The Web in Madison: High-Speed Access

Madison, Wisconsin High Speed Internet access: Company Broadband, Metro Ethernet Access and Gigabit Internet

Today’s environment demands that companies in Madison have reliable Internet service in order to run their organization. All companies depend on reliable and quick Internet access. This is true regardless how large or small the company.

We will become increasingly reliant on access to The Internet as the months and years progress.

The web has a significant presence in our lives. From email to information sharing, data archiving to e-commerce, and VOIP to video conferencing, the web is certainly ubiquitous. What is the best fix for your needs? Will a cable modem be sufficient? Maybe you need Metro Ethernet. Your needs may be met with Gigabit Internet. Does your organization in Madison, Wisconsin need one of these: 10 Meg access to The Internet, a 100 Meg Internet access point, a 50 meg circuit or a 5 meg circuit?

How to Define your Company Need for Internet Access

The needs of your particular company must be determined before you can select an appropriate service. Is the net only used for web surfing and email? Is real time data connection with cloud servers essential to your business? Are you hosting the data in Madison that remote places rely upon?

Have you thought about what happens to your organization if your high-speed Internet is interrupted by an outage? How might the downtime cause problems for your business? Is uptime required? You must answer these questions before you buy.

Evaluating Different High-Speed Internet Solutions in Madison

It is no secret that all companies need high-speed access to the internet. An analysis of the costs and benefits should be done prior to choosing the broadband internet that is correct for your organization. Don’t be distracted by terminology. While you may hear service providers throw out words and phrases like:

• Fast Internet access is for you!
• Business Internet service
• What about broadband cable modems?
• Metro Ethernet
• Gigabit Internet services
• MPLS
• Point-to-point circuit services
• 5-megabyte access circuits
• 10 Meg Internet access circuits
• We provide access to The net circuits-50 Meg
• High-speed Internet access circuits-100 megabytes
• Leading SIP trunk authority
• Dedicated Internet line
• … and countless others

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

Business Internet access for Website Surfing

Workers for most companies in Madison, Wisconsin have some need to access the net during the course of their job. Third party applications, company research or development and e-commerce are just a few of the ways the web may be needed.

The number of workers you have may be the factor that drives your decision. A five or ten megabyte Internet circuit may be all you need if employ a small workforce. If you have more than that, you may need more.

Do your employees primarily use an intranet system? If so, you may not need much high-speed Internet service. On the other hand, when they are frequently downloading documents, images and videos, that need for speed increases drastically.

Do you routinely backup? 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.

Does your company require employees to share files using a service like Google drive or DropBox? As people save files, those files are pushed to the cloud and then synchronized back to other people’s computers. Running all your services properly, including sharing files, requires that you have the right amount of bandwidth.

You may consider high-speed organization Internet access if you location warrants it. Gigabit Internet and Metro Ethernet may be viable options for you. Usually, you can find these in “lit buildings” in Madison that have been previously wired by a carrier. It may be shock you to know that installing high-speed access to The web may not be particularly expensive or inconvenient.

If you have to bring Metro Ethernet into a new building, it can be expensive but bringing that connection to an office or suite within the building is usually not. In fact, in as little as 30 days, you may be able to obtain high-speed access to the web with either gigabit Internet or Metro Ethernet. It depends upon availability.

High-Speed Internet access Required for Hosting Applications

Ask yourself this: Does we host our own servers to run APIs, websites and data feeds to external offices or organization premises? Maybe your business requires that dozens of satellite offices have access to a hosted application at your company main headquarters. Does your office host the point of sale (POS) system for every single store in a large retail chain? Do you run a law office that hosts the data for satellite offices in different cities or states?

If you host programs, data or information centrally, people outside of the central location need to have access. People can’t work if you have no Internet connection. Are you picking an intranet solution that provides reliability and stability for your multiple, simultaneous connections from various sites?

For a single office surfing the web, a cable modem or inexpensive 10 Meg circuit may be adequate. For headquarters, Metro Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet or other high-speed Internet dedicated circuits is advisable. While fast access to The Internet is and important, they must also have the capability to handle assorted simultaneous connections. This could probably not be accomplished with a cable modem.

Shared Cable Circuits in Madison, Wisconsin Versus Dedicated Internet Bandwidth

Bringing in a less-expensive circuit like a cable modem often comes with a price. You may have to share bandwidth in order to secure that low monthly rate. The cable modem you subscribe to with the 30 Meg connections may not always reach those speeds, especially during the busiest or “peak” hours of the workday. Many cable operators can only deliver a certain amount of bandwidth in a community. That amount of bandwidth must be shared with different buildings and with the tenants housed within. While you may be capped at a 30 Meg speed, you may never be able to reach that speed during organization hours. Is it a problem if you get a quarter or even half of the speed you expected?

Some providers are available who offer dedicated bandwidth and guaranteed bandwidth. With these options, bandwidth is yours. It is not shared with anyone outside of your business. No matter who is in the building or what buildings surround you, you should always run at full speed.

