Today’s CIOs are tasked with asking and answering many important questions before shifting their infrastructure or data to the cloud. Certainly, one of the top concerns is bandwidth management, especially as data continues to grow at exponential rates.
Having no or limited access to the Internet translates directly into loss – lost sales, lost productivity for users and often there is no on-site replicated cloud system. This is especially valid for online commercial services such as online Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, document sharing and email services, according to Elfiq Networks, which helps organizations to ensure business continuity and improve network performance through its link balancing technologies.
Organizations can tackle the bandwidth management challenge by deploying multiple ISPs using multiple carrier technologies such as DSL, fiber, cable modems and wireless by connecting todifferent carrier point of presence sites.
Elfiq Networks’ Link Balancer can help resolve this critical business issue and deliver more than uptime for cloud computing. After deploying an Elfiq Link Balancer, organizations can also benefit from bandwidth management, the ability to choose their ISPs and control costs more effectively.
Link Balancers offer significant benefits to any business that is dependent on Internet or telecom to conduct their day-to-day operations. Some of the main benefits include:
- Business continuity: the use of multiple ISP links enables maximum uptime for connectivity, therefore ensuring the organization is able to conduct online activities normally even if one or more ISPs are not available, as long as one remains. Key services such as Web surfing, VPN access and voice traffic will remain available and ensure normal operations.
- Productivity improvement: aggregating multiple links onto the same Link Balancer gives the organization the benefit of increased throughput for both upload and download activities.
- Cost reduction: by preventing downtime, productivity is maintained and employees operate normally even during link failures. The same can be said of servers and services, ensuring all transactions are able to be completed.
- Lower help desk calls: when Internet access is functioning normally, even when one or more ISPs are not available, users will not contact the help desk for assistance and will most likely not try to troubleshoot their equipment themselves.
- Sales and opportunity enablement: optimal access to customer resources for external visitors will always be guaranteed a better shopping experience. Internet visitors have a low tolerance for unavailable or disrupted connections and will in most cases move on to a competitor’s resource or website.
Erin Harrison is Executive Editor, Strategic Initiatives, for TMC, where she oversees the company's strategic editorial initiatives, including the launch of several new print and online initiatives. She plays an active role in the print publications and TMCnet, covering IP communications, information technology and other related topics. To read more of Erin's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Jamie Epstein