We talk a lot about ‘business grade’ connectivity. What is business grade broadband and how does it differ from a ‘residential’ broadband service? Firstly, there is no agreed standard on what constitutes business grade, though most providers make reference to the term. At Ciptex, we believe there are key features and functional differences between a standard residential and a business offer.
Reliable, secure connectivity is the backbone for most organisations today, and directly impacts their overall performance, so the distinction for our customers is critical. At Ciptex we work closely with our clients and customers to ensure they have the right service for their needs today, and in the future.
What does Ciptex Bridge business broadband offer that residential broadband services do not?
Service
Service is of paramount importance to Ciptex. We pride ourselves on our personal approach, UK helpdesk and fast response and resolve times. For business clients coverage extends to provide a 24 x 7 x 365 proactive monitoring and fault reporting, and we have contractual response (4h) and resolve (24h) times, backed by financial guarantees.
Performance
Residential user traffic tends be in the form of downloads, whilst business users have a greater requirement to upload as well as download data. Our business packages have increased upload speeds to ensure that users can send just as well as they can receive. Our business service is delivered via higher grade components, optimising performance which is also enhanced through supporting fewer connections per node.
Management & Diagnostics
Business users can be provided with a fully managed Cisco Meraki wireless router if required. This device enables us to proactively monitor the connection to the premises and to provide rapid diagnostics and support, and remotely. Our solution also includes a portal for business users to access performance data relating to their connections, delivered via the same solution as used by E-bay, Spotify and Yahoo. All business grade solutions can be supplied with a static IP address.
Traffic Controls
Our business grade solution also enables traffic shaping — providing the ability to control the flow of data to ensure priority is given to business critical applications, so they are not interrupted by (for example) a movie download. The solution can also restrict access to certain sites and applications, so Social Media sites could be made available only at certain times so as to prevent conflict with work activities.
Protecting Your Data
Many of the larger broadband providers cross subsidise their services through the sale of tracking data and customer access to third party advertisers. Whilst this may be an acceptable by-product of a £20 per month residential connection, it is not what we believe our business customers want from their connectivity provider, and our service is ad free at point of delivery.
Beyond Broadband with Ethernet. What is Ethernet? And how does it differ from Broadband?
It is almost impossible to accurately predict what speed of connection and upload/download requirements any given business/user may have. For example, a single graphic designer may have a much greater requirement than an office of fifty staff. What we do know is that there are times when broadband simply isn’t enough, and businesses/users need to access higher speeds, increased security and greater resilience than that offered by broadband alone. This is where our Ethernet service fits in.
What we deliver
The backbone of our network is delivered over 1,000’s of Km of fibre optic cables, capable of supporting transmission speeds of up to 10Gb/s. We can extend this technology all the way into a client’s premises, delivering super fast connectivity to the Internet, and/or other client locations, both in the UK and, through our Tier 1 carrier partners, anywhere globally.
How Fast?
We can offer speeds of up to 1Gb/s to end clients, and our Ethernet service is symmetrical, so the speed is the same for both down and uploads — perfect for businesses needing to share data and enhance communications.
How Secure?
Fibre optic cables are extensively used by governments and the military as they carry signals which cannot be intercepted without the cable being physically cut, they are immune from electromagnetic interference (including lightning strikes), chemically inert and intrinsically safe (no spark hazard). Fibre optic communications are as safe and secure as it gets.
How Resilient?
Fibre optics are at the heart of the majority of all communications around the globe with good reason. They provide fast and reliable transport for the world’s data traffic. However, in situations where continuous service is essential we can offer the following enhancements to our service;
> Broadband backup
> Diversely routed fibre Fibre with wireless back up
> Diverse carriers (through our partnering arrangements with Tier 1 carriers)
To discuss this blog post with me directly, feel free to get in touch.
