Everything EVERY Business Should Know About Network Connectivity And SDWAN

In the current world of Digital Transformation, Industry 4.0, and the new normal of work from home/work from anywhere .... network connectivity and Software Defined Wide Area Networks (SDWAN) have emerged as the critical pieces enabling successful implementation of IoT, edge computing, and unified communications applications enterprise wide. Rather than jumping in blindly, here's everything EVERY business should know first.

THE EVOLUTION OF ACCESS

We live in an ever-increasing world; IoT devices are making the need for bandwidth and cloud computing on the edge. Today we will talk about the network itself and cloud connectivity. The network is the foundation of everything that is done. Everything that we access in the cloud has to get there through the internet. Internet access is the key, the foundation to the entire model.  SD-WAN is the “shock-absorbing” layer that sits in between the raw network and the cloud where applications live. At the very top of the pyramid is where you have your applications such as UCaaS and CCaaS; this is what allows clouds to talk to one another. Finally, the entire pyramid is your security layer, which is what protects the entire structure.

There are different principal and ancillary components when it comes to internet access, these include:

Principle Components

• Cable
• DSL
• Best-Effort Fiber
• Fixed 4G/5G
• Fixed Satellite
• Fixed Microwave
• Dedicated Fiber

Ancillary Components

• Auto-Failover
• WiFi Hotspots
• Cloud Connect

Cable and Best-Effort Fiber are the two main methods of getting to the cloud at a very cheap rate. Cable itself started a long time ago, at the beginning all the bandwidth was dedicated to the TV signal, but thanks to the innovation of turning TV signals into IP, an enormous amount of bandwidth has been freed up. Today while the price per meg keeps deteriorating, the amount of bandwidth that the cable companies can provide is skyrocketing thanks to DOCSIS 3.1, changing the way businesses use the cloud.

Just because there is a lot of throughput on a coax line, it doesn’t mean all the packets arrive quickly, nor does it mean that all the packets will arrive at all. It’s still an over-subscribed, best-effort, non-SLA service. Applications like voice and video are incredibly sensitive to latency and packet loss and always will be.

SD-WAN provides the opportunity to clean up packet loss and latency. SD-WAN uses redundancy and error-correction to restore packets that could be lost, and it finds quicker paths to the cloud (like WAZE) when it needs to. There is no static routing cable “telling” the router what to do – it’s making decisions on its own to protect the outcome, which is near 100% data transmission with minimal latency.

PROVIDERS FREEDOMFIRE COMMUNICATIONS WORKS WITH

So, what cable providers does FreedomFire Communications work with?

When you are talking about cable, make sure you don’t sleep on the add-ons. You must make sure that you aren’t just talking about bandwidth. A lot of providers have some extremely innovative products.

The FreedomFire Communications best-effort providers include:

FreedomFire Communications has also excelled in the dedicated fiber provider area. If you want to find out if there’s a dedicated fiber provider in your area, you can always just ask FreedomFire Communications. We have patented tools which shows us what is where and offered by whom.

We also work with international dedicated fiber providers:

Wireless Internet Access providers include:

SD-WAN PROVIDERS

When it comes to SD-WAN, FreedomFire Communications works with multiple providers.

So, what are the key drivers of an SD-WAN design?

1. Cost – How does the customer get the speed and reliability without overpaying?
2. Management Complexity – Customer’s ability to self-manage a network
3. Functionality – What abilities does the overlay (AKA, aggregate) network need to have?
4. Quality – Are there any applications that are sensitive to delay, packet loss, and jitter?
5. Security – If the customer is securing the WAN at the edge, do they want to do it with a standard edge firewall appliance, or do they want to simplify down into one SD-WAN box?

To learn more about all your options for network connectivity and SDWAN, including free assistance with network design and security, simply ask us at FreedomFire Communications. 

