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Key Dedicated Internet Access Benefits

Dedicated Internet Access Services For Business

Not all internet connections are equal. Especially when considering the advantages of dedicated internet access services. You’ve likely connected to public WiFi before, only to become frustrated with completing simple online tasks, like browsing or sending an email. Then you know the costs associated with a slow internet connection and shared bandwidth.

The stakes only increase when it comes to the quality of your business internet connection. In today’s digital world made up of eCommerce businesses, video conferences, 4K streaming and countless terabytes of cloud computing storage — dedicated internet access through a managed Internet Service Provider can make all the difference.

A slow connection is just one of the issues that can be shored up by taking advantage of a good managed internet service. The right solution will provide high-speed, dedicated internet access to your business, as well as better customer support, increased reliability, and better security.

What Is Dedicated Internet Access (DIA)?

Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) guarantees that your company is always receiving the maximum bandwidth that you’re paying for. Another popular option is paying for a “shared” connection, where the internet speed advertised in the package you purchased, is the maximum (not average) speed your company can receive.

Since a shared connection means you’re sharing your bandwidth with other people, your internet speed will fluctuate. Speeds can be unpredictable throughout the day and during peak usage times. Essentially, it all depends on the internet provider’s network traffic. During times of high use or network congestion, some ISPs may also slow down your connection in what is known as internet throttling. All these issues are avoided with dedicated internet access, as your company doesn’t have to share bandwidth with anyone, ever. It is a dedicated connection with dedicated bandwidth.

Dedicated Internet Access Explanation

When we think about internet, we don’t think about what type of connection we have. We simply expect fast, reliable service 24-7. However, not all internet connections are created equal. Today, many businesses operate on inexpensive shared internet circuits. On a shared network, if you’re trying to upload time-sensitive files while your peers are streaming data, you’re going to struggle with slow internet speeds and productivity. Because shared circuits equal shared bandwidth.

Businesses such as car dealerships, hotels, medical practices, real estate offices and banks can’t afford inefficient bandwidth and downtime, thus most opt for Dedicated Internet Access, (DIA). Dedicated circuits provide internet to a single location, meaning bandwidth is only available to the circuit owner. Therefore businesses with DIA actually receive the bandwidth they sign up for. No sharing.

Symmetric Upload & Download Speeds

If you’re considering a shared internet access agreement, understand that download speeds are going to be significantly faster than upload speeds. This is also one of the key differences when comparing internet services like DSL vs Cable vs Fiber. Shared internet access is set up this way. Not because Internet Service Providers are trying to take advantage, but because there is usually a higher demand from people using private networks for downloading versus uploading.

Download AND Upload Speeds Are Equally Important In Today’s Business Environment

Nothing is worse than trying to close a deal via video conference, only to have a bad feed or choppy connectivity at a crucial moment. However, with dedicated internet access, you won’t have that problem. Download speeds should be very close to symmetric. Matching your upload speeds 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

Improved Network Security

Cyber security for your business should be of utmost importance. Especially if you handle any sensitive data—such as employees’ or clients’ personal information. Additionally, cyber security is an essential part of your business’s financial security.

One way to boost your security is by using dedicated internet access. By not having to share your internet connection with those outside of your organization, strengthen your overall cyber security and insulate your network against breaches. When you have dedicated internet access, you can worry less about the threats from other networks. This allows you to better allocate your business’s resources toward tackling other weak links in your digital security.

Dedicated Internet Access Can Help Make Your Network More Secure

In addition to the basics, some internet service providers will offer additional security features with your dedicated internet access. This will often include firewall options to help block malicious code, viruses and other intrusions. As well as enhanced security services to help you identify spam, malware, and phishing scams. Identifying and neutralizing these threats is of utmost importance, as they can interrupt business or lead to sensitive data being stolen.

Dedicated Internet = Better Throughput

Ever get slow internet speeds, despite an internet speed test saying your bandwidth is high? Then you already know about the importance of throughput. It’s a bit technical, but the reality is that the bandwidth your company buys from an Internet Service Provider is not the circuit’s actual throughput. That number is just the bandwidth at which the circuit accesses the provider’s backbone network.

Unfortunately, this means that once your traffic hits the network, it can only move as fast or as slow as the network will allow. The best way to think about this is as if you’re commuting from work during rush hour. If the backbone network is over-subscribed to, it’s like everyone trying to get out of the city. On the same freeway. At the same time. Sure, the speed limit is 60 mph. You can zoom up the on-ramp from your place of business. But once you hit the freeway, things start moving at a painful crawl.

Shared Internet Service Connections Can Get Jammed Up During Peak Times

Generally, dedicated internet access customers are kept on a high-capacity, under-subscribed backbone network. Shared internet connections often run on a backbone network that’s cluttered with traffic — slowing everything down.

