High-Speed Knoxville Access to The Web

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

Reliable Internet access is the lifeblood of Knoxville companies and their company. Fast and reliable Internet access is needed for businesses to function properly; large corporations and small companies alike.

We’ll become increasingly reliant on access to The net as the months and years progress.

The use of the web is pervasive. We use it for email and data sharing, video chat and VOIP, archiving and commerce. What is the best solution for you? A cable modem may be satisfactory. Is Metro Ethernet necessary? Gigabit Internet may satisfy your needs. What does your Knoxville organization need? Does it require 10 Meg access to The net, a 100 Meg Internet access point, a 50 Meg circuit or a 5 Meg circuit?

Defining Your Business’s access to The net Needs

Before selecting the appropriate service, your company must assess its needs. Is Internet use limited to website surfing or emailing only? Will Internet usage mainly involve cloud servers and real time data connection? Perhaps you, in Knoxville, Tennessee, are hosting the data and remote sites rely on this.

What happens to your organization if your high-speed Internet experiences an outage? Can your business afford the downtime? Is uptime essential to the success of your company? You must answer questions like these so you can make a purchase that actually meets your needs

High-Speed Internet Solutions in Knoxville: Evaluating Differences

Plainly stated, companies require high-speed Internet access. An analysis of the costs and benefits should be done prior to choosing the broadband internet that is correct for your business. You will hear service providers use terms like:

• High-speed access to the Internet
• Business Internet service
• broadband cable modems
• Metropolitan-area Ethernet provider
• Gigabit Internet
• MPLS network
• Services related to point-to-point circuits
• Internet access circuits-five megabyte
• 10 megabyte Internet access
• Internet access- 50 megabytes
• One hundred Meg access to The Internet circuits provided
• sip trunking / sip trunks
• Internet access dedicated to your needs
• … and then some

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

Web Surfing and Organization Internet Access

For most companies in Knoxville, Tennessee, some or all of the employees need access to the net. It may be needed for company research, to order office supplies or other reasons.

The number of workers you have may be the factor that drives your decision. An Internet circuit of 5 -10 megabytes might be enough for your company if you only have a few people working for you. 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.

Perhaps most workers at your company use an intranet system with limited features. High- speed Internet may not be a priority in this case. 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? If you are doing remote backups from every desk, which is advisable, you will need to be able to support simultaneous connections out to the web to synchronize your backup data.

Do you use a file sharing service like Google drive or DropBox? After a file is saved, it goes to the cloud and then to someone else’s computer. Enough bandwidth is required to support this function along with every other service.

Depending on your location, high-speed company access to The Internet, including Metro Ethernet and gigabit Internet may be viable options. They are almost always found in “lit buildings” in Knoxville that are already wired by a carrier. Installing high-speed Internet may not be as difficult and expensive as you think.

Introducing Metro Ethernet to a new building can be expensive. Bringing a connection to a suite within the building is not. In fact, obtaining high-speed access to The web with Metro Ethernet or gigabit Internet can often take 30 days or less depending upon availability.

Hosted Applications Requiring High-Speed Internet Access

Consider whether your company hosts its own servers that run APIs, websites and/or data to outside buildings, offices or companies. Are your company headquarters with a hosted application accessed by 50 branch offices? Does your office host the point of sale (POS) system for every single store in a large retail chain? Does your legal practice host all of the data for 3, 4 or 5 offices in different places?

If you host programs, data or information centrally, people outside of the central location need to have access. Those people are not able to work without a solid Internet connection. Are you picking an intranet solution that provides reliability and stability for your multiple, simultaneous connections from various sites?

For one office or a small business with just one or two people surfing the web, a less expensive 10 Meg circuit or a cable modem may meet your needs. High-speed dedicated circuits, Metro Ethernet or gigabit Ethernet are advisable for company headquarters. While high speed is great, you also need support for your multiple diverse connections. A cable modem would likely be insufficient.

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

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. It is possible that you have a cable modem with a 30 Meg connection but cannot reach proper speeds during peak hours. 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. With a 30-megabyte connection, you may not get to that speed during the working day. If you expect 30 but only get 6, will you have problems?

There are carriers who offer dedicated and even guaranteed bandwidth. In this situation, your bandwidth is not shared but is fully allocated to your organization. Notwithstanding the existence of tenants, offices or buildings in the area, you should have the full capability of your circuits at all times.

For example, Metro Ethernet guarantees bandwidth in 5 met circuits, 10 Meg circuits, 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.

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.

Redundant High Speed Organization Internet in Knoxville: Why More Circuits?

Despite outstanding Internet bandwidth products offered by carriers in Knoxville, circuits do go down. Ask this question: “what can I do to decrease the likelihood of an outage?

