Is Your Network Capacity Drying Up?

By: John Shepler

It can sneak up on you without warning. One day, the network is running smoothly. Next day it’s all congested. How did that happen? More importantly, what can you do about it?


Network capacity, especially MAN and WAN network capacity, can dry up quickly as applications become more demanding. Video is a major bandwidth hog. Backups to remote data centers can also chew up a lot of your capacity. Worst of all is The Cloud. You might think that your troubles are over when you outsource your applications to cloud service providers. What is often forgotten is that all that user bandwidth supplied by your LAN must now be supplied by the WAN. Not just any bandwidth, mind you. It needs to be low latency bandwidth or you’ll still have troubles.

Why low latency? You know that latency is critical for sensitive real time apps like VoIP telephony or high definition video conferencing. But how about those business applications that moved from the local data center to the cloud? Latency is easy to control locally. It can be an issue on long distance connections, especially if you elected to use the Internet as your cloud connection service. Latency shows up as hesitation in cloud response. A little can be annoying. A lot can be a major productivity killer.

Fortunately, high bandwidth low latency connectivity is easier than ever to fit into your IT budget. Prices have plummeted in recent years on everything from old school T1 lines on up to the SONET/SDH and fiber optic Ethernet. Even MPLS networks for connecting multiple business locations may cost less than you think.

If you haven’t gone out for competitive price quotes in a few years, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. You may find that you can double your MAN or WAN bandwidth for the same telecom budget that you have now. By upgrading from TDM based SONET fiber optic services to Ethernet over Fiber, you may well be able to afford a lot more capacity than you have now. The cost per Mbps or Gbps is much more attractive for Carrier Ethernet, especially if you get your service from a competitive provider who can provide both core network and last mile connections on their own network.

Could you use a bandwidth upgrade soon? Perhaps even right now? Get fast bandwidth quotes customer tailored to your particular needs now.

How Fiber Optic Metro Ethernet Works

By: John Shepler

Are you paying a small fortune for all the lines you need to connect your multiple business locations? Would you like more flexibility in scaling bandwidth when needed along with guaranteed dedicated bandwidth that is low in latency, jitter and packet loss? You may be missing out by not using this important network connection service. Let’s have a look at a what fiber optic Metro Ethernet connections can do for your business:


Did you notice the big cost advantage in having one service provider in charge of the core network and the last mile connections to each location? Major Metro Ethernet providers have this capability and can offer you a cost savings by using their facilities rather than having to lease portions of the links from the local telephone company.

There are also network services available that aren’t offered by legacy SONET/SDH connections. Most useful is probably Ethernet LAN service. This standardized Carrier Ethernet service creates a fully meshed layer 2 bridge LAN that ties together the in-house networks at each location. Employees perceive that they are all on the same network regardless of where they are located.

This would be a good time to learn more about Ethernet bandwidth options for your business with free consultation, solutions tailored to your particular needs and rapid price quotes that you’ll find very attractive for your IT budget.

Preserve Your IT Budget

It's a new year and a new budget cycle. You may be flush with capital and operating expense funding, but before you rush out and start placing orders think about how you can stretch that budget beyond what you've planned. With the economy still on the rocks, you may be asked to cut line items. There may even be a freeze on spending at some point during the year. If so, you'll be glad you were able to get more value while spending less.

So how can an IT manager preserve the budget while under pressure for upgrades, maintenance and new projects? One of the easiest ways is to simply get more for the same expenditure, or pay less for the service you've planned. During boom times, that might seem a bit fanciful. When resources are in short supply, you'll have to take your place in line and pay whatever is asked or do without. But we're in the opposite part of the economic cycle now. Most companies are anxious to make any sale they can. Your requests to get more for less will be taken seriously this year.

Good strong purchasing negotiation always makes sense. But instead of just going through the motions, you now have an excellent chance of working every contract to your advantage. In some cases, new players hungry to build a significant market presence will fall all over themselves to wrench your business away from staid and unresponsive incumbents.

A perfect example is voice and data bandwidth. Not so long ago you had one carrier to deal with and pricing was pretty much take it or leave it. Not any more. You may be shocked to find that there could be a dozen or more competitive carriers anxious to vie for your business. You can pick the one that offers the most capacity for the least amount of money or negotiate for extras such as a free router.

Telecom carriers are more numerous due to deregulation and the mere presence of aggressive competitors has been driving down service pricing. There has also been something of a glut of excess capacity from the boom times of the late 90's that has needed to be worked off. But perhaps the biggest advantage to businesses has been the recent development of new search tools that can quickly locate a plethora of services that meet your exact criteria. These tools are a family of online search engines under the name "GeoQuote (tm)."

GeoQuote is the patented software that connects to carrier databases and calculates near-exact line prices within seconds. If you need T1 lines, ISDN PRI telephone trunks, or DS3 bandwidth, GeoQuote can return results to you in a matter of seconds for an online query. The Ethernet GeoQuote will show you maps of where nearby "lit" facilities are for fiber optic bandwidth services such as 10 Mbps Ethernet, 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet. There are also versions of GeoQuote specifically for SIP Trunking for enterprise VoIP and MPLS networks for connecting multiple business locations.

Beyond your WAN connectivity needs, there are plenty of opportunities to get better deals on your hardware purchases and installation and maintenance services. For that, there is another online tool called the VAR Network search engine. This free service lets you specify exactly the equipment and services you want. That request will go out to qualified VARs or Value Added Resellers in your area that wish to bid on your business. You can then negotiate your best pricing and perhaps save a significant percentage over your budgeted amounts.