How The Cloud Is Making Obsolescence Obsolete

Managing technology is a lot like trying to swim upstream. Stop for even a breather and you start getting dragged backwards. Wait too long and you look up to see all your competitors way upstream while you’re moving downstream toward the waterfall.

This is the thing about technology. It’s moving like that stream. As soon as you buy any device or any system, it is already going obsolete. The longer you use it as-is, the farther out of date it gets. At some point you find that what you have is no longer being supported or that it only partially works anymore. Oh, the hardware is just as good as the day you bought it. The problem is that you can’t access the latest resources or that your perfectly functional hardware platform hasn’t got the horsepower to use the most up to date software.

We’ve went through this for a generation with the PC. Every few months, the next model came out with more RAM and a faster processor. Everybody talked about how many Mbps and then Gbps their CPU clocked. My first PC was an 8-bitter that could only address 64 KB of RAM. Wow, did I feel powerful when I got all the memory sockets loaded with that much memory. That euphoria lasted until the 16 bit machines hit the market and raised the bar from KB to MB. Now, memory is in GB and disk storage is in TB and processor speeds have flattened out around 2 Gbps, with more processors on-board to increase throughput.

Have you noticed that things have slowed down a bit in the PC wars? The machine you buy this year isn’t necessarily going to have 5x or 10x the number of cores as last year’s machine. You won’t be moving up from 2 GB to 10GB or 100GB of RAM any time soon. Anybody entertaining the necessity of a 10 or 100 TB hard drive on their desktop?

What’s happening is that the battle is moving to another front. PCs, tablets, smartphones, and laptops & notebooks are at the point where they can support what you need to do with a shift in the model of how its done. Software is on the way out, apps are on the way in. Overreaching all of this is doing everything remotely in the cloud.

Shifting the center of activity from the PC or other device to the cloud doesn’t reduce the computing or storage requirements. It just shifts them to a central point where they are easier to provision and maintain. Your local computing device becomes a computing device in name only. The bulk of the work is being done elsewhere. You simply need the resources to properly display and interact with the system in the cloud.

The battle that is going on right now is the battle for bandwidth. Connectivity is the new choke point. Whatever near-infinite capacity the cloud has doesn’t do you any good if you can’t get to it. Your Internet, SIP trunk or dedicated line service has to have the capacity to become transparent in the process. As long as you can perceive a latency or congestion in the path to the cloud, everything will run no faster than this weakest link.

Bandwidth, particularly mobile bandwidth, is what has cloud services stymied and both carriers and the FCC in a near-panic. It is starting to dawn on individuals and companies alike that the cloud is the place to compute everything, store everything, access everything, and even do functions like telephone switching. If the cloud service provider takes care of maintenance, updates and provisioning capacity, you can get out of the business of technology management. No more worrying about upgrades, patches or adding hardware resources. It’s all being handled invisibly behind the scenes in the cloud. Now, if only we could get to the cloud.

The wireless bandwidth issue is going to be on a steep learning curve for a long time. The near term solution will be a mass migration to LTE and its advanced versions. It’s going to be years before everybody has enough bandwidth available that they stop fretting over how much bandwidth they have available. Carriers will bring fiber to the cell towers as fast as they can get it installed. The FCC will divert bandwidth to the wireless industry as fast as they can pry it loose from other services, even if that means paying license holders to sell their claims for auction.

For many businesses, the connectivity issue isn’t that dire. Bonded T1, Ethernet over Copper, Ethernet over Fiber and SONET fiber optical services are more available than ever and much lower in cost per Mbps than only a few years ago. If you are eyeing the cloud with the thought that you’d be better off with hosted services than trying to keep up with managing all the technology yourself, you’ll be happy to know that getting there is a lot easier and less expensive than you might expect.

The Next Decade of Bandwidth - Part V

Wireless is the bandwidth service that gets most of the press these days, but there are big developments afoot in the wired world as well. We’ll wrap up our look into the next decade of bandwidth with what’s going on with copper and fiber optic services.

It’s no surprise that fiber optic networks are expanding. Some of this expansion is prompted by American Reinvestment and Recovery Act that appropriated $7.2 billion to expand broadband access across the country. Rural areas that have been largely ignored by commercial interests are especially targeted. With funds available for middle-mile fiber runs, competitive carriers are taking advantage of the opportunity to expand their networks.

