Internet | FIBERTOWN BLOG

FIBERTOWN’s Blended Bandwidth

A critical element for any business is network connectivity. In fact, a past Gartner study found that it costs businesses on average $5,600 per minute of downtime. Of course, this is an average, and the exact number fluctuates by industry and size of the business. Even with those considerations, the message is clear – lost connectivity is expensive! By using blended bandwidth inside our data centers, we ensure you have multiple sources of internet at all times, giving you peace of mind and cost-effective internet.

How Our Blended Bandwidth Works

At FIBERTOWN, we peer with the best internet service providers (ISPs) in the Houston and Bryan, Texas areas. By combining these ISPs in a single contract, we’re able to offer our data center and colocation customers reliable, fast connectivity.

Our blended bandwidth always comes from at least 3 providers, guaranteeing redundancy. If one service provider goes down, others are available as an immediate path for your data.

And our Forward-Looking Glass always allows your information to find and use the fastest path.

As an example of speed, our redundant, path-diverse points to point between our Bryan and Houston data centers average 2.3 milliseconds. (That’s fast!)

Benefits of FIBERTOWN’s Blended Bandwidth

Besides speed, there are other benefits to this service for our customers.

Resiliency. Unlike most carriers who build only one entrance for internet into their facilities, FIBERTOWN’s data centers have at least 2 fiber entries. And that means increasing resiliency. For example, if a utility crew accidentally cuts the fiber on one end of our building, you still have an internet connection because the other fiber entrance is not affected.

100% uptime. Due to the multiple carriers and multiple fiber entrances, we maintain 100% uptime SLA. The reality is that ISPs go down often and for a host of reasons – maintenance, card failures, weather, road construction, power outages, or a random guy with a shovel or backhoe cuts fiber.

By FIBERTOWN using multiple ISPs, you don’t go down when one ISP goes down. The very nature of our blended bandwidth keeps you connected.

Circuit installation speed. Most ISPs take 30 days or more to get a connection to a customer. They must configure it, plan capacity, and physically run the cable. With FIBERTOWN, though, we can have you connected in 2 weeks or less. (Sometimes, we can even do it the same day!)

Temporary bandwidth. Due to our connectivity infrastructure already being in place, we also can offer temporary bandwidth. We can configure and install up to a 10Gbps circuit quickly, even if you need it for only a few months.

Secondary or backup circuit. The reality is – If you’re a data center customer, you’re already preparing for the worst. You refuse to let power failures, winter storms, or hurricanes catch you unprepared! That’s why we encourage data center customers to consider FIBERTOWN’s blended bandwidth for its primary or secondary circuit. It’s the best way to plan for the worst.

But, We Don’t Only Offer Blended Bandwidth…

We strive to be a one-stop solution for our customers. Because we have strong, long-standing relationships with other technology providers, we often can assist with other needs.

If you’re having difficulty connecting to another data center or to the cloud of your choice, we can help!

Worried about cybersecurity? We’re only a phone call away.

Are you in need of new hardware? Talk with us.

Want help with monitoring your internet connectivity outside of our data centers? We offer monitoring services and would be glad to assist you. (Our NOCs are staffed by experts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.)

We’re proud of our blended bandwidth capabilities, but we’ve worked hard to be helpful in other ways too.

FIBERTOWN is Ready with Blended Bandwidth

To summarize, blended bandwidth is a must when your business relies on internet connectivity (which is most organizations these days!). With our blended bandwidth, we’ve peered with multiple ISPs to offer you a redundant, reliable, and fast way to move data. By “blending” ISPs, we’re able to reduce costs for you too. In other words, you save money because we’ve negotiated with the individual providers.

If you have questions or want to learn more about our blended bandwidth (or other services mentioned in this article), use this form to contact us.

FIBERTOWN’s Internet Management and Monitoring Services

We’re frequently asked if we offer internet management and monitoring services outside of our data centers. To this question, we answer a resounding YES!

This article highlights key elements of our internet management and monitoring services outside of our data center. Yes, you read that right. Outside of our data center. We do the tedious, time-sensitive tasks necessary to maintain internet connectivity. (For example, most people hate contacting their internet provider when they lose connectivity. But we don’t mind! And that’s just one perk of these services.)

Keep reading below to learn more. And if you have questions, feel free to complete the contact form so we can answer them.

An Example of Internet Management and Monitoring Services

If you’re unfamiliar with these types of services, here’s a simple example. You’re a growing company with five locations in the U.S. Each location needs bandwidth, and you (or a network engineer or CTO) will have to contract with an internet service provider (ISP) for each of the five sites. Often, ISPs differ throughout U.S. regions so it’s likely not one contract, but multiple ones for your company.

With this model, your various ISP contracts have different start dates, end dates, bandwidth allotments, etc. That’s a lot to juggle!

