High-Speed Shreveport Access To The Web

Access to High Speed Internet in Shreveport: Metro Ethernet Access, Organization Broadband Internet and Gigabit Internet

The lifeblood of Shreveport, Louisiana companies doing business in the current environment depends on reliable access to The net. The organization functions of all companies, from Fortune 500 to small businesses, depend on fast and reliable access to The Internet.

In the coming months and years, we will become increasingly reliant on our access to the net.

From video chat to voice over IP, email to data sharing and data archiving to Internet commerce, the net is everywhere you look. What is the best fix for your needs? Is a cable modem enough? Maybe you need Metro Ethernet. Is Gigabit Internet right for you? What is best for your company in Shreveport, Louisiana? Will your company needs be met with a 50 Meg circuit, a 5 Meg circuit, 10 Meg Internet access or 100 Meg access to The net point?

Access to the net: Determining Your Business’s Needs

Prior to selecting a service, your organization must figure out its needs. Is the net only used for web surfing and email? Is the web used for real-time data connection with servers in the cloud? Perhaps you, in Shreveport, Louisiana, are hosting the data and remote locations rely on this.

What if your high-speed Internet is disrupted by an outage? What will happen to your company? How will the downtime affect your organization? Is uptime essential? These types of questions must be answered before you make purchase anything.

Appraising Various High-Speed Internet Solutions in Shreveport

High-speed Internet access is required by all businesses. When picking the correct broadband internet, balancing the costs and benefits to your business is imperative. While many service providers throw around terminologies such as:

• High-speed Internet access provider
• Business Internet service provider
• Broadband cable modem services
• Metro Ethernet service provider
• Gigabit Internet services
• Multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)
• Services related to point-to-point circuits
• Five megabyte Internet access
• 10 megabyte Internet access
• High-speed 50-megabyte access to The net circuits
• Internet access circuits- One hundred Meg
• sip trunking / sip trunks
• Direct or dedicated Internet access
• … and then some

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

Business Access: Surfing the net at Work

For most companies in Shreveport, some or all of the employees need access to the web. Third party applications, company research or development and e-commerce are just some of the ways the web may be needed.

The number of workers you employ, may be the most important factor in your decision making process. A 5 or 10 megabyte Internet circuit may be perfect if you only have a few employees. You may need more if you have more workers and those workers all need to be on the web during the same hours.

Do your employees primarily use an intranet system? If so, you may not need much high-speed Internet service. When employees are often downloading images, videos and documents, however, the need for speed increases significantly.

Do you backup information? When you do remote backups from every workstation, which you should, you must support multiple and simultaneous connections to the web in order to sync your backup data.

Are you using a service such as DropBox or Google drive to share files? After a file is saved, it goes to the cloud and then to someone else’s computer. You need to have sufficient bandwidth to support this function while also supporting every other service.

Are you interested in high-speed company Internet? Depending on where you are located, you may want to look into the viability of gigabit Internet and Metro Ethernet. They are almost always found in “lit buildings” in Shreveport that are already wired by a carrier. Installing high-speed Internet may not be as difficult and expensive as you think.

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, obtaining high-speed access to The web with Metro Ethernet or gigabit Internet can often take 30 days or less depending upon availability.

High-Speed access to The web Required for Hosting Applications

Your business may host its own servers. Do they run websites APIs or data feeds for external offices? Do your headquarters have a hosted Internet application that must be accessed regularly by 40 or 50 branch offices? Does your office host the point of sale (POS) system for every single store in a large retail chain? Are you a legal practice hosting the data for three locations?

When data, programs, or information is hosted centrally, those outside your office must gain access. If your Internet connection goes down, those people are unable to work. When deciding on the right intranet solution for your company, ask yourself: Is the solution going to adequately support simultaneous and multiple connections from my different locations?

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. It is advisable that high-speed access to The net be available at the central organization office or headquarters, including gigabit Ethernet, Metro Ethernet or some other high-speed dedicated circuits. High speed is important but they also must be able to support multiple distinct connections. Do you think a cable modem is sufficient? It is probably not.

Cable Circuit Sharing in Shreveport 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. Your low monthly bill may mean that the bandwidth is shared among multiple tenants. During peak use hours, you may not be able to reach proper speeds. Many cable companies only deliver a set amount of bandwidth within a community. 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. Is getting 7 when you expect 30 a problem?

Some providers offer customers dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth. In this situation, your bandwidth is not shared but is fully allocated to your business. Notwithstanding the existence of tenants, offices or buildings in the area, you should have the full capability of your circuits at all times.

Five Meg, ten Meg, fifty Meg and 100 Meg circuits of guaranteed bandwidth are available with Metro Ethernet. Gigabit Internet providers offer gigabit speeds from your office to the web.

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.

Backup With Shreveport High Speed Organization Internet Circuits

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

Redundant circuits.

