The Internet in Philadelphia: High-Speed Access

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

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

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

The web is ubiquitous. From email to data sharing, archiving to commerce and VOIP to video chat, the net is everywhere. What do you need? A cable modem may be satisfactory. Your needs may point to Metro Ethernet as a solution. You may need Gigabit Internet. A 5 Meg Internet circuit, 10 Meg Internet access, a 50 Meg circuit, or a 100 Meg Internet access point: what is right for your organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania?

Accessing the internet: Ascertaining Your Company Need

Before selecting an appropriate service for your organization, you must first determine what needs you are trying to satisfy. Are surfing the web and sending email the only uses of the internet? Is it used to network with cloud servers? Are you hosting the data in Philadelphia and distant sites or offices rely on you?

How would an outage to your high-speed Internet affect your business? What about the downtime that results? Can your organization afford that? How much uptime is essential to your company? Before making a purchase, these are a few of the questions you need to answer.

Looking at Different High Speed Internet Solutions: Philadelphia

It is no secret that all companies need high-speed access to the web. When choosing the right broadband internet for company, you need to analyze and balance the costs and benefits. While many providers like to spout technical terminologies such as:

• High-speed Internet access
• Business Internet or commercial Internet
• broadband cable modems
• Metro Ethernet service
• Gigabit Internet services
• MPLS
• PPP- or point-to-point protocol
• Internet access circuits-5 Meg
• Internet access circuits-10 Meg
• Internet access- 50 megabytes
• High-speed Internet access circuits-100 megabytes
• sip trunking / sip trunks
• Direct or dedicated Internet access
• … and more

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

Business Internet access for Surfing the Worldwide Web

At any company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania some employees, if not all employees, need some type of access to the web if they are to properly perform their job duties. It may be needed for business research, to order office supplies or other reasons.

The number of employees you have may determine your best solution. 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 more than that, you may need 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. When they are frequently downloading things, whether documents, graphics or videos, however, speed is necessary for efficient job performance.

Does your company regularly conduct backups? Simultaneous connections to the web, which you need in order to sync your backup data, require support. If you conduct remote backups from every workstation, which you definitely should, this will be important.

Do you use a file-sharing service? Perhaps you use Google drive, DropBox or a different service? This is how a file sharing service works: You save a file. Then the file is pushed to the cloud, and is then synchronized with other people’s computers. Running all your services properly, including sharing files, requires that you have the right amount of bandwidth.

Organization high-speed Internet access may interest you. Depending on your location, you may have options such as gigabit Internet or Metro Ethernet. They are commonly found in “lit buildings” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that have already been 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, 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.

Web Applications: They Require High-Speed Internet Access

Your organization may host its own servers. Do they run websites APIs or data feeds for external offices? Are your organization headquarters with a hosted application connected to fifty or more satellite offices? Is your business retail? Do you have thousands of stores? Do you host the point of sale system for the entire chain? Are you a legal practice hosting the data for three places?

Access to data and programs by people outside of your main location becomes necessary when you host information centrally. For those people, no Internet connection means no work gets done. Make sure that when you choose your intranet solution it is reliable enough to support your need for multiple and simultaneous connections for many different places.

A cable modem or fairly cheap 10-megabyte circuit may be enough in certain scenarios. For example, these may meet the needs of a single office surfing the web. High-speed Internet access is advisable for the headquarters. Gigabit Ethernet, Metro Ethernet or some other high-speed dedicated circuit is recommended. While fast access to The web is and important, they must also have the capability to handle assorted simultaneous connections. Do you think a cable modem is sufficient? It is probably not.

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

In some situations, there is a high price to pay for bringing in an inexpensive circuit or cable modem. There may be a lower monthly rate, but bandwidth is usually shared with many tenants. During peak use hours, you may not be able to reach proper speeds. Cable companies are known to limit or predetermine the amount of bandwidth available for delivery in any particular community. Whatever that amount of bandwidth is, it branches into all buildings in the community and to all tenants in those buildings. During crucial working hours, you may not get to the 30-meg speed you have been capped at. Is this a problem for you if you expect 30 and get 6?

You can find a carrier who can provide dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth. In this scenario, the bandwidth is fully allocated to you and your company or business. No one else uses it. No matter who is in the building or what buildings surround you, you should always run at full speed.

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. Want to reach gigabit speeds? You can by using a gigabit Internet provider.

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.

Redundant High Speed Organization Internet Circuits in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

You can’t control everything. Even with the superior Internet bandwidth products that some providers offer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, problems arise and circuits can fail. What can you do to minimize the chance that you will experience an outage of some kind?

