The Net in Evanston, Illinois: High-Speed Access

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

Because of today’s environment, companies in Evanston depend on the web. Reliable access to the web is the lifeblood of their business. The company functions of all companies, from Fortune 500 to small companies, rely on fast and reliable access to The web.

We are going to become increasingly reliant on Internet access as the months and years progress.

The use of the net is pervasive. We use it for email and data sharing, video conferencing and VOIP, archiving and commerce. How can your needs be met? Will a cable modem be sufficient? Do you need Metro Ethernet? Gigabit Internet may satisfy your needs. What is best for your company in Evanston? Will your organization needs be met with a 50 Meg circuit, a 5 Meg circuit, 10 Meg access to The net or 100 Meg Internet access point?

How to Define your Company Need for Internet Access

The needs of your particular organization must be determined before you can select an appropriate service. Is Internet use limited to website surfing or emailing only? Is it used to network with cloud servers? Are you hosting data in Evanston, Illinois? Do remote places depend upon you?

What if your high-speed Internet is disrupted by an outage? What will happen to your company? Can your company afford a long pause or lull in productivity? Is uptime essential to the success of your company? Prior to making any purchases, you must determine the answers to these questions.

Evaluating Evanston High Speed Internet Solutions

In the broadest of terms, companies need high-speed access to The net. You need to analyze and balance the costs and benefits to your company before choosing the right broadband. Don’t be distracted by terminology. While you may hear service providers throw out words and phrases like:

• Internet access at high-speeds
• Corporate Internet
• What about broadband cable modems?
• Metro Ethernet service
• GbE services or Gigabit Internet
• MPLS network
• point-to-point circuits
• Five megabyte Internet access
• Internet access circuits- ten megabytes
• 50 Meg access to The net circuits
• One hundred megabytes- fast access to The net circuits
• Sip trunking experts
• dedicated Internet access
• … and so many more

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

Web Surfing and Business Internet Access

Companies in Evanston, Illinois 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. Whether it is for company research, to order supplies or to use third-party applications, the internet is required.

Perhaps the size of your work force may determine the solution that best fits your needs. A five or ten megabyte Internet circuit may be all you need if employ a small workforce. If your company has nearly 50 people, however, and they all need to use the net at the same time, you may find that more is better.

Do your employees primarily use an intranet system? If so, you may not need much high-speed Internet service. When employees are often downloading images, videos and documents, however, the need for speed increases significantly.

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 organization use a file sharing service? DropBox? Google drive? When people save a file, it gets pushed to the cloud. The file is then synched with other people’s computers. In order to ensure that all of your functions work properly, in addition to file sharing, you must have sufficient bandwidth.

Depending on your location, high-speed company Internet access, including Metro Ethernet and gigabit Internet may be viable options. These are typically found in “lit buildings” in Evanston, Illinois. Carriers have already wired these buildings. 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 bringing Metro Ethernet to a new building can be an expensive proposition, bringing that 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.

Maximize Internet-based Applications With High-Speed Internet Access

Ask yourself this: Does we host our own servers to run APIs, websites and data feeds to external offices or organization premises? 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? Are you an attorney with offices multiple cities or states? Do you have one office hosting data for several sites?

When data and programs are hosted centrally at one main site, people outside that location 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 places?

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 Internet access be available at the central business office or headquarters, including gigabit Ethernet, Metro Ethernet or some other high-speed dedicated circuits. High speed is important but they also must be able to support multiple distinct connections. A cable modem would likely not provide the necessary support.

Shared Cable Circuits in Evanston, Illinois Versus Dedicated Internet Bandwidth

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. You may experience slow downs. For example, although you subscribe to a cable modem with a thirty Meg connection, it can be difficult to maintain the maximum speed during busy times and peak hours. Often, within a given community, cable companies may only deliver a particular amount of bandwidth. Different buildings and tenants housed or working within those buildings all share that set amount of bandwidth. While you may be capped at thirty-megabyte speed, will you ever reach that speed during business hours? If you expect 30 but only get 6, will you have problems?

You can sign up for dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth from some carriers. With these, bandwidth belongs to you and your organization only; no sharing. No matter who is in the building or what buildings surround you, you should always run at full speed.

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. With gigabit Internet providers, you can reach gigabit speeds in your office out to the net.

Carriers in these situations deliver enough to cover everyone’s needs. The carriers divide their circuit to various tenants while guaranteeing that everyone gets their contracted speed.

Redundancy With Evanston High Speed Company Internet Circuits

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

Redundant circuits.

We are primarily talking about two kinds of redundancy.

