The Internet has forever changed the way we connect with people, and today’s it the go-to way for researching anything and everything. Bandwidth management is a crucial part in ensuring that the Internet works properly and something many do not have enough information about.
Recently, Elfiq Networks, in association with Tom Badgett and Corey Sandler, penned a book entitled, “Business Internet Access Optimization For Dummies,” which shares how Internet link balancing and alternative Internet Service Providers are helping to raise the level of Internet bandwidth and uptime.
The first step for any organization is to evaluate Internet access issues. This entails understanding the costs and the consequences of network outages, monitoring the links and network usage, protecting Ethernet links and equipment, and protecting power sources.
The second step is to establish an efficient connectivity design that can meet current and future needs. Continuous re-evaluation of what bandwidth requires as well as usage patterns and uptime can help any enterprise develop a more reliable Internet connection.
According to the book, “You can pretty much ensure 100 percent Internet uptime for full-time business access and give your business a survivability edge with reasonable cost and effort by making sure you have redundant power and in-house connectivity hardware. Then design for connection redundancy and multiple Internet service provider (ISP) technologies. These steps provide virtually 100 percent Internet reliability and have an added benefit of giving your business increased Internet bandwidth at a reasonable cost. And when such a project is finished, it pays for itself within a year because downtime is a thing of the past.”
Once an organization fully comprehends the types of Internet outages that occur when a single Internet connection goes down – whether it’s caused by human error, system maintenance, or on-premise hardware failures -- adverse consequences, like the high costs of a connection speed slowdown, can be avoided.
Next, be sure to optimize both Internet service and quality of service to better understand your individual bandwidth needs, and learn more about link balancing and computing in the cloud.
“Different locations with different job responsibilities, for example, may have unique bandwidth and uptime needs. E-mail is important, but a few seconds of occasional downtime isn’t a critical concern. Your voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system, on the other hand, can’t stand interruptions, nor can you afford to have a critical virtual private network (VPN) drop its connection. To ensure resilient connections and adequate bandwidth, you’ll want to put heavy-duty resources where they’re really needed and where they’re the most cost-effective,” the book revealed.
Even if you have multiple links to the Internet, various factors can cause outages such as damaged lines, link saturation, equipment defects, and routing or provisioning errors. Luckily, link balancers allow users to connect multiple carriers in different technologies, and then automatically manage traffic load on each link. If a situation were to arise where a link failed, traffic can be switched virtually directly to the remaining link or links.
“The bandwidth delivery method is an important part of your network design. You can use a link balancer to ensure continuous Internet access across multiple carriers, but only if you have different access points for at least two of your bandwidth suppliers. If two carriers use the same fiber or copper, or even the same ditch with a different conduit, all of your bandwidth can disappear quickly in the event of a simple construction mishap.”
Enter Elfiq Networks, a bandwidth management provider that offers link balancers for small and medium businesses, as well as enterprise-level applications that are extremely space-efficient, power-optimized rack-mounted devices.
Elfiq link balancers have been created from the ground up, so that companies don’t need to ever redesign or reconfigure outers, firewall, or other network devices. In fact, the WAN ports used by the Elfiq don’t have IP addresses, so they can’t be attacked by usual cyber threats which help to heighten security within the Internet of the network.
Additionally, the company can fully support multiple types of technology, offer dynamic configurations, manage application traffic, power site-to-site multiplexing and support more than one data center at a time.
As Internet technology continues to evolve, it is important to always look at ways to improve Internet connectivity to remain on the forefront of new developments.
Edited by Tammy Wolf