Network speeds are closely tied to an organization’s ability to stay productive and remain competitive and profitable at all times. As businesses expand and take on new services, technologies, and a larger workforce, they require more network capacity to support growth without sacrificing efficiency.
In a world shifting to a work-from-home reality, employees using VPNs to access secure data remotely require networks with enough bandwidth to prevent slow page speeds and general downtime. Also, the increased frequency of video conferencing places high bandwidth demands on networks for extended periods of time. In order to ensure your network can reliably provide a high-speed Internet connection for your workers, you may need to evaluate your current setup and determine whether you may need to upgrade to support your business’ new needs.
Struggling with slow or suboptimal network speeds for your organization? Here are 4 recommendations:
The first step to improving business internet speed is to determine if your organization has the right amount of bandwidth necessary to ensure each of your network’s users can continue their Internet-based activities without delays or interruptions.
Each action of your network will use a different portion of your enterprise’s total bandwidth. For example, employees using computers for basic use such as emailing will take up some of the least bandwidth. More network-demanding activities, such as streaming video, uploading and downloading large files, and video conferencing, place a larger strain on network capacity, which can cause longer downloads and slower load times1. If several members of your team need to join a video conferencing call while another is downloading a large file, this could reduce the network connection speed and hinder productivity across the board.
Consider surveying your staff or users to get an idea of how many hours they spend doing network-heavy tasks each day while paying attention to peak bottleneck times to calculate total network bandwidth use. Alternatively, you can find an online tool that asks you to provide information into your network-based activities to estimate your bandwidth use. Once you have an idea of how much bandwidth your company uses, you can examine your organization’s long-term growth goals to determine whether your network should be expanded or upgraded to accommodate additional staff members, new services or changing work environments.
Wired connections, such as Ethernet or fiber cables, provide faster network speeds than wireless alternatives. By using wired cables, your network users will receive faster data transmission between devices and the Internet. Wired connections are also more stable and secure than wireless network setups.
If your organization requires more bandwidth, consider looking into one of the following wired setups:
Certain network setups, such as ethernet services, offer route diversity options where your business can reroute connections if network demand increases, eliminating or reducing connection bottlenecks.
While this doesn’t address remote employees, it could remove some of the strain on your wireless networks by having on-site employees tap into wired networks when available.
Once you’ve determined your organization’s future growth plans and level of available bandwidth, as well as considered different network options optimized for speed, it’s time to decide if your network should be upgraded.
Your organization’s network may require upgrading if2:
Depending on the upgrade, an optimized network setup will provide faster data transfer, increased team productivity, and increased uptime.
Determining which network or bandwidth upgrade is right for your organization requires the right training, planning, and expertise. Local managed network service providers (MNSPs) are knowledgable about how to work with local organizations to increase their business internet speeds and reliability, tailoring their solutions to fit an organization’s unique network needs.
MNSPs are able to:
Interested in increasing business internet speed? Download the Solutions Overview to find out what network setup is best for your organization’s bandwidth needs or request a custom quote to learn more about options for your business.
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