Redundancy in this situation comes in two forms.

With the first type of redundancy, you receive multiple circuits from the same carrier. 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. Even multiple circuits can fail, such as in the event of a large-scale carrier outage or when there damage to an external line. While there is some protection, there is also some risk.

Circuit redundancy can also be achieved in the following way: Import circuits using two different and distinct providers. These connections can be bound together so they act and appear to the public as a single circuit. Using particular routers and IP address allocations, no one would be able to tell that you have multiple providers or circuits. But, you know that they are actually separate and redundant. While circuit redundancy in general is a good idea, diversity redundancy by using different carriers, offers far better protection. If one carrier has a problem, the other likely will not.

To maximize the benefit of redundancy, consider looking for redundant circuits from different carriers that have different pathway in Shreveport, Louisiana. 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?

Although Internet access comes at a price, the price of unreliable access to The Internet is tremendous. Contemplate these scenarios:

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

Is your business on a cable modem? How many other tenants is your carrier servicing in your building? Are 14 other offices getting circuits? Any of these tenants may be taking many calls, conducting huge downloads or streaming video during your regular office hours. As they use more bandwidth, there is less for available for your needs. What will happen to your phone calls? What about phone call quality? Maybe calls will randomly drop? Will the calls be choppy?

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

Whether you are a law firm doing file sharing, an accounting practice sharing databases or a retailer operating a distributed point-of-sale system, your office is the hub for your enterprise. All of your offices, whether you have 3 or 3, 000, rely on your primary Internet connection to successfully access data. What will happen if your circuit crashes? Would you merely be annoyed? Would there be catastrophic consequences? Can your satellite or remote office do any work at all? Process new orders? Disseminate needed information and data? Before choosing a solution, be sure to assess and really understand what your company requires. Maybe your software company runs a hosted solution. Maybe that hosted solution is used by hundreds of your customers. You may operate a service like this: other systems talk to yours via an API to figure out freight prices, stock prices, to compile weather data or receive any other information that you provide. What will happen when there is a problem connecting to your servers? How will repeated outages affect your customers? Will they remain customers?

The telephone system at your call center relies on VoIP

Your organization is completely reliant on the internet. No calls can go out if your circuits fail. In addition, they will be unable to answer incoming calls. You are now, essentially, out of organization. Is redundancy enough? Many of the finest call centers with the best reputations already understand and use redundancy. They should consider if they have sufficient protection. Are the carriers you currently use as reliable as they should be? Are they as reliable as you need them to be? Is the quality of your calls consistently and reliably clear?

The Correct High-Speed Organization Access Circuits for Your Shreveport Company: How to Choose

You have no shortage of options. Your company needs and your budget will have to come into consideration when deciding on your solutions. In summary:

Internet Access for Smaller Businesses

A single fifty, ten or five megabyte access to The web circuit may be sufficient to meet the needs of your small company, particularly if you have only one location and are not worried about redundancy. For an office in a lit building, you may find that gigabit service or Metro Ethernet are affordable options for you. Prices vary based on your location and availability of circuits; speak with our engineers to find your best option.

Mid-Sized Company Internet access: One Location

You will need higher speed access to The Internet if you have a medium sized business in Shreveport. Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet and other higher-speed Internet circuits are your options. Using different circuits and different providers will, if you choose, provide you with redundancy. You may be able to achieve this in a manner that will not break the bank. Two smaller circuits may be cheaper than one. For instance, you may use two 50 meg circuits instead of a single 100 meg circuit. Remember, costs vary. So does availability. You need to speak with one of our experts to determine your options in your specific location.

Midsized Businesses with Multiple Places: Internet Access

Businesses with many places face the greatest risk for failure. They require redundant circuits. Varied providers are optimal. You can increase redundancy with switches or routers. Having redundant equipment can also minimize risk. Take a careful look at Ethernet access services, Metro Ethernet providers and gigabit Internet providers. Research other high-speed Internet access circuit providers also and make an informed decision. Your organization can benefit from finding the right mix of services and providers.

Bigger corporations, enterprise companies and providers of services that are delivered using Internet

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. You will want to have the greatest protection of your uptime. To accomplish this you must have redundancy: redundant circuits from multiple carriers and redundant hardware for your system. You must have the bandwidth to withstand sharp increases in usage. Doing so will help protect you from slowdowns or interruptions. Both your hardware and circuits must be capable of supporting a vast number of simultaneous and fast connections.

Receive a Free Internet Need and Demand Analysis

There is great risk of failing circuits or insufficient bandwidth. Your ideal single circuit or multiple circuits should stay within your budget while still meeting your demands. There is tremendous pressure on you to choose the best combination of circuits and hardware.

Our engineers will analyze your needs and requirements and develop a free action plan for you. We will 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 company.

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.