Why High-Speed Internet is Important for Austin Businesses (and all Texans)

I know I don’t have to tell you how important it is to have reliable internet access at your workplace, but it isn’t uncommon for some businesses to underestimate just how crucial it is. Let’s dig into the reasons that sufficient Internet access needs to be so reliable, and how we can help you to get as much value as possible.

Let’s start by breaking down how the Internet works, followed by how you can take advantage of it to the fullest for your business’ benefit.

What Do Businesses Need to Do for Reliable, Effective Internet Access?

It’s actually difficult to simplify Internet access in a way that makes sense to non-technical people, without missing some pretty important metrics that businesses need to be aware of. These metrics include bandwidth, ping, quality of service (QoS), uptime, and since it’s a service, you have to take support and pricing into account as well.

Let’s consider the concept of bandwidth for a moment, before we dive into the benefits that better bandwidth can bring.

What Does “Bandwidth” Mean?

Your bandwidth is how much data can be transferred simultaneously with the connection you’re using, so the higher the bandwidth, the more data can be transferred at once, and the faster that data can be transferred as a result. As so many Texas businesses embrace remote work, they continue to rely on their online resources to communicate with their team and customers. This makes access and effective utilization of broadband critical for your bottom line. Services such as VoIP, productivity suites, and online storage are determined by the amount of bandwidth you have available.

Different types of traffic require different amounts of bandwidth in order to be supported, so it is important that you have sufficient bandwidth for your needs. This importance has received quite a bit of attention, too. Not only was the need for reliable bandwidth touched on by the Governor in this year’s State of the State address, wherein broadband access was described as an “essential tool,” many modern businesses need to focus on their broadband availability in order to effectively operate. Merchants and retailers need enough bandwidth to support their Point-of-Sale systems, while medical professionals need reliable access to a wide variety of online resources (not the least of which being their Electronic Medical Records). Insufficient bandwidth could easily render these processes ineffective, while excessive bandwidth could easily place your company on the hook for larger fees than necessary.

This also means that you will need to have some idea about how much bandwidth will be required to support your needs. One way we suggest deducing this is to identify the processes that each team member could be responsible for at a given time that would take up the largest amount of bandwidth, and total these amounts up to find your peak organizational usage. This is fairly complicated, because you’ll also need to evaluate the bandwidth of your internal network, not just your external Internet connection. That’s why we help Texas businesses with network audits and Internet/Network consulting.

Broadband Internet Doesn’t Have to Be Your Responsibility to Manage

For something that seems like it should be a relatively simple prospect of plugging the right cables in the right places, there are a lot of considerations that will need to go into your company’s allotment of bandwidth… particularly with Internet connectivity and reliability being such an important factor for today’s businesses. That’s why, at Capstone Works, we’re happy to assist you in evaluating and strategizing around your broadband needs.

If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you make the most of your Internet connection by optimizing its bandwidth, give us a call at (512) 343-8891.