The Internet in Sammamish: High-Speed Access

High Speed access to The Web in Sammamish, Washington: Business Broadband Internet, Gigabit Internet and Metro Ethernet Access

The lifeblood of Sammamish, Washington companies doing business in the current environment depends upon reliable Internet access. All companies, large and small, need fast and reliable access to The net.

In the coming months and years, we are going to become increasingly dependent on our access to the web.

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 net is certainly ubiquitous. What is the best solution for you? A cable modem may be satisfactory. Maybe you need Metro Ethernet. 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 business in Sammamish, Washington?

Determining your Company Need for Internet Access

Your company must assess its real needs. This must be done before an appropriate service can be chosen. Is Internet use limited to website surfing or emailing only? Is it used for real-time data connection with cloud servers? Are you hosting the data in Sammamish that remote sites rely upon?

What happens to your company if your high-speed Internet experiences an outage? Can your organization afford the downtime? Is uptime essential? Before making a purchase, these are some of the questions that you must answer.

Evaluating Sammamish, Washington High Speed Internet Solutions

In the broadest of terms, 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 many providers like to spout technical terminologies such as:

• High-speed Internet access
• Business Internet / Internet for business
• What about broadband cable modems?
• Metro Ethernet service
• Gigabit Internet services
• MPLS network
• Point-to-point circuit services
• 5 Meg Internet access
• Internet access circuits-10 Meg
• 50 Meg Internet access circuits
• We provide 100-megabyte Internet access circuits
• Session Initiation Protocol/ Sip trunk
• Internet access dedicated to your needs
• … and countless others

… the real issue is understanding what capability and technical solutions best meet your needs.

Surfing the Web at Work: Company Internet Access

For most companies in Sammamish, some or all of the employees need access to the internet. It may be needed for business research, to order office supplies or other reasons.

The number of workers you have may be the factor that drives your decision. A 5 or 10 megabyte Internet circuit may be perfect if you only have a few employees. You should consider more than that if you have more workers. Also keep in mind whether your workers need to access the net at the same time.

Perhaps most workers at your company use an intranet system with limited features. High- speed Internet may not be a priority in this case. However, employees who must often download documents, images and videos, need that speed.

Are you regularly performing 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.

Does your business use a file sharing service? DropBox? Google drive? When you save a file it is pushed to the cloud. Then it is synched to the computer or computers of someone else. In order to ensure that all of your functions work properly, in addition to file sharing, you must have sufficient 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. These are typically found in “lit buildings” in Sammamish. Carriers have already wired these buildings. Choosing to add high-speed Internet to your office is a tough decision but it can be less expensive and easier than you think.

Absent the need to introduce Metro Ethernet into a new building, it is not particularly costly to connect Metro Ethernet to a suite or office within that building. You can actually get high-speed access with gigabit Internet or even Metro Ethernet quickly. It often takes only 30 days or less, depending on availability.

Hosted Applications Requiring High-Speed Internet Access

Your business may host its own servers. Do they run websites APIs or data feeds for external offices? Are your corporate headquarters with a hosted application utilized by 50 branch offices? Are you a retail chain hosting the POS system for 12, 000 stores? Does your legal practice host all of the data for 3, 4 or 5 offices in different places?

When data, programs, or information is hosted centrally, those outside your office must gain access. If the web connection is interrupted, those people cannot get their work done. Can your intranet solution support your needs? Can it support multiple simultaneous connections? Is it stable enough to handle this when they are from various places?

For a single office surfing the web, a cable modem or inexpensive 10 Meg circuit may be sufficient. Metro Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet or other high-speed dedicated circuits is advisable for the headquarters where high-speed Internet access is important. High speed is important but they also must be able to support multiple distinct connections. A cable modem would probably not be enough.

Cable Circuit Sharing in Sammamish, Washington Versus Dedicated Bandwidth: What is Right For You?

In many cases, installing an inexpensive cable modem comes at a price. Oftentimes, a lower monthly rate comes with the realization that you are sharing bandwidth with many different tenants and offices. If you subscribe to a cable modem with a 30-megabyte connection, you would expect to always be able to reach that high speed. However, it is possible that during peak hours, you won’t. Cable operators are only permitted to establish a certain amount of bandwidth within communities. Different buildings and tenants housed or working within those buildings all share that set amount of bandwidth. You might be capped at 30-megabyte speed, but may never be able to actually reach that speed during the important hours of your business day. Do you care if you only get 6 when you were set up to expect 30?

Some providers are available who offer dedicated bandwidth 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 company. 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.

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. If you want to reach gigabit speeds from your organization 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.

