Your Network: Fast Today, Slow Tomorrow?
These little network hiccups may not seem like a huge deal on their own, but when multiplied by every day, every employee and multiple apps—it adds up. In dollars, time and lost opportunities.
Your network, now
So why all the little hiccups? Well, chances are that your network and bandwidth might not be able to keep up with today’s demands. But how to know? Well, the key is to have enough bandwidth to support your current and future activities—sans hiccups—but not to pay for more than you’d ever use in a million years (or even a few).When figuring out whether your business has enough bandwidth to keep everything running smoothly, it really depends on your business. You’ll need to consider the number of users, number of devices and types of online activities you do. In general, the average small business (10 or fewer employees) that uses just email and web browsing can get by with 5 to 10 Mbps. But the same-sized business that does large downloads and uses file sharing and cloud or web-based apps or programs and backup services may use up to 50 Mbps. As a very general rule, you’ll need around 10 to 15 Mb per employee (calculate here).
So, now what?
Once you know your ideal bandwidth, compare that with the maximum speed you’re currently paying for. Keep in mind that your current speed might not only be less than what your business actually needs, but it is likely less than the maximum advertised speed. That’s because it all depends on things like the number of users and what they’re doing.
And let’s not forget about tomorrow. Besides supporting a plethora of devices, changing technology pretty much keeps any network on its toes. You may think jargon-y terms like the Internet of Things don’t apply to you and your small business, but these days, you can’t really get away from it. Did you know that the average employee uses 2.3 devices at work? That’s…a lot. And what about things like printers, smart thermostats and security systems? All connected, and all hogging bandwidth.
So as you assess your ideal bandwidth today, remember that all signs point to your business bandwidth needs continuing to grow very quickly.
Which brings us to us…
We know. Until now, you couldn’t get big-time internet speeds even if you wanted to. But that’s changed.
Kinetic Business by Windstream now offers the same internet used by the biggest companies in the biggest cities, right here in your community. So you can get all the speed you need today and easily scale for whatever you might need tomorrow.
Visit Kinetic Business by Windstream to learn how we can help prep your network for whatever the future holds.
