Running a lean business involves reducing costs and consumption, including the use of digital resources. Offices require consistent access to bandwidth over local and wide area networks which distribute vital information to staff, customers and other stakeholders. Without data, business functions may grind to a halt, or become prohibitively expensive.
As such, streamlining bandwidth usage throughout your organization should be an end goal for improving IT and reviewing tech plans. Consider the following five actionable methods of optimizing bandwidth for your business.
Shape bandwidth traffic via quality of service protocols.
Bandwidth bottlenecks create a frustrating slowdown of service when important applications don’t quickly upload and download vital data.
Quality of service (QoS) protocols optimize bandwidth usage by identifying important data packets. These packets receive a greater allocation of traffic resources, which ensures that important data flows between user and applications.
Without QoS, bandwidth shape flattens instead of matching the specific needs of your business, potentially resulting in costly data center bottlenecks.
Optimize wide area network traffic.
Typically, connection quality and speed determine the digital agility of Wide Area Network (WAN) arrays for business. This doesn’t mean that you can’t further optimize your WAN through hardware and software solutions which optimizes data use.
Compression lessens the amount of data transferred over networks by reducing the size of files transferred. Data caching stores information frequently accessed on local servers and storage, reducing bandwidth requirement for WANs. Shaping traffic over WANs further improves optimization.
After WAN traffic has been optimized and connection quality confirmed, consider implementing a speed boost to further improve business functions over WAN.
Utilize cloud computing solutions.
One of the main benefits of cloud computing revolves around outsourcing data-intensive functions to online platforms designed to provide the most efficient services available. Nearly every type of function, including CRM, front-end apps and bandwidth itself, may be outsourced to specialized online apps.
Hybrid computing solutions provide the opportunity to blend local and cloud-based solutions, tailoring bandwidth usage specifically to your business. Local servers may host common functions accessed frequently, while cloud servers take care of issues such as data backup for disaster recovery or high-bandwidth functions handled with greater efficiency by dedicated cloud servers.
Limit access to popular, non-business sites.
Nothing will deplete bandwidth quicker than allowing staff and visitors unfettered access to the internet. Sites like Facebook, YouTube, and NetFlix eat bandwidth through digital video, a common medium across entertainment sites.
These types of sites also distract employees and allow visitors to interact with media that has nothing to do with your business. Worst case scenario, people will interpret open access to the internet as an opportunity to download large files while visiting the workplace, eating through terabytes of bandwidth in very little time.
Schedule use of bandwidth according to business activities.
Business activity rises and falls according to predictable schedules. Many organizations operate on a nine-to-five schedule, while some experience peak activity when the sun sets. Scheduling activities and bandwidth according to peaks and troughs in usage allows further optimization of digital resources.
If your business operates on a nine-to-five basis, limit backups and software patching until the evening. A particularly intensive update or backup might be saved for the weekend instead. An organization which peaks on evenings and weekends should consider the opposite schedule.
When possible, eliminate usage of bandwidth altogether. Applying patches and backing up data locally may be a preferable option to the needless burning of bandwidth.
If you need more tips or support from the experts, don’t hesitate to give us a call today.