Metro Ethernet provides guaranteed bandwidth in increments as follows: 5, 10, 50 and 100 Meg circuits. In your office out to the net you can reach gigabit speeds with gigabit providers

In these cases, the carriers deliver high-speed to the building in sufficient quantity that they can then split their circuit to various tenants while guaranteeing each tenant is receiving their contracted speeds.

Incorporating Redundancy Into Your High Speed Business Internet Circuits in Madison, Wisconsin

The truth is that circuits can go down in Madison even though some providers offer superior Internet bandwidth products. The question then becomes, “how do I minimize my chance of an outage? ”

Redundant circuits.

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

The first is where you get multiple circuits from one carrier. If there is a problem with a line or a port in your router, circuit redundancy can offer some protection. 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. You get some protection, but also some risk.

The second way to set up circuit redundancy is by using two different providers to bring in your circuits. If you think it is beneficial, you can bind the connections together in a manner that makes your circuits act and look like a single source. In fact, they are totally redundant and separate. While circuit redundancy in general is a good idea, diversity redundancy by using different providers, offers far better protection. If one carrier has a problem, the other likely will not.

For maximum redundancy, you should look for redundant circuits from different carriers with different physical geographic pathways in Madison. 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. In this way you have redundancy in different physical directions. If there is an event that causes a regional circuit problem, you have an alternative that is unaffected.

What Will Not Having Enough Protection for Your Business Class High Speed Internet Cost You?

While access to The Internet is not free, it pales in comparison with the cost of not having reliable Internet access. Please think about the following scenarios:

Your organization telephone utilizes voice-over Internet Protocol, or VoIP as it is commonly known

You are on a cable modem with the carrier providing circuits to 14 other tenants in your building. What if any or all of those tenants are huge call centers taking in a massive volume of phone calls, are company that perform large file downloads or stream many videos? How will less available bandwidth affect your telephone calls? How will it affect the quality of that telephone call? Will you lose calls? Will they be full of static?

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

Your office is the hub of your enterprise: You might be a law practice that shares files, a retail operation that utilizes POS systems or a large accounting firm that needs to share databases. Your primary Internet connection is responsible for granting access to data to all of your locations. This is true whether you have 3 locations or 2000 locations. What happens if your circuit goes down? Is it simply an irritation or a catastrophe? Can meaningful work be conducted at your remote offices? Can they take or process any orders at all? Share essential information with anyone? Picking the right a solution can be difficult. Before doing so, be sure you fully understand your requirements. 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. 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 these other systems have difficulty connecting your servers? How will repeated outages affect your customers? Will they remain customers?

Your organization call center utilizes voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP)

Does your company completely rely on the net? If your circuits go down, you cannot make calls. No calls could be answered either. Basically, you are out of company. While many of the most reputable call centers are already aware and using the advantages of redundancy, is it sufficiently meeting their needs? Are your carriers sufficiently reliable? Do you consistently get quality service that provides clear and reliable calls?

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

You clearly have several choices. Your company budget and needs will play a large part in your decision-making. As a wrap-up:

If You Have a Small Organization That Needs Internet Access

If your organization 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. 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.

Mid-Sized Company access to The web: One Location

You have a mid-sized Madison company; higher speed access to The Internet required. Higher-speed circuits like Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet or others may be your best options. Ideally, you want to have the greatest redundancy. You can achieve this by using multiple circuits from different carriers. Achieving this may cost extra but it won’t double your costs. For example, choosing two 50 meg circuits versus one 100 meg circuit. Again, costs and availability vary. Learn your options by speaking with one of our knowledgeable experts. We can help you determine what is available in your specific location.

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

Businesses with many sites face the greatest risk for failure. Redundancy is crucial. Having several providers would afford extra protection. You can increase redundancy with switches or routers. Having redundant equipment can also minimize risk. Have you looked at Metro Ethernet providers, gigabit Internet providers and other high-speed access to The Internet circuit providers? You should do so before making a decision. The correct combination of providers and services can keep your business running smoothly and efficiently.

What about enterprise clients and large corporate clients? What about clients who provide services that count on the net for delivery of said services?

If you fall into this group, you must have Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet circuits and point-to-point High-speed Internet circuits. If you want to ensure your valuable uptime, have redundant circuits from multiple providers as well as redundant hardware. 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. The hardware and circuits you choose must both be able to support the following: a great number of concurrent, speedy connections.

Free Internet Demand and Need Analysis

Do you understand how great the risk of failing circuits and insufficient bandwidth really is? You need to have the right circuit or circuits to meet your demands while staying within your budget. Choosing the right combination of hardware and circuits can be complicated and confusing.

Our expert engineers will review your requirements and needs and create a free action plan for you. Our experts will examine your current usage and demand. We will then generate a design that gives you the resources you need while keeping your organization up and running at a reasonable cost.

Please call our office for an assessment appointment or click here to complete the contact form on the right side of the page. It can take as little as 48 hours to provide a complete assessment.