Redundant circuits.

Redundancy basically comes in two forms.

The first type is when one single carrier provides you with multiple circuits. Redundant circuits help protect you from certain failures including physical line issues, port issues within routers, and others. Even multiple circuits can fail, such as in the event of a large-scale carrier outage or when there damage to an external line. You get some protection, but also some risk.

Utilizing circuits from two different carriers is the second kind of redundancy. You may want your circuits to appear and act as if they are one and come from the same source. If so you can use IP address allocations and advanced routers to do so. But, you know that they are actually separate and redundant. While circuit redundancy in general is a good idea, diversity redundancy by using different providers, offers far better 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 should look for redundant circuits from carriers in Knoxville, Tennessee that do not have the same physical geographic pathways, in order to get the most redundancy. Your goal should be to get circuits coming into your building on different sides. You do not want them on the same side. The circuits would be attached underground or to telephone poles, in various directions. The circuits would go to different data centers or central offices. 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 web?

The cost of dependable access to The web pales in comparison to the cost of unreliable access. Contemplate these scenarios:

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

You are on a cable modem with the carrier providing circuits to 14 other tenants in your building. During the course of a regular work day, any or all of these other businesses might be performing massive file downloads. Tenants might be taking a large volume of calls or be regularly streaming video. As they use more bandwidth, there is less for available to meet your needs. What happens to your phone calls? What happens to the quality of that phone call? Are calls dropped? Will you sound muffled?

Your office or business is the main location for data and functions in that role for multiple locations

Your office may be the working center of an entire company enterprise. The kind of organization does not necessarily matter. You may be a law firm doing file sharing, an accounting practice sharing databases or a retailer operating a distributed point-of-sale system. Whether you have 2 sites, 250, or 2000, they all depend on your primary Internet connection to retrieve data and information. If your circuit goes done, what will happen next? Would it cause mere annoyance or utter disaster? Are remote offices able to work at all? What happens to new orders? Can they be taken or processed? Disseminate needed information and data? Before choosing a solution, be sure to assess and really understand what your business requires. You have a software company, and are running a hosted solution for dozens, maybe hundreds, of customers. Do you operate a service where other systems talk to yours by using an application program interface (API)? For example do other systems gain access to yours in order to calculate rates, prices, or to collect information that you serve up? What happens when there is a problem connecting to your servers? How long will your customers tolerate repeated outages?

You are call center dependent on VoIP

Your organization is 100% dependent on the internet to properly function. What if your representatives can make no outgoing telephone calls because your circuits go down? They are also unable to answer calls. You are now, essentially, out of business. While most call centers that are reputable use redundancy, is it enough? Are the carriers that you are using reliable enough? Is the quality of your calls consistently and reliably clear?

Picking the Right High-Speed Company Access Circuits for Your Knoxville, Tennessee Company

Obviously, there are a variety of choices. Your choices will largely depend on your budget, in addition to the other requirements of your business. Essentially:

If You Have a Small Business That Needs Internet Access

If your company is small, with one location or office, you are likely not concerned about redundancy. For you, a single 5, 10 or 50 megabyte access to The web circuit may suffice. Find out if you are in a lit building. If so, the price of Metro Ethernet or gigabit service may be affordable. 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 business.

Your Single Location Mid Sized Company Needs Internet Access

If you have a midsized business in Knoxville, Tennessee, you will need higher-speed Internet access. You may choose between gigabit Internet or Metro Ethernet. You may also look into other higher-speed Internet circuits. Ideally, you want to have the greatest redundancy. You can achieve this by using multiple circuits from different carriers. 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. Your specific location will determine what options you have. Please speak with one of our experts to find out what those are and how we can meet your needs.

Midsized Businesses with Multiple Sites: Internet Access

The greatest risk of failure belongs to companies that have multiple places of company or offices. Redundant circuits are essential. Multiple providers would be great. Also, redundant equipment such as switches and routers in your facility can minimize the risk of downtime. 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 right mix can help. If you can figure out the best combination of carriers and services for your organization, you will benefit.

Larger corporations, enterprising clients and clients who provide services that are delivered via the Internet

Companies such as these require the following: Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet and point-to-point (PPP) high-speed Internet circuits. You absolutely need redundant circuits from different providers as well as redundant hardware. This is important to ensuring uptime. The last thing you want is interruptions or slowdowns affecting your company. 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 Internet Demand and Need 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. You have to select the optimal combination of hardware and circuits, which is a daunting task.

We have experts to help. Our engineers will do an analysis of your needs and requirements, and develop a free action plan for you based on their findings. After reviewing your current usage and demand levels, we’ll generate a cost effective plan that provides your company with the resources it needs.

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. It can take less than 48 hours to complete your assessment.