With FIBERTOWN’s internet management and monitoring services, we do the behind-the-scenes work for your company. We find you the best ISPs and present just one contract to your business.

You don’t worry about start and end dates. We do. You don’t worry about making calls when the internet is down. We do. You don’t chase down credit from your ISP when it fails to uphold your service level agreement (SLA). We do.

Below is more information about these critical components of our internet management and monitoring services.

Shop ISPs on Your Behalf

With 25 years in the data center industry, we’ve developed long-term, healthy relationships with ISPs all over the U.S. (and the world). We leverage those relationships, plus perform in-depth research to find your organization the best ISP for your location. Not only does this save your group a lot of work, but it often saves you money. We always seek the ISPs with the best price without compromising quality.

Hold the Internet Contracts

This element saves your organization so many headaches! It allows for MUCH easier management of contracts including term lengths, speeds, etc. Every detail is on one document for you. And if you have questions, ask us rather than figuring out which site is served by which ISP.

Monitor Internet Bandwidth

No business likes to be without internet! And your teams can’t function long without it either! So, we offer a range of internet monitoring – from a simple ping to full monitoring for flaps or packet loss. We’ll open tickets on your company’s behalf to resolve any internet issues.

And this is the key – You’ll have a human responding and working on any issue within 15 minutes.

FIBERTOWN’s monitoring saves you (or your IT managers) the hassle of waking up at 2 a.m. to submit a help ticket. We can do this because we have multiple network operation centers (NOCs) staffed with professionals to assist you and give you added peace of mind. Anyone can monitor the link and eventually “get around to it.” But if you want a problem addressed quickly, choose FIBERTOWN.

Pursue Credit on Your Behalf if the SLA Isn’t Honored

Truthfully, this is an element of service rarely needed. We strive to contract with upstanding ISPs. But in the unusual case that your SLA is not maintained (which is typically a 95% or 99+% uptime), we’ll work to get your company credit from the ISP for time lost. There’s no back-and-forth between you and the ISP. We handle all of that. And all the credit is passed straight to you!

FIBERTOWN’s Internet Management and Monitoring Services Save You Time, Money, and Headaches

FIBERTOWN developed these services several years ago after clients continued asking for assistance with monitoring and bandwidth – finding ideal providers, managing contracts, and maintaining strong internet connections.

We listened, and we’re proud to offer these services to our current data center clients…and to organizations who aren’t data center customers. (This service is an option for any company!)

Let your IT team focus on what they do best. And let FIBERTOWN manage your bandwidth contracts and monitor your sites to make sure they stay up and get repaired quickly.

Complete this form to talk with us more about internet management and monitoring services.

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FIBERTOWN Keeps You Connected with Blended Internet, Cross Connects and Megaport

Do you remember the cell phone commercials from the early 2000s, “Can you hear me now?” The actor traversed insane environments (high snowdrifts, torrential rain, skyscrapers, etc.) while talking on the phone, and every time, he stayed connected. He never lost phone signal.

The premise of the commercials was simple – If you’re our customer, your calls won’t drop. We keep you connected.

At FIBERTOWN data centers, we keep you connected too. And similar to those old commercials, we do so during insane events – hurricanes, tornadoes, ice storms, and more.

In this article, we’re sharing three ways we make sure you never lose network connection and always have access to your data…fast.

Blended Internet – What is it? Why is it important?

Blended internet is like the phrase suggests. It blends, combines, and brings together multiple internet providers into a single service for the data center customer. As a FIBERTOWN client, you don’t have access only to AT&T, for example, but to AT&T, Cogent, Comcast, Lumen, and more. See here for a list of our internet providers.

Blended internet is an important option for several reasons. First, it’s more time effective and easier for the data center customer. We at FIBERTOWN manage the connectivity for you and provide one invoice for the billing cycle (i.e., you don’t receive bills from multiple providers). You have a single point of contact when you need help, saving you time and frustration.

Second, FIBERTOWN’s blended internet offers Smart Routing. FIBERTOWN’s Smart Routing factors, in real-time, latency, transit costs, jitter, and more to send your data the smartest (i.e., the most efficient) route. Blended internet typically moves traffic the shortest path so your data gets to its destination the fastest.

Third, blended internet offers you more reliability. Our data center already provides you with redundant power and cooling. But why stop there? Blended internet completes the redundancy trifecta, so you stay up while others are down. With multiple network providers at your service, failover is already configured. This also means you no longer need to buy a backup internet circuit.

In summary, due to our strong partnerships with internet service providers (ISPs), FIBERTOWN offers blended internet that gives you peace of mind. Failover configurations, redundancy, and faster routing are just some of the advantages.

Cross Connects – What are they? How are they useful?