While fiber is being trenched through the countryside to provide broadband delivery to Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) that serve sparsely populated areas, even more fiber is being routed through metropolitan areas to hookup businesses of all sizes. Government incentives aren’t needed here. Businesses hungry for increased bandwidth either foot the bill for hookups to metropolitan fiber networks or commit to service levels that justify carriers to “light” their buildings for fiber service.

Why the interest in fiber optic connections? It’s not just mobile bandwidth that’s straining at the limits. T1 lines may have been all the bandwidth a small or even medium size business needed to handle email, general web browsing and communication with its website servers hosted elsewhere. Now, 1.5 Mbps seems a bit quaint and inadequate for all the smallest operations. What drives business now is cloud connections, Software as a Service, video conferencing, hosted VoIP and other bandwidth demanding applications.

The transition from 3G to 4G wireless also means that cellular carriers themselves are strained for fast enough backhaul connections. T1 lines works great to connect towers that handled voice calls. When users expect 10 or 15 Mbps of broadband service, fiber optics look like the ideal solution. The cost of construction, once a show stopper, becomes another part of the upgrade investment that’s paid once and offers almost unlimited upgrades for future needs.

Cloud computing is a major attraction for many businesses who find that pay-as-you-go is much easier to justify than requisitions for million dollar data center improvements. No need for racks and racks of servers, the environmentally controlled building to house them, the backup power generators, or the round-the-clock technical staff to keep everything running smoothly. Outsourcing that to a cloud service provider gets rid of those headaches, but adds a new one. How to you connect to the cloud? Low bandwidth, high latency connections will bring your operations to a grinding halt. What you need now is high bandwidth along with low latency, jitter and packet loss as a backbone to your virtual servers on the other side of the country. That means fiber optic lines and probably two of them for redundancy.

Fiber technology hasn’t been static during this expansion. Until recently you had a choice of SONET services from OC3 to OC12 and perhaps OC48. That was it. Now, Ethernet over Fiber is coming on strong as a direct competitor. Carrier Ethernet more closely matches the LAN networks that feed it. It is more scalable to meet changing business needs. Best of all, Ethernet services tend to cost less, often considerably less, than equivalent SONET fiber optic services.

But, wait! The era of copper is far from over. Just when carriers were thinking about decommissioning their twisted pair copper to let it corrode in the ground or be sold for scrap, Bonded T1 and Ethernet over Copper gain favor as business bandwidth options. While a single T1 line may be too constrained for many uses, multiple T1 lines can be bonded into a single larger bandwidth service up to 10 or 12 Mbps. Ethernet over Copper (EoC) technology uses the same twisted pair bundles as bonded T1, but a more advanced modulation scheme. EoC bandwidth is distance sensitive, but can easily deliver 10 or 20 Mbps to most businesses and 30, 50 or even 100 Mbps for short runs. Continuing development incorporating wireless techniques such as MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) for crosstalk cancelation is pushing the limits of copper into the hundreds of Mbps and even to a fiber-like Gigabit per second bandwidth.

The next decade of bandwidth is likely to be dominated by massive fiber optic build-outs for fixed locations, such as office and industrial parks, along with copper solutions to bridge the gaps where fiber doesn’t yet connect. Wireless is clearly headed for a common 4G LTE nationwide infrastructure. Compatibility will be built into portable and mobile devices, perhaps as prolifically as WiFi is now. There may be some surprises in store, such long range and interconnected WiFi hotspots or whitespace transmitters as wireless competitors, high bandwidth satellites covering rural areas better than spotty fiber and cable construction, and the development of much higher microwave frequencies (60 GHz and above) and even infrared mesh networks as new service options.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this speculative look into what’s likely to happen in the next 10 years or so, as our appetite for higher bandwidth Internet and private network connections demand satisfaction. There are many good options available right now to support your current business needs. You may not even be aware of how much development has been going on in your area to increase service levels and reduce costs. This would be an excellent time to get competitive options and quotes for business bandwidth services.

See what's available now in the way of T-carrier and Ethernet copper, SONET and Ethernet fiber, fixed wireless and Hybrid Fiber Cable (HFC). Get instant bandwidth pricing up to 1 Gbps and fast quotes on other services.



