How Much Bandwidth Does Your Business Need?
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Nowadays, with so many people operating businesses online, having a speedy yet reliable internet connection is one of the keys to success for an online enterprise. In order for you to allow your customers, as well as your employees, to be able to access information or navigate your site with ease, having the proper bandwidth is essential. If you are unsure of how much bandwidth you should have for your business, here are a few things you should consider.
It Depends
The amount of bandwidth your business needs will be determined chiefly by how many users, as well as devices, will be accessing the network. A small sole proprietor business, such as a mom-and-pop shop, may only check emails or occasionally use Wi-fi and may only need a small amount of bandwidth to operate at a decent speed. According to Cloud Advisors, businesses that exist mostly in the cloud will have more bandwidth requirements. Needing easy and smooth access to the data anywhere is necessary to ensure the best operations. Tech industries require massive amounts of bandwidth, and their networks are usually accessed via mobile as well.
Evaluating Your Needs
Activities such as email, VoIP calls, internet research and much more each have their own number of bandwidth requirements in order to function properly. Think about all the tasks that are performed in your office that require internet access as well as how many people will be doing these jobs at once. In order to maintain a decent internet speed, multiply the amount of bandwidth that you have by the number of your employees, and then double that. This should allow you enough wiggle room with your bandwidth regardless of what activities are being performed. If the number of tasks outweighs the amount of bandwidth you currently have, then you know you need to get more.
Look Outward
If the network is congested by too many users being on it at once, then even if you have a decent amount of bandwidth, you may still experience some lagging and slow connection speeds. According to Fusion, most networks can support about 250 devices, but if they all require high bandwidth, the number may be lower. For this reason, you should have a network that is capable of handling many connections at once in order to help prevent this from happening. You may also need to check your hardware as well by making sure your devices can support the number of Mbps that your internet connection allows.
If you are experiencing a slow internet connection, try checking to see if your hardware is up to date first. Also, consider the number of people accessing the network in your office and what duties they need to perform. This should help you figure out if you need more bandwidth or if you should upgrade your devices.
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