High-Speed Access to The Net in Madison

Access to High Speed Internet in Madison: Metro Ethernet Access, Business Broadband and Gigabit Internet

Reliable access to The web is the lifeblood of Madison, Alabama companies and their business. Fast and reliable Internet access is needed for businesses to function properly; large corporations and small businesses alike.

Our dependence on access to The Internet will continue to grow in the coming months and years.

The use of the internet is pervasive. We use it for email and data sharing, video conferencing and VOIP, archiving and commerce. What is the best solution for you? Is a cable modem sufficient? Your needs may point to Metro Ethernet as a solution. Gigabit Internet may satisfy your needs. A 5 Meg Internet circuit, 10 Meg access to The Internet, a 50 Meg circuit, or a 100 Meg access to The net point: what is right for your business in Madison, Alabama?

Accessing the net: Ascertaining Your Company Need

Before selecting an appropriate service for your business, you must first determine what needs you are trying to satisfy. Why will you need the web? Will you only be web surfing and emailing? Is connecting with cloud servers and sharing real time data the main use of the internet? There may be remote places that rely on you and you are hosting the data in Madison.

How would an outage to your high-speed Internet affect your organization? What about the downtime that results? Can your company afford that? Is the absence of uptime detrimental? These types of questions must be answered before you make purchase anything.

Looking at Different High Speed Internet Solutions: Madison, Alabama

Plainly stated, companies require high-speed access to The web. When choosing the right broadband for organization, you need to analyze and balance the costs and benefits. You will hear providers use terms like:

• High-speed Internet access
• Provider of Internet for Businesses
• Cable modems and broadband
• Metro Ethernet
• Provider of Gigabit Internet service
• MPLS services
• Point to point data circuits
• five Meg access to The net circuits
• 10 Meg Internet access circuits
• We provide access to The web circuits-50 Meg
• High-speed Internet access circuits-100 megabytes
• We provide sip trunks
• dedicated Internet access
• … and then some

… you must not lose sight of the real issue, which is understanding what technical solutions best meet your needs.

Business access to The net for Surfing the Worldwide Web

At any company in Madison, Alabama some employees, if not all employees, need some type of access to the net if they are to properly perform their job duties. Whether it is for business research, to order supplies or to use third-party applications, the web is required.

The number of workers you employ, may be the most important factor in your decision making process. 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 a larger workforce, you may want to consider more. This is especially true if they all need to use the web simultaneously.

Your need for high-speed Internet may be lessened if your workers are just accessing an intranet systemHowever, employees who must often download documents, images and videos, need that speed.

Do you routinely backup? 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? The saved files go to the cloud and are then synchronized or “shared” with other people’s computers. Running all your services properly, including sharing files, requires that you have the right amount of bandwidth.

High-speed business access to The net like Metro Ethernet and gigabit Internet may be viable options for you depending on your location. They are usually contained in “lit buildings” in Madison, Alabama that have already been wired by a carrier. Installing high-speed Internet may not be as difficult and expensive as you think.

The introduction of Metro Ethernet into a new building can be quite costly. However, bringing that connection into office space within that building is usually less so. Also, securing high-speed access to The Internet using gigabit Internet or Metro Ethernet often takes less than 30 days, depending on its availability.

Web Applications Require Fast Internet Access

Ask yourself this: Does we host our own servers to run APIs, websites and data feeds to external offices or organization premises? Are your corporate headquarters with a hosted application utilized by 50 branch offices? Perhaps you are in retail and host the point of sale (POS) system for thousands of stores? Does your legal practice host all of the data for 3, 4 or 5 offices in different locations?

If you host programs, data or information centrally, people outside of the central location need to have access. For those people, no Internet connection means no work gets done. Is the intranet solution you are choosing sufficiently reliable? Is it stable enough to support simultaneous connections from different places?

A cost friendly 10 Meg circuit or even a cable modem may satisfy the needs of a organization with a single office that needs to surf the web. High-speed dedicated circuits, Metro Ethernet or gigabit Ethernet are advisable for company headquarters. 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.

Cable Circuit Sharing in Madison, Alabama Versus Dedicated Bandwidth: What is Right For You?

In many cases, installing an inexpensive cable modem comes at a price. You may save money on your monthly bill but the bandwidth you get must be shared among many people. It is possible that you have a cable modem with a 30 Meg connection but cannot reach proper speeds during peak hours. Many cable operators can only deliver a certain amount of bandwidth in a community. Buildings, offices and tenants within the buildings all must share that amount of bandwidth, whatever it may be. During crucial working hours, you may not get to the 30-meg speed you have been capped at. Is it a problem if you get a quarter or even half of the speed you expected?

You can find a carrier who can provide dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth. With these options, bandwidth is yours. It is not shared with anyone outside of your business. The full capacity of your circuit should be attainable during all hours regardless of neighboring buildings, people or offices.

