In Bend and beyond, businesses of all kinds now rely on cloud computing – from the small creative firm relying on Adobe Creative Cloud, to the mid-sized tech firm using Salesforce to manage its lead acquisition processes. Cloud computing allows business to share centrally located resources, thereby decreasing costs for everything from software, to computing equipment, to IT staff.
One aspect of cloud computing is software as a service (SaaS). Rather than purchasing software and installing it on their own premises, business can subscribe to software stored remotely, decreasing up-front software costs, and eliminating the responsibility of installing updates. With SaaS growing at three times the rate of the traditional software industry (per Boston Consulting Group), the cloud is getting bigger.
Of course, without the Internet, there would be no cloud. The Internet is the conduit that leads to & from the centrally shared resources. And when selecting an Internet provider, businesses tend to be chiefly focused on download speeds. But as more companies rely on cloud computing, upload speeds are starting to merit more careful consideration: consider the amount of data being pushed upward by a business using a cloud-based backup service like Carbonite. Or, a cloud-based file sharing service such as Dropboxor Google Drive.
Now consider that download speeds still receive the most prominent advertising. It’s what many business people still focus on almost exclusively when shopping for Internet products. Typically 2 to 5 MBPS, upload speeds are a fraction of the download speed transfer rates they are commonly bundled and sold with.
Why do providers sell service with such a disparity between upload & and download speeds? Part of the answer is physics. Much of the Internet’s infrastructural equipment is capable of pushing higher, stronger signals down the pipeline, but cannot facilitate the same transfer rates in the opposite direction.
Fortunately there is a solution. Fiber-backed Ethernet products are implicitly symmetrical, meaning they are capable of providing uploads and downloads at equal transfer rates. Again, the underlying reason is physics-based; put simply, you can send the same amount of data, via light, in both directions (uploads & downloads).
If your business relies heavily on cloud computing, take note. Insufficient upload speeds can offset efficiency gains and negatively impact your business performance. Saturating uploads for long periods of time can not only saturate your entire network’s outbound capacity, it can also degrade download speed for your entire organization. If you’ve noticed a decrease in the quality of your network’s performance, and you rely heavily on cloud computing, then insufficient upload capacity might just be your culprit.
Locally-owned & located in Downtown Bend BendTel provides a complete solution for all business communications needs – from phones to fiber-backed Metro Area Ethernet.
541-389-4020
www.BendTel.com
