High-Speed Access to The Internet in Suffolk

Suffolk, Virginia High Speed Access to the World Wide Web: Accessing Metro Ethernet, Company Broadband Internet and Gigabit Internet

In today’s world, Suffolk, Virginia companies need dependable access to The net. It is the lifeblood of their business. All companies, big and small, need fast and reliable access to The net.

We will become increasingly dependent on access to The web as the months and years progress.

Our uses of the web reach far and wide. From data sharing, video calls, and shopping to VOIP and email, the internet has a broad presence. What is the best fix to meet your requirements? Can a cable modem suffice? Maybe you need Metro Ethernet. Your needs may be met with Gigabit Internet. Does your company in Suffolk, Virginia 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?

Access to the web: Determining Your Business’s Needs

Before selecting the appropriate service, your business must assess its needs. Is the internet only used for web surfing and email? Is it used to network with cloud servers? There may be remote sites that rely on you and you are hosting the data in Suffolk.

What happens if you have an outage in your high-speed Internet? Can your company afford the downtime? Is the absence of uptime detrimental? Ask yourself these questions before making any purchases. The answers will help you determine what is right for you.

High-Speed Internet Solutions in Suffolk, Virginia: Evaluating Differences

In the broadest of terms, companies need high-speed Internet access. Choosing the correct broadband for your business requires a cost benefit analysis. Don’t be distracted by terminology. While you may hear service providers throw out words and phrases like:

• High-speed access to the Internet
• Provider of Internet for Businesses
• Provider of broadband cable modems
• Metro Ethernet service
• Gigabit Ethernet
• MPLS
• Point to point data circuits
• Five megabyte access to The web circuit
• Internet access circuits-10 Meg
• Fifty-megabytes-Internet access circuits
• High-speed access to The web circuits-100 megabytes
• Sip trunking providers
• Direct or dedicated Internet access
• … plus others

… the actual issue is knowing what technology and capability can satisfy your needs.

Web Surfing and Business Internet Access

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

The number of workers you employ, may be the most important factor in your decision making process. A five or ten megabyte Internet circuit may be all you need if employ a small workforce. If you have many employees who need to use the net at the same time, you may do better with 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, if your company requires that its employees download many documents or images and videos, Internet speed becomes more important.

Are you performing routine backups? It is recommended that you do remote backups from every desk. If you are, you will need to support simultaneous connections out to the web to synchronize the backup data to collect.

Does your business use a file sharing service? DropBox? Google drive? As people save files, those files are pushed to the cloud and then synchronized back to other people’s computers. You need to have sufficient bandwidth to support this function while also supporting every other service.

Company high-speed Internet access may interest you. Depending on your location, you may have options such as gigabit Internet or Metro Ethernet. These are typically found in “lit buildings” in Suffolk. Providers have already wired these buildings. The ease and affordability of adding high-speed Internet to your office may surprise you.

Introducing Metro Ethernet to a new building can be expensive. Bringing a connection to a suite within the building is not. Metro Ethernet or gigabit Internet may provide you with high-speed access to The net in thirty days or less, depending on availability.

Hosted Applications Requiring High-Speed Internet Access

Your company 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? 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 law firm? Do you host data for three or more external sites?

When data, programs, or information is hosted centrally, those outside your office must gain access. If the net connection is interrupted or fails, those people are unable to accomplish any work. Is the intranet solution you are choosing sufficiently reliable? Is it stable enough to support simultaneous connections from different sites?

A cost friendly 10 Meg circuit or even a cable modem may satisfy the needs of a company with a single office that needs to surf the web. For headquarters, Metro Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet or other high-speed Internet dedicated circuits is advisable. While fast access to The web is and important, they must also have the capability to handle assorted simultaneous connections. The support you need could not be provided by a cable modem.

Dedicated Bandwidth Versus Suffolk, Virginia Shared Cable Circuits

Utilizing a cable modem or other less expensive circuit may seem like a good option but can result in unexpected cost. 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. Only a certain amount of bandwidth may be available in a community. Many cable companies have limits on the amount they can deliver. Different buildings and tenants housed or working within those buildings all share that set amount of bandwidth. During crucial working hours, you may not get to the 30-meg speed you have been capped at. What will the consequences be if you expect 30 but only get half that? What if you get even less?

Some providers offer customers dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth. In this situation, your bandwidth is not shared but is fully allocated to your company. The full capacity of your circuit should be attainable during all hours regardless of neighboring buildings, people or offices.

For example, with Metro Ethernet, you can receive a guaranteed bandwidth in increments of five Meg circuits, 10 Meg circuits, 50 Meg circuits and 100 Meg circuits. Gigabit Internet providers offer gigabit speeds from your office to the net.

