The Web in Hampton: High-Speed Access

Hampton High Speed access to The Net: Business Broadband Internet, Metro Ethernet Access and Gigabit Internet

In today’s environment, companies in Hampton, Virginia rely on reliable access to The net as the lifeblood of their company. All companies, from Fortune 500 to small companies, have functions that rely on easy, dependable and quick access to The net.

In the months and years ahead, people and businesses will become more dependent on access to the net.

From email messaging to information sharing, e-commerce to archiving data, and voice over IP to video chat, the web is omnipresent. What is the right solution for your needs? Is a cable modem sufficient? Do you need Metro Ethernet? Gigabit Internet may be required. Does your organization in Hampton, Virginia need one of these: 10 Meg access to The Internet, a 100 Meg access to The net point, a 50 meg circuit or a 5 meg circuit?

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. Why will you need the internet? Will you only be web surfing and emailing? Is it used to network with cloud servers? You may be hosting the data in Hampton, Virginia and remote locations rely on this.

What if you have a disruption in your high-speed Internet? Can your company afford a long pause or lull in productivity? Is uptime essential? Before you buy anything, you must answer these questions.

High-Speed Internet Solutions in Hampton, Virginia: Evaluating Differences

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 business. Many providers toss out terms such as:

• Internet access at high-speeds
• Corporate Internet
• Broadband cable modem services
• Metropolitan-area Ethernet provider
• Gigabit Ethernet
• MPLS network
• Services related to point-to-point circuits
• Five megabyte Internet access
• 10 Meg access to The net circuits
• Fifty-megabytes-Internet access circuits
• 100 Meg access to The web circuits
• We provide sip trunks
• Dedicated or “specific” Internet access
• … and countless others

… do not stray from the real issues. Focus on what your company’s needs are and what capabilities and technical solutions will help satisfy them.

Business Internet access for Surfing the Worldwide Web

At most businesses including those in Hampton, Virginia, some or all employees need Internet access. The web is required for so many things, whether to order items, look up organization information communicate with third parties.

The number of workers you have may be the factor that drives your decision. A smaller Internet circuit may be enough if you only have a handful of workers. Perhaps a 5 or 10 megabyte is all you need. If you have 50 employees who are using the net simultaneously, you may need more.

You may not need as much high-speed access to The web if your employees work primarily on an intranet system with limited graphics and video. However, employees who must often download documents, images and videos, need that speed.

Are you regularly performing backups? 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 like Google drive or DropBox? When you save a file it is pushed to the cloud. Then it is synched to the computer or computers of someone else. Enough bandwidth is required to support this function along with every other service.

Depending on your location, high-speed company Internet access, including Metro Ethernet and gigabit Internet may be viable options. Usually, you can find these in “lit buildings” in Hampton that have been previously wired by a carrier. You may be surprised by how easy and affordable it is to add high-speed Internet to your business.

Absent the need to introduce Metro Ethernet into a new building, it is not particularly costly to connect Metro Ethernet to a suite or office within that building. Metro Ethernet or gigabit Internet may provide you with high-speed Internet access in thirty days or less, depending on availability.

High-Speed access to The Internet Required for Hosting Applications

Do you have your own company servers that run APIs, websites or feeds for offsite offices or companies? Is your main business office with a hosted application accessed by 40 or even 50 branch office sites? Are you a retail company hosting the POS system for thousands of chain stores? Are you a law firm? Do you host data for three or more external sites?

Granting access to outsiders is necessary when you host data and programs at a central location. Those people are not able to do their work if the net connection fails or is unreliable. If you need multiple connections to function at the same time from many different places, make sure that your intranet solution can reliably support it.

For one office or a small organization 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 net is important. High speed is important but they also must be able to support multiple distinct connections. This could probably not be accomplished with a cable modem.

Which is Better for You in Hampton, Virginia? Dedicated Internet Bandwidth or Shared Cable Circuits?

Utilizing a cable modem or other less expensive circuit may seem like a good option but can result in unexpected cost. Even though you pay less money per month you must consider that the bandwidth you receive may be shared and used by multiple parties in the building. 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. Only a certain amount of bandwidth may be available in a community. Many cable companies have limits on the amount they can deliver. That bandwidth reaches out like branches to every building in the community and the people living and working in those buildings. While you may be capped at thirty-megabyte speed, will you ever reach that speed during business hours? Do you care if you only get 6 when you were set up to expect 30?

Some providers offer customers dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth. In this scenario, the bandwidth is fully allocated to you and your company or organization. No one else uses it. 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.

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 company out to the net, you can by using a gigabit Internet provider.