Do you remember in the early days when we actually plugged into the internet? We used an Ethernet cord to attach our device to the phone line in the wall where the internet lived. For the time we were plugged in, we had internet, 56Kbps internet, and it was glorious.

Cross connects in a data center are like the early days of the internet (but more sophisticated, obviously). Cross connects use cables like Ethernet or Fiber Optic to connect one unit to another unit in a data center. You may see it described as a “point to point connection.” A common example is when trading companies utilize cross-connects between servers in a data center to ensure trades are made quickly.

Cross connects are beneficial for a variety of reasons. Two of the most apparent are reliability and fast traffic. With a hardwired connection, the only variables are the connection points. Cross connects are not subject to wireless traffic congestion, which reduces latency and improves data security.

Megaport – What is it? Why is it important?

Megaport is similar to what the word implies – a port that offers big capabilities. Megaport, through a single gateway, gives customers access to cloud services like AWS, Office 365, Oracle, Google, and many more. Essentially, Megaport does the complex tasks like housing ports worldwide and performing maintenance, while you enter the global cloud simply through a single port.

At FIBERTOWN, we’re proud Megaport providers. Through our partnership, we offer your business cloud connectivity that is fast, agile, and scalable. You are able to contract it through us to avoid more contracts and invoices. Let Fibertown be your pass-through and enjoy the same service for the same price without having to read and sign more legal documents!

Advantages to Megaport include a fast spin up, reduced latency, more secure data, and cost-effectiveness. (You pay for your port on your FIBERTOWN billing cycle, meaning you do not sign a contract with Megaport.)

FIBERTOWN customers enjoy redundancy and reliability for cloud services without the hassle of cloud maintenance and complicated billing. Megaport makes cloud connectivity easy. We and our customers like that.

Why Choose FIBERTOWN

“Can you hear me now?” was a popular phrase in the early 2000s because of the phone commercial. And the premise is still an important one for businesses. Without connectivity, customers are not served because data is compromised or is moving so slowly that it’s not useful.

FIBERTOWN data centers in Houston, Texas, and Bryan/College Station, Texas provide customers with reliable connections. Through blended internet, cross-connects, and Megaport, we keep you connected and business moving forward.

To learn more information about these offerings and how they’re beneficial for your business, contact us.

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How to Choose Network Services Wisely

Variety and flexibility are key elements of FIBERTOWN’s network services offerings.

Network. Pipe. Bandwidth. No matter what you call it, your business’ connectivity needs can be met with FIBERTOWN’s diverse solutions.

Some businesses need ultra-high performance, total redundancy, and reliability.

And others need more bandwidth to transfer massive amounts of data but can work with lower-tier providers to lower costs.

Determining the best price and performance plan to fit your company is where the magic lies.

Network services are varied and fluctuate in price. Here are a few helpful factors to consider when you’re determining your connectivity needs.

Location, location, location

While “location is everything” might be a common refrain for real estate agents, it’s also vital for companies looking for a network services provider.

Our FIBERTOWN data centers are located near major carrier hubs and Internet Carrier Exchanges.

These exchanges, also referred to as IX Points, IXPs or Internet Exchange Points, are where the world’s internet service providers (ISPs) and content delivery networks (CDNs) meet and exchange their network traffic.

Close proximity to an Internet Exchange Point means the lowest latency and most robust network connectivity for our data center colocation customers.

Blended internet and smart routing

Both of our FIBERTOWN data centers offer blended or multi-homed internet access.

We have partnerships with multiple carriers connected via multiple circuits providing superior reliability with no single point of failure.

Because of our partnership with ISPs, we are able to serve a broad range of connectivity needs, failover configurations, and specific price targets.

FIBERTOWN Smart Routing considers multiple real-time factors including latency, packet loss, jitter, and transit costs to move your traffic through the best route.

Considering carrier-neutral options

Our customers can depend on us to offer carrier-neutral connectivity.

FIBERTOWN has partnerships with a broad range of telecommunications carriers offering multiple types of service.

When you choose one of our data centers in Houston or Bryan – College Station, Texas, your connectivity is provided via multiple fiber entry points into each data center.

With total carrier neutrality, you can change your network carrier and/or network solution as your business requires.

We have recently enhanced our FIBERTOWN site-to-site connectivity by adding a redundant, path-diverse point-to-point circuit between our data centers in Bryan and Houston.

Connectivity for your business

When it comes to network services, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Any provider who tries to sell you that package isn’t working for your best interests.

In our experience, each business is unique and must be met with expert skill to craft the ideal solution for your needs.

Not only is it best for you — it’s simply the right thing to do.

Find a data center that understands the importance of individualization.

Let FIBERTOWN help you to determine the right data center solution for your needs. Contact us today for a free quote.