The Evolution Of Cable

THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW CABLE COULD DO

We all know the price per meg in bandwidth has been declining over the years. Back in 2012, price per meg was just a little over $4 but when you look at 2017, you will notice that we are down below $2 per meg. That is an over 50% decrease! So, what do agents do to counter the price compression in coax? It is important to remember that customers need more bandwidth and that there are also other technologies you can sell them. You’ve probably heard the word DOCSIS thrown around, DOCSIS is what cable providers use for their coax networks. It is the underlying technology that allows them to do what they do over that coax medium. If you look at the image below, back in 1997 when DOCSIS 1.0 came out, it was 40 Mbps downstream and 10 Mbps upstream. This revolutionized the game, and the coax providers started to become relevant at that point. Today there is new technology being deployed that is pushing broadband speeds into eh 10G realm, both downstream and upstream.

Cable television started back in 1948, and gradually this grew immensely, by 1980 there were 16 million subscribers. By the 2000s the cable companies looked at the market and realized businesses also needed other technologies such as on-demand programing, high-speed internet and, cable phone service.

While the price per meg keeps deteriorating, the amount of bandwidth that the cable companies can provide is skyrocketing thanks to DOCSIS 3.1. This is changing the way businesses use the cloud. Just because we’re able to throw a lot of bandwidth at the cloud doesn’t mean it will work or work well. Although there are weaknesses in coax performance, these weaknesses can be used to upsell additional products that most agents ignore. Here are a few examples of how you can turn a weakness into and opportunity:

Weakness 1: Increased speed does NOT fix quality issues

Just because there is a lot of throughput on a coax line, it doesn’t mean all the packets arrive quickly. It also doesn’t mean that all of the packets will arrive at all. It is still an over-subscribed, best-effort, non-SLA service. Applications like voice and video are incredibly sensitive to latency and packet loss.

Opportunity 1: SD-WAN cleans up coax performance

SD-WAN uses redundancy and error-correction to restore packets that could be lost, and it finds a quicker path to the cloud (like WAZE) when it needs to. There is no static routing table “telling” the router what to do; it’s making decisions on its own to protect the outcome which is near 100 percent data transmission with minimal latency.

Weakness 2: Coax is prone to outages

Coax lines experience outages at a higher rate than fiber, T1, and other methods. In business, outages cost a lot of money.

Opportunity 2: Auto-failover protects the connection and adds MRC

Comcast specifically has a great product called, Comcast Business Connection Pro. Normally, in a Comcast circuit you get the primary router for an extra cost of $29.95, and the customer can put in a second backup router which the primary router connects to. You can use this in conjunction with SD-WAN.

Weakness 3: Coax is built for sharing but most people aren’t good at marketing

Coax lines are ideal for retail stores that want to attract patrons and keep them there for as long as possible.

Opportunity 3: Turn WiFi into a Marketing Tool

The easy to configure guest WiFi can be turned into a marketing tool. The Comcast WiFi Pro option provides this ability; it is a $19.95 per month upsell that takes some of the burdens off the customer.

Opportunity 4: Video Monitoring Solutions

Traditionally a customer might not think of their cable company as someone that can provide video monitoring. Comcast has a great product called Comcast Business SmartOffice, for $29.95 per month they will add a camera to give their customer some visibility into their store.

ADDING IT ALL UP

If you take a look at all of the easy add-ons that Comcast (Cox and soon Spectrum) offers, it’s an absolute sin to leave all of this money on the table. Most of your customers are ordering all of these things from other places, with coax you have the chance to win all of the business and simplify all of these services into one bill for you.

To learn more and request a free quote simply ask here:

Free Sourcing And Network Design For Cable Services

Understanding Broadband Technology

This class teaches students about the various types of broadband technologies available to connect homes and businesses to the Internet. We discuss the pros and cons of the different options so that students can make an informed decision about purchasing their Internet service. 

Topics Covered......

Basic Broadband Concepts 

T1 

Carrier Grade Ethernet 

Point to Point Wireless 

Wireless 

DSL 

Cable 

Satellite