Here, providers deliver enough high-speed to the building, so that it can be split among various tenants. The carrier has the right amount so that everyone gets the contracted speed that has been promised.

Redundant High Speed Company Internet Circuits in Hampton

Despite outstanding Internet bandwidth products offered by carriers in Hampton, Virginia, circuits do go down. In what way can you diminish the risk of an outage?

Redundant circuits may be the answer for you.

Essentially, there are two different ways to look at redundancy.

The first kind of redundancy exists when one carrier provides one customer with many circuits. In this situation, the redundancy helps protect you from port issues or physical line issues. If your carrier experiences a regional outage or you have a line broken outside of your building, you may lose the use of all of your circuits. 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. This redundancy, referred to as diversity redundancy, offers much greater protection. In the event a carrier goes down, you will not have to worry. You will have a perfectly live carrier there to keep things moving.

You want maximum redundancy. In order to achieve this, look for redundant circuits from different carriers with different physical geographic pathways in Hampton, Virginia. 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 is the Cost of Not Having Adequate Protection for Your Company Class High-Speed access to The net?

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

You use VoIP for your organization telephone service

If your business utilizes a cable modem, consider whether your carrier is providing circuits for multiple other tenants within the building. 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 the amount of accessible bandwidth decreases, what will happen to your needs? What will happen to your phone calls? How will the quality of that phone call be affected? Are calls dropped? Will you sound muffled or choppy to your customers?

Your office is the main data point for various other offices

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. Your primary Internet connection is responsible for granting access to data to all of your locations. This is true whether you have 3 places or 2000 locations. Your circuit goes down, now what will happen? Will it cause disastrous results of just annoy you a little bit? Can your satellite offices perform any work at all? What about new orders? Circulate essential files and data? It is important that prior to choosing a solution, you understand the true needs and requirements of your particular company. Perhaps you are a software company, running a hosted solution used by hundreds of customers. You may operate a service like this: other systems talk to yours via an API to figure out freight rates, stock prices, to compile weather data or receive any other information that you provide. You may find that they are unable to reach or connect with your company servers. Customers will only take so many repeated outages. How long with they remain with your company?

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

Maybe your company depends entirely on the net. If your circuits go down, you cannot make calls. No calls could be answered either. You are now officially out of company. Even for the most reputable call centers that already know of and use redundancy, is it sufficient? Can you truly rely on your carriers? Are they as dependable as they claim? Is the quality of service sufficient? Are your calls clear and reliable?

Considering the Best Hampton, Virginia High-Speed Company Access Circuits for Your Company

You clearly have several choices. Your organization needs and your budget will have to come into consideration when deciding on your solutions. To recap:

Internet Access for the Small Organization Owner

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. Metro Ethernet service or gigabit service may also be a reasonably priced option if you are in a lit building. Speak with our engineers about what is right for you. Prices vary with location and circuit availability.

Internet Access for the Mid-Sized Business with One Location

Mid sized companies with a single office in Hampton, need higher speed Internet access. Gigabit Internet, Metro Ethernet and other higher speed Internet circuits are options to consider. Ideally, multiple circuits from multiple providers will provide you with the greatest redundancy. You can sometimes achieve this without doubling costs. For example, you may use 2 fifty meg circuits instead of 1 one hundred meg circuit. Availability and costs vary. Learn your options by speaking with one of our knowledgeable experts. We can help you determine what is available in your specific location.

Mid-Sized Businesses access to The Internet – Multiple Locations

Companies with different locations, whether 5 or 50, are at the highest risk. They need redundant circuits. Multiple providers or carriers are recommended. You can increase redundancy with switches or routers. Having redundant equipment can also minimize risk. Before you make a decision here too, do your research. Look closely into Ethernet access services, Metro Ethernet providers, gigabit Internet providers and other high-speed circuit providers. The correct combination of providers and services can keep your business running smoothly and efficiently.

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

Companies such as these require the following: Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet and point-to-point (PPP) high-speed Internet circuits. You will want to have the greatest protection of your uptime. To accomplish this you must have redundancy: redundant circuits from multiple providers and redundant hardware for your system. The last thing you want is interruptions or slowdowns affecting your business. You must provide enough bandwidth to avoid these pitfalls that sometimes occur during sudden usage spikes. 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.

Free Analysis: Internet Need and Demand

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 essential to choose the correct mix of hardware and circuits. Figuring out exactly what to put in the mix, can be a daunting task.

Our engineers will analyze your needs and requirements and develop a free action plan for you. We will formulate a design or plan based partly on your current usage and demand levels. We’ll create something cost effective that gives you the resources your business needs, while keeping it running smoothly.

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 do assessments quickly. It can take as little as 48 hours to complete your analysis.