The Net in Laredo, Texas: High-Speed Access

Laredo High Speed Internet access: Business Broadband, Metro Ethernet Access and Gigabit Internet

In today’s world, Laredo, Texas companies need dependable Internet access. It is the lifeblood of their organization. All companies, large and small, need fast and reliable access to The web.

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

Our uses of the web reach far and wide. From data sharing, video calls, and shopping to VOIP and email, the net has a broad presence. How can your needs be met? Will a cable modem be sufficient? Do you need Metro Ethernet? Is Gigabit Internet right for you? What does your Laredo business 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?

Internet Access: Defining the Organization Need

Before selecting an appropriate service for your company, you must first determine what needs you are trying to satisfy. Is the web primarily used for emailing or web surfing? Is it used for real-time data connection with cloud servers? You may be hosting the data in Laredo and remote places rely on this.

What if your high-speed Internet is disrupted by an outage? What will happen to your company? How might the downtime cause problems for your company? Does your company require uptime? Ask yourself these questions before making any purchases. The answers will help you determine what is right for you.

Analyzing Assorted High-Speed Internet Solutions in Laredo, Texas

Speaking broadly, all companies need high-speed access to the web. You need to analyze and balance the costs and benefits to your company before choosing the right broadband. While various providers will throw around terminology like:

• High-speed access to the Internet
• Business Internet service provider
• Provider of broadband cable modems
• Metropolitan-area Ethernet
• Gigabit Ethernet
• MPLS services
• Point to point data circuits
• Five megabyte Internet access
• Ten megabyte Internet access
• Internet access-50 Meg
• One hundred Meg Internet access circuits provided
• Session Initiation Protocol/ Sip trunk
• Internet access dedicated to your needs
• … and then some

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

Business Access: Surfing the web at Work

Most companies in Laredo require that some or all of their workers have access to the net. Whether it is to talk to shippers, do research or place orders, Internet access is required.

Your best course of action may be determined by the size of your work force. An Internet circuit of 5 -10 megabytes might be enough for your organization if you only have a few people working for you. If you have many employees who need to use the web at the same time, you may do better with more.

You may not need as much high-speed Internet access 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 performing backups? 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.

Are you using a service such as DropBox or Google drive to share files? As a file is saved, it is pushed to the cloud and then synced back to other people’s computers. The right amount of capacity or bandwidth is necessary to support this function in conjunction with every other service you have.

You may consider high-speed company access to The web if you location warrants it. Gigabit Internet and Metro Ethernet may be viable options for you. They are commonly found in “lit buildings” in Laredo, Texas that have already been wired by a carrier. 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 it may be the case that bringing Metro Ethernet into a new building can cause a big dent in your wallet, bringing the connection to a suite or offices within that building does not have to. Depending on availability, it is often possible to obtain high-speed Internet access with Metro Ethernet or gigabit Internet in 30 days or less.

Online Applications Need High-Speed Internet access

Consider whether your organization hosts its own servers that run APIs, websites and/or data to outside buildings, 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 with 10, 000 stores? Do you host the POS system for all of them? Are you a law firm? Do you host data for three or more external sites?

When data and programs are hosted centrally at one main site, people outside that location must gain access. If your Internet connection goes down, those people are unable to work. When deciding on the right intranet solution for your organization, ask yourself: Is the solution going to adequately support simultaneous and multiple connections from my different sites?

An inexpensive 10 Meg circuit may be enough if you have one office that needs to surf the web. A cable modem may also be sufficient in this situation. Metro Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet or other high-speed dedicated circuits is advisable for the headquarters where high-speed Internet access is important. While fast Internet access is and important, they must also have the capability to handle assorted simultaneous connections. A cable modem would likely be insufficient.

Which is Better for You in Laredo? Dedicated Internet Bandwidth or Shared Cable Circuits?

Bringing in a cable modem, which seems to save money, may actually come at a price. While the monthly rate is lower, the bandwidth is generally shared among other tenants. 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. 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. Do you care if you only get 6 when you were set up to expect 30?

There are providers who offer dedicated and even guaranteed bandwidth. In this situation, you do not have to share bandwidth. The bandwidth is all yours and is fully allocated to the needs of your organization. The presence of numerous buildings and tenants should have no effect on your speed. You should receive full capacity of your circuits no matter what the time of day.

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

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

Redundant High Speed Organization Internet in Laredo, Texas: Why More Circuits?

You can’t control everything. Even with the superior Internet bandwidth products that some carriers offer in Laredo, Texas, problems arise and circuits can fail. You must ask yourself: “how do I lessen the chance of an outage? ”

Try using redundant circuits.

There are, in essence, two types of redundancy.

