High Speed Internet Access in Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Pittsfield High Speed Access to The Net: Metro Ethernet Access, Gigabit Internet and Company Broadband Internet

In today’s world, Pittsfield, Massachusetts companies need dependable access to The Internet. It is the lifeblood of their organization. Fast and reliable Internet access is needed for businesses to function properly; large corporations and small companies alike.

We are going to become increasingly dependent on access to The web 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 chat, the web is certainly ubiquitous. What can best meet your needs? Can a cable modem suffice? Your needs may point to Metro Ethernet as a solution. Gigabit Internet? A 5 Meg Internet circuit, 10 Meg access to The Internet, a 50 Meg circuit, or a 100 Meg access to The web point: what is right for your company in Pittsfield?

Access to the internet: Determining Your Business’s Needs

Before selecting the appropriate service, your organization must assess its needs. Perhaps the net is only used for a few things such as email communication or surfing the web. Is it used for real-time data connection with cloud servers? Are you hosting the data in Pittsfield that remote places depend upon?

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

Evaluating Pittsfield High Speed Internet Solutions

Plainly stated, companies require high-speed Internet access. When choosing the right broadband for business, you need to analyze and balance the costs and benefits. While many service providers throw around terminologies such as:

• High-speed access to the Internet
• Business Internet service provider
• Broadband cable modem services
• Metropolitan-area Ethernet provider
• Gigabit Ethernet services or Gigabit Internet
• MPLS service provider
• Point-to-point circuit services
• Internet access circuits-5 Meg
• 10 megabyte Internet access
• Internet access- 50 megabytes
• Internet access circuits- One hundred Meg
• Session Initiation Protocol/ Sip trunk
• Direct or dedicated Internet access
• … plus others

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

Business access to The Internet for Website Surfing

For many, if not all, companies in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, access to The web is needed for at least some employees. access to The net may be needed to conduct research, use third-party applications or to order supplies.

Perhaps the size of your work force may determine the solution that best fits your needs. 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.

High-speed Internet may become less important if the majority of your employees primarily use an intranet system with limited graphics and video. On the other hand, when they are frequently downloading documents, images and videos, that need for speed increases drastically.

Are you regularly performing backups? Synchronizing your backup data after doing remote backups from every desk requires you to support simultaneous connections out to the web.

Do you use a file sharing service like Google drive or DropBox? When people save a file, it gets pushed to the cloud. The file is then synched with other people’s computers. You need to have sufficient bandwidth to support this function while also supporting every other service.

Your company location may cause you to think about high-speed business access to The net such as Metro Ethernet and/or gigabit Internet. These are typically found in “lit buildings” in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Carriers have already wired these buildings. You may be surprised by how easy and affordable it is to add high-speed Internet to your business.

While bringing Metro Ethernet to a new building can be an expensive proposition, bringing that 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.

Internet-based Applications That Need Access to High-Speed Internet

Does your organization host its own servers to run information feeds, websites or application program interfaces (APIs) with companies or offices located outside of your four walls? Is your main organization office with a hosted application accessed by 40 or even 50 branch office sites? Perhaps you are in retail and host the point of sale (POS) system for thousands of stores? Do you run a law office that hosts the data for satellite offices in different cities or states?

If your company hosts its programs and information at a central location, people outside of that location need to have access in order to conduct company. 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.

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. Metro Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet or other high-speed dedicated circuits is advisable for the headquarters where high-speed Internet access is important. While high speed is great, you also need support for your multiple diverse connections. A cable modem would likely be insufficient.

Dedicated Bandwidth Versus Pittsfield, Massachusetts Shared Cable Circuits

Utilizing a cable modem or other less expensive circuit may seem like a good option but can result in unexpected cost. While the monthly rate is lower, the bandwidth is generally shared among other tenants. During peak hours, your connection may slow down, even though you subscribe to a cable modem with a thirty-megabyte connection. 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. Is getting 7 when you expect 30 a problem?

Other carriers do offer dedicated and 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 business. No matter who is in the building or what buildings surround you, you should always run at full speed.

As an example, look at Metro Ethernet. They provide guaranteed bandwidth in various increments. You can receive guaranteed bandwidth in increments of 100, 50, 10 and 5 megabytes. Want to reach gigabit speeds? You can by using a gigabit Internet provider.

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 Pittsfield

You can’t control everything. Even with the superior Internet bandwidth products that some providers offer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, problems arise and circuits can fail. The question then becomes, “how do I minimize my chance of an outage? ”

You may be a candidate for redundant circuits.

There are two types of redundancy to consider.

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. If your carrier experiences a regional outage or you have a line broken outside of your building, you may lose the use of all of your circuits. While there is some security in this, you are still vulnerable under some circumstances.

