While you may enjoy a smooth network connection at home when streaming movies and tv shows, having reliable internet in your office isn’t always a guarantee. With so many devices connected to your network, your internet performance could suffer. You need business-class internet reliability to handle your company’s digital network demands.
What Is Internet Reliability?
Internet reliability is a measure of uptime vs. downtime. A reliable network has very few incidents of disruptions, throttling, or lagging. It also is able to recover quickly after these incidents when there is an issue.
Although your business internet provider might boast about their uptime and pricing compared to other providers in the area, having a reliable internet source is only the beginning. Your company also needs professional IT services and support to ensure continued maintenance of your network for improved performance as well as emergency support in case of network issues.
A fast and reliable internet connection is essential for your business to succeed in a competitive market. If you and your employees struggle to send or receive emails, upload and download documents or attachments, or lose connection during video conference or VoIP phone calls, you don’t have reliable internet.
How to Check if You Have Reliable Internet for Your Business
If you want to assess whether you have reliable internet at your office, store, or job site, you need to measure two criteria to determine the reliability of your network connection.
1. Downtime. How much time does your network spend down during an incident? If you chart your network downtime, does the amount of downtime increase over time? If your downtime increases, your network has become less reliable.
2. Incident Frequency. An increasing number of incidents can also indicate network instability. Incidents can include involuntary disconnects, lagging, or devices that have previously connected to the network not being able to connect when making a new attempt.
Reliable internet sources and network reliability services should offer Quality of Service (QoS) technologies to maintain data traffic volume through the pipeline. When the traffic volume is higher than the network can handle, the devices on the network can store the data packets in memory until the QoS network can safely transmit them without overloading the system.
Your network management strategy should include fast, reliable business-class internet and QoS technologies. These solutions can handle data demands at any level so you can prepare to scale your tech solutions as your company grows. Ask your IT provider for more information if you aren’t already using these strategies.
The Importance of Internet Reliability
Your internet reliability is essential to many basic business functions in your company. You need internet to send and receive emails, use VoIP phones, transfer documents using shared network folders, process transactions at the point of sale, and more.
It’s easy to see why a reliable internet connection is so crucial. Having a reliable network not only allows you to complete essential business tasks, but also improves workflows and productivity across your company. Benefits of strong internet reliability include:
- Faster operations with less downtime for employees
- Seamless integration with remote workers and clients on the cloud
- Faster data backup to servers and the cloud and more consistent data recovery
- Improved customer service online and in stores
- Better communication between teams and departments
- Faster connections with essential tools and apps
- Higher quality video conferencing with clients, colleagues, and partners around the world
Top 4 Reliability Factors
What factors affect network reliability? There are several factors that can affect the speed and reliability of your business internet.
Connectivity
Whether your connection uses fiberoptic cable or a cable network connection, both are reliable to handle major business internet demands. If your company if farther away from developed areas, such as in a job site trailer for a new home development, you may need an alternative like satellite internet.
Is satellite internet reliable? When your job site is in a remote location, it’s often your only option. If you have access to a wired connection, fiberoptic offers the top speeds, often more affordably than cable.
Internet Uptime
Uptime is the amount of time that your internet connection is functioning as it should. Higher uptimes mean you and your employees have more time to complete your work efficiently. Uptimes affect all network connections, including for uploads and downloads, communicating with the printer, and using VoIP phones and video conferencing devices.
System Patches
Patches include virus definition updates, software and app patches to fix bugs, and updating security features and data backup tools.
Hardware Life Cycle
Over time, routers, Bluetooth chips, wireless receivers, and network cabling reaches the end of its useful life. These devices often start showing signs of degradation as they wear down, interrupting network functions more frequently. Replace devices according to their predicted lifespans.
What’s the Difference Between Network Reliability and Availability?
Network availability is a measure of accessibility on the network. The formula to calculate network availability is uptime ÷ total in-service time. This formula calculates the percentage of time that the network infrastructure functions as expected under normal circumstances.
Network reliability is the measure of how well your network functions according to your expectations as a business owner. Can you complete all necessary tasks for business operations without experiencing interruptions or lagging? If so, you likely have high network reliability. Network reliability is the probability that the network will meet performance expectations at any given time.
While related, network availability and network reliability are two different metrics that your IT professionals can use to determine if your network solutions meet the needs of your business functions and demands.
Contact Succurri for All Your Business Internet Needs!
When you need reliable internet and networking solutions for your company, turn to our IT experts at Succurri. We have years of experience helping businesses of all sizes find the network connection solutions they need to thrive.
Call us today or contact us online to schedule a consultation with a Succurri IT professional. With bases in Washington, Montana, and Phoenix, we proudly serve the cities of Everett, Kalispell, Mesa, and their surrounding areas.