With the first kind, you receive several circuits but they all come from the same carrier. These redundant circuits help protect from certain failures, for example, router port issues or physical line trouble. If that carrier has a wide reaching outage or there is a line broken or damaged outside of your building, both circuits may go down. There is some protection that comes with this but there is risk as well.

You can also achieve redundancy by utilizing different carriers to bring in and establish your circuits. These connections can be bound together so they act and appear to the public as a single circuit. Using particular routers and IP address allocations, no one would be able to tell that you have multiple carriers or circuits. However, despite appearances, they are actually very much separate and are redundant to each other. This redundancy, referred to as diversity redundancy, offers much greater protection. You will still have a live, fully functioning carrier if one fails.

You should look for redundant circuits from providers in Evanston, Illinois that do not have the same physical geographic pathways, in order to get the most redundancy. This means that you should try to have the circuits come into you building from different sides. The circuits would be attached to telephone poles (or underground conduits) in different directions leading to different data centers or central 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.

Not Having Business Class High Speed-Internet Access Protection May Cost You

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

Your office depends on Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for its phone service

Your office uses a cable modem and, in addition to you, the carrier provides 10-15 additional tenants with circuits. Between 9 and 5, any of those other offices could be downloading huge files, streaming video or taking large volume of phone calls and more. As they use more bandwidth, there is less for available to meet your needs. What happens to your phone calls? What about the quality of your calls? Will you lose calls? Will you sound muffled or choppy to your customers?

Multiple places use your company as the central data point

Regardless of whether you are part of a legal practice and your firm does file sharing, or an accounting practice sharing databases, your office is the central point or hub of your organization. Every single one of your offices, stores and places rely on you and your primary Internet connection to retrieve data. What will happen in the event of a circuit failure? Will it cause disastrous results of just annoy you a little bit? Can your satellite or remote office do any work at all? Process or take new orders? Share essential data? Make sure you completely understand your needs before you pick a solution. Perhaps you have hundreds of clients or customers that use a hosted solution that your software business is running. Maybe you offer a service that allows other systems use an application program interface (API) to talk to you to collect information and data. What if other systems can’t connect to your office servers? Multiple outages may annoy your customers.

You have a large call center that is completely reliant on voice over Internet protocol

Your business is entirely Internet based. No outbound calls can be made should your circuits go down. In addition, they will be unable to answer incoming calls. You are now officially out of organization. While most call centers that are reputable use redundancy, is it enough? Are your providers sufficiently reliable? Are you getting quality service so that your calls are clear and consistent?

Select the Evanston, Illinois High-Speed Company Access Circuits Best Suited for Your Company

Obviously, there are a variety of choices. Your organization budget and needs will play a large part in your decision-making. In summary:

Internet Access and the Small Business

A single fifty, ten or five megabyte Internet access circuit may be sufficient to meet the needs of your small company, particularly if you have only one location and are not worried about redundancy. You may find that if your building is “lit”, gigabit service and Metro Ethernet service may be reasonably cost-effective choices for you. 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 Internet access: One Location

You have a midsized company in Evanston; you will surely need higher-speed Internet. Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet and other higher-speed Internet circuits are your options. 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, one 100-megabyte circuit may cost more than two smaller 50-megabyte circuits. Again, costs and availability vary. You need to speak with one of our experts to determine your options in your specific location.

Internet Access for the Medium Sized Company with Multiple Offices

Any company with more than one location suffers the greatest risk of problems. They require redundant circuits. Having several providers would afford extra protection. Additionally, you should consider redundant equipment (routers and switches) in your facility to minimize the risk of downtime. As always, take a careful look and choose the right Ethernet access services, Metro Ethernet providers, gigabit Internet providers and other high-speed access to The web circuit providers. Your business can benefit from finding the right mix of services and providers.

If you are a larger company, an enterprise company or a are in the organization of providing services using the Internet

Gigabit Internet circuits, point-to-point high-speed Internet circuits are essential and Metro Ethernet Internet circuits must be utilized by companies in any of these categories. Redundant hardware and redundant circuits will, for these businesses, ensure the greatest uptime. Be sure the circuits are from different providers. You do not want any slowdowns or interruptions that often occur during spikes in usage. Avoid this by having sufficient bandwidth. Both your hardware and circuits must be capable of supporting a vast number of simultaneous and fast connections.

You May Receive an Internet Need and Internet Demand Analysis for Free

Do not risk having failing circuits or not enough bandwidth. Your ideal single circuit or multiple circuits should stay within your budget while still meeting your demands. The pressure involved in selecting the proper mix of hardware and circuits can be overwhelming.

Our engineers can help. We will analyze your requirements and needs and create a free action plan for you. We’ll examine your current usage and demand levels then create a design that provides you with the resources you need to keep your business running smoothly 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. It can take as little as 48 hours to provide a complete assessment.