By: John Shepler

High-performance Wide Area Network (WAN) bandwidth is necessary for connectivity, regardless of whether your data center is on-premises or cloud-based. Let’s explore the available choices.

On-Premises Infrastructure

A significant advantage of managing your servers and data center equipment in-house is having control over the on-site network. Your Local Area Network (LAN) likely operates at a minimum speed of 100 to 1000 Mbps. Within the data center, connections might have even higher speeds to facilitate short-distance connections between storage, processing, security devices, and other components.

It’s crucial to understand that this dedicated network is exclusively yours. Any congestion issues require upgrading weaker links, as your operations are the source of the problem. External factors won’t interfere. We’ll revisit this point.

Given the local nature of your company connections, why would a WAN be necessary? Primarily, it caters to remote employees or those occasionally working from home. Moreover, your operations might extend beyond a single campus. Multiple offices, retail locations, franchises, warehouses, or factories might be part of your business. Even if these are across town, leased network bandwidth is required for connectivity.

Ideally, these operations should seamlessly integrate with your local network. WAN connections, such as Metro Ethernet and long-haul Ethernet, achieve this by emulating LAN connections. These options are available from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps and function like extended LAN cables. Transparent LAN service (TLS), a managed carrier service, interconnects locations regardless of distance using switched nodes.

Connecting to the External World

How do you interact with customers and suppliers? In the present day, the internet is the most likely channel. A high-speed, dedicated internet connection is essential for reaching customers and suppliers, as well as accessing online resources. A security appliance might be installed between the internet link and your network to prevent unauthorized access.

Remote employees will also utilize the internet, often through a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This adds encryption to internet sessions, restricting access to authorized users.

Another factor is the connection used by customers to access your e-commerce servers. The bandwidth for this activity can sometimes exceed internal usage. A dedicated fiber optic internet connection for your customer-facing servers is advisable in such cases.

Cloud-Based Infrastructure

A common joke suggests that the cloud is simply someone else’s computer. Technically, this holds true. The advantage of the cloud lies in its ability to host and maintain thousands of servers in a single, massive data center, complete with backup power and extensive connectivity at cost-effective rates. While some companies prefer local control over internal processes, they might opt to host their e-commerce servers in the cloud to leverage these scalable resources.

Your cloud provider will manage the internet bandwidth to your customers. You, however, need an internet connection with sufficient bandwidth for efficient file uploads and downloads to and from your cloud servers. If you utilize business process software hosted on cloud servers, connectivity becomes paramount for a positive user experience. Latency can significantly impact responsiveness. Fluctuations in latency caused by congestion or line problems can hinder productivity and negatively affect morale.

A high-speed dedicated connection directly to your cloud service provider, bypassing the internet entirely, is ideal for optimal performance. If this isn’t feasible or within budget, a dedicated internet connection with ample capacity for all users is a suitable alternative.

Why Choose Dedicated Bandwidth?

As you might have gathered, line services are categorized as dedicated or shared. Dedicated lines cater exclusively to your traffic. Any unused bandwidth remains idle, but you never compete for resources. Point-to-point E-Line, E-Line, and E-Tree connections, along with T1 lines and DS3 bandwidth, all fall under the dedicated category.

While Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks share resources, they function as private networks meticulously managed to guarantee the availability of contracted resources. They resemble dedicated resources but offer cost savings when connecting multiple sites.

The public internet is inherently a shared resource. Its core network typically performs well, although equipment failures can disrupt performance. Despite its fault tolerance, the internet might struggle to maintain full speed during node overloads.

The primary concerns with the internet lie in the performance of the “last mile” connection and the inability to prioritize sensitive packets, such as those for VoIP calls and video conferences. Shared internet connections, including DSL, cable, and cellular broadband, are cost-effective options suitable for many purposes. However, they come with performance variations ranging from imperceptible to highly disruptive.

It’s also worth noting that shared internet connections often prioritize download speeds over upload speeds, sometimes with a 10:1 ratio. This is because most users, especially those streaming video, download significantly more data than they upload. Dedicated connections typically offer symmetrical download and upload speeds, which is advantageous for business processes, file transfers, telephony, video conferencing, and data backups.

Considering a bandwidth upgrade or new service? Obtain a set of quotes from competing providers to evaluate the options available in your area and compare pricing.