web, you can by using a gigabit Internet provider.

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.

Redundancy With Elgin High Speed Business Internet Circuits

Realistically, while some carriers in Elgin, Illinois offer excellent Internet bandwidth products, it is possible for a circuit to go down. You must ask yourself: “how do I lessen the chance of an outage? ”

Redundant circuits.

There are, in reality, two kinds of redundancy.

A single carrier, providing multiple circuits, to one customer, characterizes one form of redundancy. When there are problems with a physical line or a port or other failures, it can be helpful to have redundant circuits. 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.

Bringing in circuits using two distinct providers is the second form of circuit redundancy. Using advanced routers and IP address allocations, you can bind these connections together so that, to your users and to the public, it appears and behaves as a single circuit. Truthfully, they are entirely separate. They are redundant and exist in case one of them fails. Diversity redundancy, as this is called, offers you more protection that you might realize. If one carrier has a problem, the other likely will not.

To maximize the benefit of redundancy, consider looking for redundant circuits from different providers that have different pathway in Elgin. 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. The circuits would attached to the proper outside source whether a subterranean conduit or a telephone pole. They would be set up in different directions and would lead to different data centers or main office spaces. By doing this, if there is a significant problem such as a fire at a data center, you have redundancy in an alternative physical direction.

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

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:

You use VoIP for your organization telephone service

You are on a cable modem with the carrier providing circuits to 14 other tenants in your building. During organization hours, any of those tenants could be streaming video, performing massive file downloads, processing large volumes of phone calls and more. As the amount of accessible bandwidth decreases, what happens to your needs? What happens to your phone calls? How will the caliber of the call be affected? Are calls lost or dropped? Will you sound muffled?

Multiple sites use your business as the central data point

Your office is the center of your organization. You may be a law firm that does file sharing or a retailer operating a POS system. All of your offices, whether you have 3 or 3, 000, rely on your primary Internet connection to successfully access data. If your circuit goes done, what will happen next? Would you merely be annoyed? Would there be catastrophic consequences? Are your other offices able to do any work? Take new orders? Service existing ones? Share essential data? Do you know what your business needs? Be sure to fully understand your requirements. It will help you choose the correct solution. Maybe your software company runs a hosted solution. Maybe that hosted solution is used by hundreds of your 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. What happens when they are unable to connect to your servers? Customers will only take so many repeated outages. How long with they remain with your company?

You are call center dependent on VoIP

Your organization is 100% reliant on the web to properly function. Should your circuits stop working, imagine your people being unable to make any outbound phone calls. They are also unable to answer calls. Looks like you are now out of business. Is redundancy enough? Are your carriers sufficiently reliable? Are you getting quality service so that your calls are clear and consistent?

Select the Elgin High-Speed Organization Access Circuits Best Suited for Your Company

You have several different options to pick from. Your decision will be based on different factors including your business needs and your budget. As a high-level summary:

Internet Access Needs for Small Business

You are probably not thinking about redundancy if you have a small organization with a single location. In this case, you can probably get by with a single Internet access circuit of 5, 10 or 50 meg. 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.

Internet Access-One Location- Medium Sized Business

You have a midsized company in Elgin, Illinois; you will surely need higher-speed Internet. You may choose between gigabit Internet or Metro Ethernet. You may also look into other higher-speed Internet circuits. Optimally, multiple providers and multiple circuits will give you the most redundancy. You may be able to achieve this in a manner that will not break the bank. Using one 100-megabyte circuit instead of two 50-megabyte circuits, is one example. As a reminder; availability and costs may vary. Speaking with one of our experts will help you determine the options available in your specific location.

Internet Access for the Medium Sized Company with Multiple Offices

The greatest risk of failure belongs to companies that have multiple places of business or offices. Redundancy is extremely essential to them. Multiple providers would be great. Redundant routers, switches and other equipment can also be helpful to lessen downtime during a problem. Take a careful look at Ethernet access services, Metro Ethernet providers and gigabit Internet providers. Research other high-speed Internet access circuit providers also and make an informed decision. The right combination of services and providers can positively impact the efficiency of your organization.

Larger corporate clients, enterprise clients and providers of services delivered via the Internet

For businesses that fit this description, it is essential to have gigabit Internet circuits, point-to-point high-speed Internet circuits and Metro Ethernet Internet circuits. You absolutely need redundant circuits from different providers as well as redundant hardware. This is essential to ensuring uptime. Having plenty of bandwidth will help avoid interruptions or decreased speed that sometimes occurs during spikes in usage. 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

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. The pressure involved in selecting the proper mix of hardware and circuits can be overwhelming.

We have engineers that will analyze your needs, look at your company requirements and develop an action plan for you… for free!Our experts will examine your current usage and demand. We’ll then generate a design that gives you the resources you need while keeping your business up and running at a reasonable cost.

Please complete the contact form by clicking here. You may also call our office to set up an appointment for your assessment. Assessments are done in as few as two days or within 48 hours.