Redundant circuits may be the answer for you.

We are primarily talking about two kinds of redundancy.

The first kind of redundancy exists when one carrier provides one customer with many circuits. 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. 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 offering some protection, it is not without risk.

Bringing in circuits using two distinct providers is the second form of circuit redundancy. By using IP address allocations and certain routers, you can bind your connections. By doing this, it appears and behaves as a single circuit. However, despite appearances, they are actually very much separate and are redundant to each other. 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.

To maximize the benefit of redundancy, consider looking for redundant circuits from different providers that have different pathway in Philadelphia. If at all possible, you want to obtain circuits entering the premises on different sides. Whether they are attached underground or to a telephone pole, your goal should be to have the circuits in different directions leading to different central sites. 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 Adequate Protection for your High-Speed Internet access: What is the Cost to Your Company?

Internet access costs money but the cost of NOT having reliable Internet access is greater. Consider the following:

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

If your business utilizes a cable modem, consider whether your carrier is providing circuits for multiple other tenants within the building. Any of these tenants may be taking many calls, conducting huge downloads or streaming video during your regular office hours. How will your telephone calls be affected as the amount of available bandwidth decreases? What happens to the strength and quality of that call? Maybe calls will randomly drop? Will the calls be choppy?

Multiple places use your business as the central data point

Your office is the hub of your company, whether you are a retail company operating a distributed point of sale (POS) system, an accounting firm sharing databases or a law firm engaged in file sharing. All of your locations, you may have 2, you may have 500, you may have 4, 000, rely on your main Internet connection to access and receive data. If your circuit goes done, what happens next? Would you merely be annoyed? Would there be catastrophic consequences? Can your satellite or remote office do any work at all? Take new orders? Service existing ones? Disseminate needed information and data? Be sure you understand your requirements fully before choosing a solution. What if you are a software company? Perhaps you are running a hosted solution and it must be used by multiple customers; maybe even hundreds. Is an API utilized in your company so that your customers can access and communicate with your system? What if you have server problems and they are unable to connect to you? How long will your customers tolerate repeated outages?

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

What if your organization could not function at all without the internet? Maybe your business depends on it completely. Your employees or representatives will not be able to make outgoing phone calls if your circuits go down. Your representatives would also be unable to answer calls. Basically, you are done. Even for the most reputable call centers that already know of and use redundancy, is it sufficient? Are you really getting the dependable service you need form your providers? Are you using carriers that are truly reliable? Is the quality of service sufficient for your calls to be clear and reliable?

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

You clearly have many options. Your company needs and your budget will have to come into consideration when deciding on your solutions. To recap:

If You Have a Small Company That Needs Internet Access

Sometimes redundancy is not crucial to you. For example, If you are a small organization, with just one office location, a single Internet access circuit may be sufficient. You may get by with one 50, 10 or even 5 megabyte circuit. 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.

Mid-Sized Company access to The Internet: One Location

You have a mid-sized Philadelphia, Pennsylvania company; higher speed Internet access required. Your options are Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet and higher speed circuits. Using different circuits and different carriers will, if you choose, provide you with redundancy. You may be able to achieve this in a manner that will not break the bank. For example, choosing two 50 meg circuits versus one 100 meg circuit. Remember, costs vary. So does availability. 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.

Mid-Sized Company with More than One Location: Access to the Internet

What companies have the highest risk for failure; those with multiple locations. Redundant circuits are essential. Multiple carriers would be great. You can increase redundancy with switches or routers. Having redundant equipment can also minimize risk. Look at all of your options: Ethernet access services, gigabit Internet providers, Metro Ethernet providers and other high-speed circuit providers. The right combination of services and carriers can positively impact the efficiency of your business.

What about enterprise clients and large corporate clients? What about clients who provide services that depend on the internet 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. In order to maximize and protect your uptime, you must have redundancy. You should have redundant circuits from multiple carriers in addition to redundant hardware. You must have the bandwidth to withstand sharp increases in usage. Doing so will help protect you from slowdowns or interruptions. Your goal is to have hardware and circuits that are more than capable of providing support to a significant number of fast and simultaneous connections.

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

Do not risk having failing circuits or not enough bandwidth. Your ideal single circuit or multiple circuits should stay within your budget while still meeting your demands. The pressure involved in selecting the proper mix of hardware and circuits can be overwhelming.

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. Our experts will examine your current usage and demand. We are going to then generate a design that gives you the resources you need while keeping your business up and running at a reasonable cost.

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 as little as 48 hours to provide a complete assessment.