The first is where you get multiple circuits from one carrier. This provides some protection when there are certain failures. Multiple circuits can help for example, when there is a physical line issue or a problem with a router port. 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. This offers some protection and assurance but does not eliminate all threats.

You can also achieve redundancy by utilizing different carriers to bring in and establish 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. But, you know that they are actually separate and redundant. This redundancy, referred to as diversity redundancy, offers much greater protection. Should one carrier have some trouble that extends to a greater area and is out of your control, you are backed up with a different carrier.

The providers you choose for your redundant circuits should have different physical pathways in Laredo. This is an important consideration when trying to obtain the most redundancy. If at all possible, you want to obtain circuits entering the premises on different sides. The circuits would be established either underground or on telephone poles and would be set up in different directions and lead to different offices. This way, if there is a major catastrophe, such as a fire at a data center or a major accident impacting circuits within a region, you have redundancy in a different physical direction.

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

Although Internet access comes at a price, the price of unreliable access to The net is tremendous. Think about the following situations:

The phone service in your office relies on Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

The carrier you use for your cable modem also provides circuits for a dozen or more tenants in the office 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 they use more bandwidth, there is less for available to meet your requirements. What happens to your phone calls? What happens to the strength and quality of that call? Maybe calls will randomly drop? Will they be full of static?

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. All of your locations, whether 2 or 2000, rely on your primary Internet connection to access and retrieve data. What happens if your circuit goes down? Is it just irritating? Is it going to cause tremendous problems? Are remote offices able to work at all? Process or take new orders? Dispense and receive data? Make sure you completely understand your needs before you pick a solution. Maybe you are a corporation that designs and sells software and you run a hosted solution that is used by hundreds and hundreds of customers. Do you operate a service where other systems speak with yours by using an application program interface (API)? For example do other systems gain access to yours in order to calculate prices, prices, or to collect information that you serve up? What happens when there is a problem connecting to your servers? Will your customers remain loyal to you if they have to withstand multiple outages?

You are a call center and you completely depend on VoIP

Your business is completely reliant on the internet. No outbound calls can be made should your circuits go down. Your reps have no way of answering calls, if they even know they are coming in. Basically, you are out of company. Is redundancy enough? Many of the finest call centers with the best reputations already understand and use redundancy. They should consider if they have sufficient protection. Are your current carriers as dependable as you would like? Is the quality of your calls consistently and reliably clear?

Picking the Right High-Speed Organization Access Circuits for Your Laredo, Texas Company

Clearly, there are many choices. Your decision will be based on different factors including your business needs and your budget. As a high-level summary:

If You Have a Small Organization That Needs Internet Access

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 access to The web circuit of 5, 10 or 50 meg. For an office in a lit building, you may find that gigabit service or Metro Ethernet are affordable options for you. Prices change based on your location and the availability of circuits. Please speak with our engineers about what options best suit your needs.

Medium Sized Company in One Location: Access to the Internet

Mid-sized businesses in Laredo should be equipped with higher-speed Internet. Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet and other higher-speed Internet circuits are your options. Multiple circuits utilizing multiple providers would, ideally, provide you with maximum redundancy. You can sometimes achieve this without doubling costs. For example, one 100-megabyte circuit may cost more than two smaller 50-megabyte circuits. Remember, costs vary. So does availability. Speaking with one of our experts will help you determine the options available in your specific location.

Midsized Businesses with Multiple Places: Internet Access

Businesses with many sites face the greatest risk for failure. They require redundant circuits. Different carriers are desirable. You can decrease risk during downtime by having redundant equipment as well. Take a careful look at Ethernet access services, Metro Ethernet providers and gigabit Internet providers. Research other high-speed access to The Internet circuit providers also and make an informed decision. The best mix of providers and services can maximize the productivity and efficiency of your company.

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. Redundant hardware and redundant circuits will, for these businesses, ensure the greatest uptime. Be sure the circuits are from different providers. You need to provide sufficient bandwidth to handle usage spikes without slowdowns or interruptions. The hardware and circuits you choose must both be able to support the following: a great number of concurrent, speedy connections.

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

Insufficient bandwidth and failing circuits are present tremendous risk to your business. It is imperative that the circuit or circuits you choose meet your needs but also keep you within your allowable budget. Selecting the appropriate mix of circuits and hardware can overwhelm you.

We have engineers that will analyze your needs, look at your business requirements and develop an action plan for you… for free!We will look at your current usage, demand levels and scope out a design to give you the resources you need while keeping your organization up and running at a reasonable cost.

You can complete the contact form on the right side of this page by clicking here. If you would prefer, please call our office to set up an appointment for an assessment. Your assessment may be finished within as little as 48 hours.