Redundancy With Sammamish, Washington High Speed Business Internet Circuits

While certain carriers offer superior Internet bandwidth products in Sammamish, the reality is that it is possible for a circuit to go down. 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.

There are, in essence, two types of redundancy.

With the first kind, you receive several circuits but they all come from the same 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 regional outage or physical line damaged outside of your building, both circuits may go down. While offering some protection, it is not without risk.

You can also achieve redundancy by utilizing different carriers to bring in and establish your circuits. Using advanced routers and IP address allocations, you can bind these connections together so that, to your users and to the public, it appears and behaves as a single circuit. However, despite appearances, they are actually very much separate and are redundant to each other. Diversity redundancy provides greater assurance, comfort and 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.

When considering redundant circuits and providers, try to be sure that the providers you look at in Sammamish, Washington have different physical geographic routes or pathways. Doing so will maximize redundancy. This means that you should try to have the circuits come into you building from different sides. Ideally, the circuits will be going in different directions and toward various central organization spaces or data centers. What if there is some kind of catastrophic incident such as a fire or accident that impacts circuits within a region? Now, you have redundancy in an alternative physical direction.

What Cost Awaits if you do Not Have Enough High-Speed Internet access Protection for Your Organization?

Even though Internet access comes with a cost, you will save money if you make sure it is dependable. Unreliable access will end up costing you more in the long run. Please think about the following scenarios:

Your business relies on VoIP for its telephone service

Is your company on a cable modem? How many other tenants is your carrier servicing in your building? Are 14 other offices getting circuits? It is possible that during normal business hours, those tenants might be downloading large files or watching continuous videos. They might be getting a lot of phone calls. As available bandwidth shrinks, what will happen to your calls? How will it affect the quality of that telephone call? Will you lose calls? Inaudible (choppy) to your customers?

Maybe your business acts as a data center for various other locations

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. Every single one of your offices, stores and locations rely on you and your primary Internet connection to retrieve data. How will you be affected if your circuit goes down? Would it cause mere annoyance or utter disaster? Can meaningful work be conducted at your remote offices? Process new orders? Dispense and receive data? Before choosing a solution, be sure to assess and really understand what your organization requires. 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. You may operate a service like this: other systems communicate with yours via an API to figure out freight rates, stock prices, to compile weather data or receive any other information that you provide. What if these other systems have difficulty connecting your servers? Customers do not enjoy repeated outages. How long with they put up with them before looking to take their organization elsewhere?

The telephone system at your call center relies on VoIP

Maybe your organization depends entirely on the web. Should your circuits go down, your representatives cannot make outbound calls. They are also unable to answer calls. Basically, you are out of business. Is redundancy enough? Can you truly rely on your providers? Are they as dependable as they claim? Is the quality of service sufficient for your calls to be clear and reliable?

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

Clearly, there are many choices. Your budget, as well as the needs of your company, will help drive your decisions. To recap:

Internet Access Needs for Small Company

If your company 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. You may find that if your building is “lit”, gigabit service and Metro Ethernet service may be reasonably cost-effective choices for you. 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

Having a medium or mid-sized company in Sammamish, Washington requires that you have higher-speed access to the internet. Your choices include: Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet or other high-speed circuits. In a perfect scenario, multiple circuits from different providers will give you the most redundancy. It is sometimes possible to reach this without adding ridiculous costs. For example, choosing two 50 meg circuits versus one 100 meg circuit. Again, costs vary. Availability also varies. Speaking with one of our experts will help you determine the options available in your specific location.

Internet Access for the Medium Sized Company with Multiple Offices

If your business has several places or offices, you are at great risk for failure. They require redundant circuits. Multiple carriers would be great. 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 of carriers and services will help keep your company up and running as efficiently as possible.

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

For businesses that fit this description, it is essential to have gigabit Internet circuits, point-to-point high-speed Internet circuits and Metro Ethernet 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 need to provide sufficient bandwidth to handle usage spikes without slowdowns or interruptions. Having both your hardware and your circuits capable of supporting many different, fast, and simultaneous connections is essential. It cannot be one or the other.

Internet Need Demand Analysis Provided Free of Charge

The risk of insufficient bandwidth or failing circuits is tremendous. It is imperative that the circuit or circuits you choose meet your needs but also keep you within your allowable budget. The pressure involved in selecting the proper mix of hardware and circuits can be overwhelming.

Our expert engineers will review your requirements and needs and create a free action plan for you. We’ll examine your demand levels and current usage. We’ll then design a plan that keeps your costs reasonable while meeting your demand for a smoothly run organization.

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.