Five Meg, ten Meg, fifty Meg and 100 Meg circuits of guaranteed bandwidth are available with Metro Ethernet. In your office out to the net you can reach gigabit speeds with gigabit providers

In these scenarios, providers deliver a large quantity of high-speed to a building. The quantity must be enough so that it can split the circuit and deliver to every tenant. Whatever amount has been guaranteed in each tenant’s contract is the amount they receive.

Incorporating Redundancy Into Your High Speed Organization Internet Circuits in Madison

Circuits can go down in Madison even though certain carriers offer superior Internet bandwidth products. In what way can you diminish the risk of an outage?

Redundant circuits may be the answer for you.

There are, in reality, two kinds of redundancy.

The first type is when one single carrier provides you with multiple circuits. These redundant circuits help protect from certain failures, for example, router port issues or physical line trouble. However, if that carrier has a greater outage to your entire region or there is a line damaged outside of your office building, you may have both or all circuits go down. While there is some security in this, you are still vulnerable under some circumstances.

You can also achieve redundancy by utilizing different providers to bring in and establish your circuits. For users and the public, you can make it look like you have one cohesive circuit. You can also make the connections act as a single circuit. You can do this with various advanced routers and IP address allocations. In reality, they are completely separate and redundant to each other. This redundancy, referred to as diversity redundancy, offers much greater protection. In the event that one carrier goes down, the other will still be alive.

You should look for redundant circuits from providers in Madison, Alabama 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 established either underground or on telephone poles and would be set up in different directions and lead to different offices. If you can accomplish this, you are protected from a major catastrophe. For example, if a there is a fire or some other accident that negatively affects circuits in a region, you have redundancy in a physically different direction.

What is the Price of Not Having Adequate Protection for Your Business High-Speed Internet access?

The cost of dependable Internet access pales in comparison to the cost of unreliable access. Think about the following situations:

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

Are you on a cable modem and your carrier is providing circuits to dozens of other office suites in your building? Any of these tenants may be taking many calls, conducting huge downloads or streaming video during your regular office hours. How will less available bandwidth affect your telephone calls? What happens to the quality of that phone call? Are calls lost or dropped? Inaudible (choppy) to your customers?

Your business functions as the primary data center for multiple external locations

Your office may be the working center of an entire company enterprise. The kind of company 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. Your primary Internet connection is responsible for granting access to data to all of your sites. This is true whether you have 3 locations or 2000 sites. What happens if your circuit goes down? Will it cause disastrous results of just annoy you a little bit? Are remote offices able to work at all? Process or take new orders? Circulate necessary data? Picking the right a solution can be difficult. Before doing so, be sure you fully understand your requirements. You have a software company, and are running a hosted solution for dozens, maybe hundreds, of customers. Is an API utilized in your organization so that your customers can access and speak with your system? What if you have server problems and they are unable to connect to you? 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

Does your business completely rely on the web? No calls can go out if your circuits fail. In addition, they will be unable to answer incoming calls. You are essentially out of organization. While most reputable call centers are already aware and using redundancy, is it enough? Are your providers sufficiently reliable? Are you getting quality service so that your calls are clear and consistent?

Picking the Right High-Speed Organization Access Circuits for Your Madison Company

You have several different options to pick from. Your choices will largely count on your budget, in addition to the other requirements of your organization. To summarize:

If You Have a Small Business That Needs Internet Access

If your business is small, with one location or office, you are likely not concerned about redundancy. For you, a single 5, 10 or 50 megabyte Internet access circuit may suffice. Metro Ethernet service or gigabit service may also be a reasonably priced option if you are in a lit building. The availability of circuits and your location determine prices; speak with one of our engineers to learn what your best options are.

Internet Access for the Mid-Sized Organization with One Location

Mid sized companies with a single office in Madison, Alabama, need higher speed access to The web. Your options are Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet and higher speed circuits. 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. Availability and costs vary. Call one of our experts to learn what is available in your specific area.

Internet Access and Your Mid-Sized Organization: What You Needs

Businesses with many locations face the greatest risk for failure. They need redundant circuits. Multiple providers are highly desirable. Additionally, you should consider redundant equipment (routers and switches) in your facility to minimize the risk of downtime. Look at all of your options: Ethernet access services, gigabit Internet providers, Metro Ethernet providers and other high-speed circuit providers. The right mix can help. If you can figure out the best combination of providers and services for your organization, you will benefit.

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

For companies falling in this category, gigabit Internet circuits, Metro Ethernet Internet circuits and point-to-point high-speed Internet circuits are essential. 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. You need enough bandwidth. The bandwidth must be sufficient to handle spikes in usage with no slowdowns or interruptions. Be sure to have the right circuits and hardware. They both must be able to support multiple, fast, concurrent connections.

Receive a Free Internet Need and Demand Analysis

Do not risk having failing circuits or not enough bandwidth. You must select the single circuit or multiple circuits that can meet your demands and stay within your budget. Choosing the right mix of circuits and hardware is a daunting task.

Our engineers can help. We are going to analyze your requirements and needs and create a free action plan for you. You want your business to run smoothly. We’ll look at your current usage levels and demand levels and design a plan that meets your needs at a cost that makes sense for you.

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. It can take as little as 48 hours to provide a complete assessment.