Who Is The Best Business Broadband Provider?

This question is often asked by IT staff at any given business …. but what they really mean is “who is the best business broadband provider …. for ME?” Even more specifically … “who can give me exactly what I need ….. where I need it …. to do what I have to do with my data/voice network?”

If you ask this ….. read on so you’ll be better positioned to ask the question in a more meaningful way; and get a response that makes the most business sense for your specific situation.

Most importantly ….. to get a complete and worthwhile answer ... there really needs to be more information provided which better describes exactly what your requirements are.

What is the exact location or locations? What is your budget? What applications must your network support (voice, data, multi-media, conferencing, number of users, 1 or more locations - single building or campus, etc.). What's your current usage? What’s your projected future usage? What do you have now (T1, DS3, etherent, etc.)? What’s your current uptime, latency, SLA, and QoS? Who's your current provider? Are you currently under a contract and when does it run out?

Don’t focus solely on speed … or price either. You also need to consider uptime, latency, packet forwarding, and other issues. Both in analyzing your current “state” …. and estimating your future “grow to”.

First start by asking yourself which applications you need to run over the link. People don't buy networks, they buy access to applications.

Then you need to look at the expected usage over the link. The profile of the applications is also important -- are they latency constrained? Are they bandwidth hogs? Is it sporadic access or sustained? Are you bringing Internet over the link?

How far apart are your sites (if this is a multi-site install)? Will that introduce latency? Is that latency going to be a problem?

You also have to look at what you can get. Maybe all you can get is a T1.

Depending on the answers above, you might also need to look at WAN acceleration, Citrix, or other such technologies to get around application limitations. Some applications just don't work well when they're separated by their users by more than a few milliseconds.

That said .... initially I'd lean toward a T1; probably integrated (voice and data). But that will depend on number of users and load (video conferencing, large multi-media file sharing, etc.) and so forth. You might need to go bonded T1 or DS3 (T3) bandwidth if your load/usage is large. If available, ethernet should be an option at least from a cost effectiveness standpoint.

As for a provider .... shop around. Remember that location is key when buying broadband. Use a consultant who can talk the language and negotiate for you. If you do this yourself you'll get frustrated, spend a lot of time and effort, and likely be talked into something you really don't need ... at a cost more than you should pay. If you’d like free help with this …. I strongly recommend the no cost services at:

Compare Business Broadband Providers

How Do You Know What The RIGHT Business Internet Solution Is....FOR YOU

It goes without saying that businesses today, small and large, need to have a reliable and rock-solid Internet connection to enable them to do business effectively. Choosing the wrong business Internet service provider will do your business more harm than good, and can cost you customers that you can never get back. Even a small business today cannnot afford to try to make DSL or cable suffice; while the price may be attractive, the service from DSL or cable is more often than not exactly what you pay for — cheap, and is that the message that you want to get across to your customers? Your customers are going to think that if you cheap-out on your business Internet service, that you will also cheap-out on the quality of the products and services that you are offering. You need to understand that with DSL and cable, the only way they can achieve the price points they quote is because those circuits are designed to be over-subscribed to the hilt, and if your DSL or cable is not over-subscribed today, you can bet that your provider is trying to over-subscribe it, because they offer NO guarantees for DSL or cable servivce. A smaller business can usually get by with the reliability offered by T1 or bonded T1, but if Ethernet services are offered in your area, it is definitely something that you should look at closely and consider, as it can be an extremely cost effective solution.

Keep in mind that the Ethernet services being offered here are Carrier Ethernet offerings. The term “ethernet” is tossed about by DSL and cable providers but that is not true Ethernet. The services offered here are Carrier Ethernet offerings, meaning that the service is a dedicated service offered by the actual carrier, not a shared service being resold on someone else’s network.

When it comes time to choose and make the tough choices for your business, there will undoubtedly be lots of different options available. This is especially true when talking about telecommunications, where the market is full of things that look good on the surface. You could go with T1, Ethernet, DSL, cable, or something else. With all of these things staring your business in the face, you have to consider the costs and the weigh the benefits of each choice. This choice is one that shouldn’t really be a contest, though. Business Ethernet offers many advantages over the other choices out on the market.

WHAT IS SD-WAN?

SD-WAN is one of the newest technologies to come out and the efficiency and cost efectiveness of it is becoming clear to companies worldwide. SD-WAN is a revolutionary process for improving operational efficiency when accessing mission critical applications that need to always be available.  SD-WAN connects the end-users at a site to cloud services and/or colo centers and data centers by employing the use of inexpensive broadband links. This reduces costs for redundancy, failover, and load balancing and still allows a great deal of flexibility in deployment.

NOW PROVIDING INTERNATIONAL CIRCUITS, INCLUDING MPLS AND SD-WAN

Providing international circuits used to be a cost and pricing nightmare but with the latest technology, we are changing that.  We can now provide various types of international circuits virtually anywhere in the world. That can include international Ethernet, or for those foreign offices where you need to share data frequently, international MPLS may be the key for you.  And combining SD-WAN with your international circuits can provide even greater cost effective productivity in a robust and flexible telecom solution.

Contact us today and talk with one of our telecom experts to find out the real cost of Business Ethernet services or other dedicated high speed Internet offerings for your business, and how that can improve your bottom line.

To learn more about what the best options are to meet your network needs....simply ask us at the link below. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3.

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