This has been a 5 part series on bandwidth. If you’ve missed any part of it, you can access Part I, Part II, Part III, or Part IV to catch up at any time.

What is 4G and Why Do You Want It?

You see ads for 3G cell phones and wireless modem aircards. Now here comes 4G. What is this advance in technology all about and why should you want it now?

2G, 3G, 4G. All those G’s, what do they mean? What we’re talking about is a shorthand for the generations of wireless broadband service. It’s been advancing so fast that it’s not unusual for different generations of service to be available in the same area. That’s by design. If you are in a weak service area for 3G, then your device will automatically seek out a lower speed service such as 2.5G or 2G. You won’t get as high a bandwidth, but at least you’ll be connected.

Wireless broadband is generally a companion service to cellular telephone. It uses the same towers and base stations. Coverage areas are pretty much the same. The exception is when a particular tower site hasn’t yet been upgraded to the latest cellular broadband generation. In that case, you’ll get a lower level of service until you move into the coverage of a cell tower that is at the latest standard.

I should mention here that there are two wireless broadband services that have nothing to do with cell phones. One is the WISP or Wireless Internet Service Provider that offers home and business broadband. You need to be within line of site of their tower and install an outdoor antenna on your roof. These WISPs are pretty much locally owned an operated, and generally serve locations that aren’t wired for DSL or Cable.

The other non-cellular wireless service is the WiFi hotspot. There are so many of them, that they could almost form a cellular-like network of their own. That hasn’t happened because hotspots are also largely local services, mostly offered by restaurants and hotels. There’s no network to tie them together, so once you leave a hotspot you have to log into another one at your next stop.

That’s where 4G steps in. Imagine that you are connected to a 4G service and are reading a document while parked in your car. You can go into a client’s office or your own and you’ll still be on the same service. The idea of 4G is to blanket a city with a signal strong enough that you have high bandwidth connectivity without worrying about where you are located.

But doesn’t 3G do that? To some extent, yes. But 4G has the advantage of higher bandwidths. With the 4G service that is available today using the WiMAX standard, you can get 3 to 6 Mbps on a normal basis, with bursts of to 10 Mbps.

WiMAX 4G is also not limited to mobile service the way that 2G and 3G are. It’s designed for both desktop and mobile service. That puts this 4G network in a class by itself. You can get a WiMAX modem for your desktop computer and a plug-in 4G aircard for your laptop computer. You’ll have the same service at your desk as you do on the road. There are even 4G phones coming out sometime this summer that look to become a game changer in the wireless service industry.

There are two standards that will dominate 4G service. One is LTE which will be deployed later this year and through 2011. The other is WiMAX broadband that is available now in many cities and states. Find out if your location qualifies for 4G wireless broadband
now.

3G 4G Mobile Bandwidth

The Internet long escaped the desktop and moved onto the mobile phone. The problem is that it has been following a similar learning curve that took us from 300 baud telephone modems to DSL & Cable broadband and now to high speed wireless and fiber optic service. Mobile bandwidth is undergoing a steady evolution, with the demand for higher and higher speeds pushing the technology. Let’s have a look at what’s available and what’s coming soon.

The benchmark today is 3G wireless. This service offers somewhere between 500 Kbps and 1.5 Mbps and is owned and operated by the cellular carriers. The same company that sells you your cell phone minutes also sells you 3G wireless Internet access. The signals come from the same towers, so if you are in a dead spot for phone reception you won’t be surfing the Web or watching videos either.

The 3G build-out has been proceeding at something of a panic level, especially since the introduction of the Apple iPhone. The first iPhone used the AT&T EDGE network, which is actually called a 2.5G network. That means it has considerably less bandwidth than the newer HSPA or High Speed Packet Access 3G network, perhaps as little as a tenth as much. HSPA is offered by GSM carriers AT&T and T-Mobile and is also known as HSUPA.

A competing 3G service is offered by CDMA carriers Verizon and Sprint using a different technology. Theirs is known as EV-DO and EV-DO Rev A. Download bandwidths are in the range of 1 to 2 Mbps, depending on signal conditions.