Here, carriers deliver enough high-speed to the building, so that it can be split among various tenants. The carrier has the right amount so that everyone gets the contracted speed that has been promised.

Redundant High Speed Company Internet Circuits in Suffolk, Virginia

The truth is that circuits can go down in Suffolk even though some providers offer superior Internet bandwidth products. 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 is where you get multiple circuits from one carrier. Redundant circuits help protect you from certain failures including physical line issues, port issues within routers, and others. However, if that carrier has a regional outage or physical line damaged outside of your building, both circuits may go down. This is not foolproof, but does offer some protection.

The second way to set up circuit redundancy is by using two different carriers to bring in 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. You know the truth: that they are individual circuits and are there to back each other up in case one goes down. Diversity redundancy, as this is called, offers you more protection that you might realize. In the event that one carrier goes down, the other will still be alive.

For maximum redundancy, you should look for redundant circuits from different providers with different physical geographic pathways in Suffolk. This means that you should try to have the circuits come into you building from different sides. The circuits would be attached underground or to telephone poles, in various directions. The circuits would go to different data centers or central offices. By doing this, if there is a significant problem such as a fire at a data center, you have redundancy in an alternative physical direction.

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

The cost of dependable access to The net pales in comparison to the cost of unreliable access. Contemplate these scenarios:

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

Your company is on a cable modem and your carrier provides circuits to 20 other offices in your building. Any of these tenants may be taking many calls, conducting huge downloads or streaming video during your regular office hours. What will happen to your telephone calls as the amount of usable bandwidth decreases? What about the quality of your calls? Are calls lost or dropped? Will they be full of static?

Your organization is the central data point for multiple 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. Your primary Internet connection is responsible for granting access to data to all of your sites. This is true whether you have 3 sites or 2000 places. What if your circuit fails? Is it just irritating? Is it going to cause tremendous problems? Are your other offices able to do any work? Process new orders? Share information? Make sure you completely understand your needs before you pick a solution. Perhaps you are a software company, running a hosted solution used by hundreds of customers. Maybe you offer a service that allows other systems use an application program interface (API) to speak with you to collect information and data. 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 call center uses VoIP

Does your organization completely rely on the net? If your circuits go down, you cannot make calls. Your reps have no way of answering calls, if they even know they are coming in. You are now officially out of company. Is redundancy enough? Make sure your providers are as reliable as possible. Is the quality of your calls consistently and reliably clear?

Considering the Best Suffolk High-Speed Organization Access Circuits for Your Company

You clearly have many options. Your budget, as well as the needs of your company, will help drive your decisions. In summary:

Your Small Business and Access to the Internet

If you have one location or office and do not feel the need to consider redundancy for your system, a smaller Internet access circuit may be all you need. A single fifty, ten or five megabyte circuit might be enough. You may find that if your building is “lit”, gigabit service and Metro Ethernet service may be reasonably cost-effective choices for you. Prices change based on your location and the availability of circuits. Please speak with our engineers about what options best suit your needs.

Mid-Sized Businesses access to The net – One Location

Mid sized companies with a single office in Suffolk, need higher speed Internet access. Higher-speed circuits like Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet or others may be your best options. Multiple circuits utilizing multiple providers would, ideally, provide you with maximum redundancy. But can you do this without doubling costs? Sometimes, yes. Using one 100-megabyte circuit instead of two 50-megabyte circuits, is one example. Again, costs vary. Availability also varies. 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.

Access to the net for the Mid-Sized Company with Several Offices

Companies with multiple locations are most at risk for failure. Redundancy is crucial. Multiple providers are highly desirable. You can minimize the risk of downtime at if you also have redundant equipment like routers or switches. Before you make a decision here too, do your research. Look closely into Ethernet access services, Metro Ethernet providers, gigabit Internet providers and other high-speed circuit providers. The right mix of providers and services will help keep your organization up and running as efficiently as possible.

If you are a larger company, an enterprise company or a are in the organization of providing services using the Internet

If you can place yourself in this category, it is essential that you have Metro Ethernet, point-to-point circuits and gigabit Internet circuits. Having redundant hardware as well as redundant circuits from different providers will ensure your needed uptime. You do not want any slowdowns or interruptions that often occur during spikes in usage. Avoid this by having sufficient bandwidth. 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 Can Get a Free Internet Need and Demand Analysis

The risk of insufficient bandwidth or failing circuits is tremendous. The circuit or circuits you have must stay within the parameters of your budget while still meeting your company needs. There is tremendous pressure on you to choose the best combination of circuits and hardware.

Our engineers will take the pressure off and develop a free action plan for you by analyzing your needs. We will look at your current usage, demand levels and scope out a design to give you the resources you need while keeping your organization up and running at a reasonable cost.

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. Your assessment may be finished within as little as 48 hours.