In the second type of redundancy, you bring in circuits from two different carriers. 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. Though they may appear as one, you know that they are each individual circuits and redundant to each other. This is called diversity redundancy and offers more protection that the first. You will still have a live, fully functioning carrier if one fails.

You should look for redundant circuits from carriers in Pittsfield, Massachusetts that do not have the same physical geographic pathways, in order to get the most redundancy. 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. Ideally, the circuits will be going in different directions and toward various central business spaces or data centers. Having redundancy in different physical directions can protect you if there is a serious incident at a data center or some accident that causes a regional circuit issue.

Not Having Adequate Protection for your High-Speed Internet access: What is the Cost to Your Company?

It is true that Internet access costs you money. However, the cost does not come close to what you will pay if the access that is not reliable. Contemplate these situations:

You use VoIP for your organization telephone service

Your organization is on a cable modem and your carrier provides circuits to 20 other offices 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? As they use more bandwidth, there is less for available for your needs. What happens to your phone calls? What happens to the quality of that phone call? Are the calls going to be dropped? Will your voice be inaudible? Will you have difficulty hearing the other end?

Your office is the main data point for various other offices

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. All of your sites, you may have 2, you may have 500, you may have 4, 000, rely on your main Internet connection to access and receive data. What will happen if your circuit crashes? Is it just irritating? Is it going to cause tremendous problems? Can your satellite offices perform any work at all? Can they process transactions or new orders? Circulate essential files and data? Do you know what your company needs? Be sure to fully understand your requirements. It will help you choose the correct solution. You have a software company, and are running a hosted solution for dozens, maybe hundreds, of customers. Maybe you operate a service that allows other systems to speak with yours via API. This may be to collect miscellaneous data, calculate prices or shipping rates or other information. What if these other systems have difficulty connecting your servers? Customers will only take so many repeated outages. How long with they remain with your company?

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

What if your company could not function at all without the net? Maybe your organization relies on it completely. If your circuits go down, you cannot make calls. Calls coming in would be unanswerable. You might not even know people are trying to reach your office. Basically, you are done. For competent call centers that already use and understand the problems that can arise, is redundancy enough? Are the providers that you are using reliable enough? Is the quality of service sufficient for your calls to be clear and reliable?

Choosing the Right Pittsfield, Massachusetts High-Speed Company Access Circuits for Your Company

You have no shortage of options. Your business budget and needs will play a large part in your decision-making. In summary:

Internet Access for the Small Business Owner

Sometimes redundancy is not vital to you. For example, If you are a small organization, with just one office location, a single access to The Internet circuit may be sufficient. You may get by with one 50, 10 or even 5 megabyte circuit. Gigabit service and Metro Ethernet options seem expensive. If you are in a lit building, however, they can be less than you think. Look into it. Prices change based on your location and the availability of circuits. Please speak with our engineers about what options best suit your needs.

Internet Access-One Location- Medium Sized Business

You have a midsized company in Pittsfield; you will surely need higher-speed Internet. Gigabit Internet, Metro Ethernet and other higher speed Internet circuits are options to consider. Multiple circuits utilizing multiple providers would, ideally, provide you with maximum redundancy. Achieving this may not be as costly as you first thought. For example, you may use 2 fifty meg circuits instead of 1 one hundred meg circuit. Remember, costs vary. So does availability. In order to find out the options available for you, in your location, you need to speak with one of our seasoned experts.

Internet Access for Mid-Sized Businesses with Several Locations

What companies have the highest risk for failure; those with multiple locations. Redundant circuits must be an essential part of their systems. Multiple providers are highly desirable. Additionally, you should consider redundant equipment (routers and switches) in your facility to minimize the risk of downtime. Have you looked at Metro Ethernet providers, gigabit Internet providers and other high-speed access to The web circuit providers? You should do so before making a decision. The right combination of services and carriers can positively impact the efficiency of your business.

Providers of services that rely on the net for their delivery, big corporate clients and enterprise customers

For companies falling in this category, gigabit Internet circuits, Metro Ethernet Internet circuits and point-to-point high-speed Internet circuits are essential. You must have redundant circuits for multiple providers as well as redundant hardware in your office to ensure your uptime. You do not want any slowdowns or interruptions that often occur during spikes in usage. Avoid this by having sufficient bandwidth. Be sure to have the right circuits and hardware. They both must be able to support multiple, fast, concurrent connections.

Internet Demand and Internet Need: Receive Free Analysis

Your organization faces great risk of less than adequate bandwidth and failing circuits. Your ideal single circuit or multiple circuits should stay within your budget while still meeting your demands. Selecting the appropriate mix of circuits and hardware can overwhelm you.

Our engineers can analyze your needs and create a free action plan for you. You want your organization to run smoothly. We will 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.

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