Note that 2.5G and 3G cellular broadband not only gives cell phones the ability to download videos and surf the Web but also gives you the option of adding 3G to your laptop computer. The functionality is added using a plug-in wireless modem aircard. These are sold with data-only service plans, since they don’t work as telephones. The aircard and wireless service has been a boon to field sales people who don’t always have the ability to set up shop within a WiFi hotspot.

The newest service on the market is called 4G mobile bandwidth. Right now the run away leader is the WiMAX service offered by Clearwire and Sprint under the CLEAR trademark. WiMAX is yet another wireless standard, albeit a global one not associated with the cellular phone system. WiMAX offers a powerful signal that covers an entire city. It’s strong enough to penetrate buildings so that you can have the same WiMAX broadband on your desktop and laptop computers. Download bandwidth typically ranges between 3 and 6 Mbps, considerably faster than 3G networks.

The cellular companies aren’t sitting still, though. Both AT&T and Verizon plan to deploy another standard called LTE to compete with WiMAX. It will likely be a year or two before these two 4G technologies are competing head to head in most populated areas. For now, WiMAX gives you the most mobile bandwidth at the lowest cost in the cities and states where it is available.

Backhaul Upgrades For Wireless Broadband

A funny thing happened on the way to mobile broadband. We ran out of bandwidth. While everyone was thinking that wireless channels would be the limiting factor, lack of backhaul capacity is threatening to stop wireless growth in its tracks. Fortunately, this limitation is recognized and being dealt with.

Just what is backhaul and why does it stand in the way of mobile services? Backhaul, as the term is used now, means the connection from the wireless tower site back to the provider’s central office or mobile switching center.

Backhaul is something you didn’t hear much about until recently. As cellular sites were originally envisioned, they consisted of a radio transmission system with spectrum divided into multiple channels. Those channels are used to communicate with the wireless handsets to transport telephone conservations. The backhaul system consists of T1 lines that offer up to 24 individual phone lines on a digital trunk.

The beauty of T1 lines is that they are provisioned on ordinary twisted pair copper. That’s right, they use telephone line. Each T1 requires two copper pair. But instead of carrying two phone conversations, the digital line can carry 24 conversations. That’s an efficiency improvement of 12x over analog telephony. Because they use ordinary telco cabling, T1 lines can be easily provisioned to both rural and urban tower sites.

T1 lines can also be used to carry broadband Internet services. Many businesses get their broadband service over a T1 line. All cellular phone companies need do is provide a data T1 line to the tower site and use some of the available wireless channels for Internet service. That gives the user both voice and data on their mobile device.

Everything worked smoothly until newer cell phones, especially the large touch screen models, made streaming audio and video and HTLM Web browsing possible. Video chews up bandwidth like crazy. If people expect to have a television watching experience on their cell phone, the cellular transmitters are going to need bandwidth and lots of it.

This is what’s underway now. The initial response to the increase in bandwidth utilization was met by bonding multiple T1 lines to create bigger bandwidth pipes out to the tower sites. But wireless broadband speeds are increasing by leaps and bounds. AT&T’s HSPA service for 3G mobile wireless offers a max download speed of 3.6 Mbps. They are currently in an upgrade mode to double that to 7.2 Mbps. The next generation technology is 4G using LTE that will offer speeds over 10 Mbps. Sprint and Clearwire are busy building out WiMAX, another 4G technology. Verizon is running EV-DO Rev A for it’s 3G network and will implement LTE for 4G, similar to AT&T.

What this means is a big demand for backhaul service to get the voice and data signals to and from the tower sites. Carrier Ethernet can address some of this demand over multiple copper pair. WiMAX is touted as both an end-user broadband service and a backhaul technology. It just depends on where the signals go. Ultimately, fiber optic cable is the solution to the backhaul bottleneck. Fiber has nearly unlimited capacity, but it is expensive to install where there is no fiber today.

It seems like there should be some synergy between the rural broadband initiative being pushed by the Federal Government and the need for higher bandwidths to carrier-owned cellular facilities. Why not just bite the bullet and get fiber to the boonies now? It won’t be long before that massive bandwidth is going to be a necessity rather than a luxury.

In the meantime, if you have a need for voice or data bandwidth for any business application, see what bandwidth options are available for your location. You may be surprised at how much you can get at a reasonable price these days.