Is It Time To Boost Your Bandwidth?

Polar SystemsPolar Systems Blog

By Polar Systems

21-June-2016

Common Situations to Increase Network Bandwidth

In the business world, there are a number of common situations that can signal to decision-makers that it’s time to increase network bandwidth. Although many groups will say that bandwidth management is the key, a considerable amount of the top bandwidth consumers are absolutely essential to business processes. Instead of limiting the use of these programs – which could affect how employees do their jobs, not to mention overall company productivity – administrators need to ensure that there are enough resource to support these processes, and increase their network bandwidth.

There is a difference between legitimate bandwidth use, and more illegitimate utilization. For instance, if employees are gobbling up network bandwidth to watch their favorite shows on Netflix, administrators should probably refrain from supporting these activities by upping their bandwidth expenditures.

However, there are several sensible situations that require increased bandwidth. The key is spotting them. There are a number of symptoms that can signal a need for more bandwidth, including slower access speeds, increased help desk calls, spotty videoconferencing services and poor internet access.

A number of uses can create these issues, including the following described scenarios. By increasing their network bandwidth, administrators can avoid these problems and make sure employees have everything they need to do their jobs effectively.

Sending encrypted files

When staff members need to send encrypted files, it often leads to more bandwidth consumption. Oftentimes, this is a necessary protection to ensure compliance with industry laws like the Payment Card Data Security Standard or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. While these processes eat up more bandwidth than simply sending the files unencrypted, many companies must have this safeguard in place, and therefore must increase bandwidth to support it.

Using video conferencing services

Today’s organizations are more digital than ever, and count on the availability of services like video conferencing to stay in touch with remote users, vendors and partners. However, spotty video conference  quality can really hamper these efforts. In order to make sure that video conferences are as smooth and clear as face-to-face interactions, decision-makers should increase their bandwidth resources.

Backing up files

Many enterprises have a disaster recovery or business continuity strategy in place, requiring that they make backup copies of important files, databases and sensitive information. These processes can also consume more bandwidth. As they are often essential to ensuring the company has everything it needs at all times, the organization will need to add bandwidth.

Using select business applications

Some online business programs have a range of functions that employees need to complete their daily tasks. These feature-heavy programs can also require more bandwidth than the run of the mill software platform. In order to guarantee the availability of these services, increased bandwidth is essential.

These are just a handful of the situations that call for boosted network bandwidth. To find out more about the mission-critical scenarios that may need more broadband please contact us today! 503.775.4410

To view a resent webinar around this topic, click  “Make your network sizzle, techniques to improve your business network”