You often won’t see this advertised as part of the package when you’re looking into purchasing dedicated internet access. However, it’s something you’ll want to follow up with your sales rep about. Ensure you’re getting the most out of your network.

Scalable Internet Access

If your business is growing, the ability to scale up your resources as you expand is vital. With a dedicated internet connection, it’s easy to move the sliding scale of what internet services you’re paying for, to match your needs. There’s no need to pay for internet you don’t use. Then again, you can always just opt for unlimited data.

Dedicated Reliability & Improved Customer Support

One of the biggest advantages of managed and dedicated internet service, is that you most likely won’t need to utilize the 24/7 customer support that often comes with it. Dedicated internet access service plans should come with a Service Level Agreement (SLA). This agreement guarantees circuit up time. Typically, an SLA document also details a minimum time to resolve connectivity issues (if any), to restore complete service.

Dedicated Internet Services Often Come With 24/7 Support & Real-time Monitoring

Dedicated internet access service should be accompanied with high-end, reliable network equipment. This further reduces connectivity issues.

Final Thoughts: Choosing The Right Dedicated Internet Access Plan For Your Company

Whether you’re in the Bay Area or elsewhere, business internet access needs should not be underestimated. Depending on your company, symmetrical upload and download speeds provided via a managed internet service and better throughput — can be absolutely essential to your success.

Additionally, the security risk of a shared internet package may not be worth the savings. The actual costs and the damage to your brand’s reputation from a data breach could be astronomical. (Depending on the size of the breach and the sensitivity of the information stolen). When it comes to cyber security, it is always better to be safe than sorry.

The bottom line is that having reliable and dedicated internet access can increase the productivity of your workforce, as well as improve your bottom line. Have more questions about what dedicated internet access or managed services can do for your business? Contact Fastmetrics today.

About Fastmetrics, Inc. Building & Business ISP

Since 2002, Fastmetrics is the Bay Area’s only dedicated business ISP. We provide telecommunication services in California and the San Francisco Bay Area. Reliable service – backed by better live and local support. From install to 24-7 proactive monitoring, get treated like a VIP customer. Not a number by a faceless call center. We specialize in managed business internet and phones, dedicated high speed business fiber internet, business WiFi, SIP voice solutions / UCaaS and managed network services. We are a Microsoft and Cisco Meraki Partner. Our team are Certified Cisco Specialists, Ubiquiti Enterprise Wireless Accredited and Polycom Authorized Solution Advisors. We take care of your business network, so you can focus on growth.

October 3, 2018
5 Cloud Benefits For System Administrator Pros

Key Cloud Considerations For A System Administrator

The job of a system administrator is probably one of the most unappreciated roles in all of IT. End users, developers, and everyone in between rely on system administrators. Sys admins spend hours upon hours, often in the middle of the night and on the weekends, running backups, software updates, and much more. They maintain the equipment that keeps you all running.

With the introduction of the cloud, system administrators are finally getting a much needed break. By shifting a company’s information technology to the cloud using the best tools available, system administrators can essentially outsource some of the things they spend so much time on. They can then better focus on other tasks, essential to what they do. Let’s look at five benefits of a cloud based phone system. We see how these benefits will improve both the system administrators work load. Also the responsiveness to end users and developers.

1. Focus More On Users Instead Of Hardware

Most system administrators find their time stretched thin. Between taking care of users and the computer hardware, maintaining the server infrastructure, and more, a system admin often feels like more of a firefighter than anything else.

When you make the transition to the cloud, you will have far less fires to deal with every day. When you migrate server infrastructure into the cloud along with thin clients for your end users, you will discover you have far less problems to deal with. On top of that, most providers will help you with support for their systems and your users.

This added assistance will free up your time so you can focus more on delivering a superb user experience to the employees at your company. You can concentrate on implementing all those projects you kept pushing back, simply because you didn’t have the time to get them done.

2. Less Fighting For Resources

If you are a system administrator in a small to medium sized business, you are already well aware of the fight for resources. Resources you need to ensure all your equipment and infrastructure keeps running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Add to that the cost of software licenses, upgrades, and all those extras you run into day in and day out, and chances are your budget is stretched pretty thin.

Cloud-based systems such as managed Exchange, SharePoint or an cloud hosted voice PBX are billed on a monthly basis. You know exactly how much it will cost. In most cases, you will find that these costs are actually lower than what you spend to keep all the equipment in house. Upgrades should also come free with a cloud setup. This makes it much easier to create and manage your IT budget.

3. Increased Flexibility

When you think about your systems, it often feels like a marriage of sorts. When you decide on a specific system, chances are you will have to stick with that system for a certain period of time. Migrating to a new platform can prove difficult and even costly. This is why you see so many businesses running software that is long past its prime.

Things work a little differently in the cloud. It’s very nature is much more flexible. You can easily move from platform to platform with very little effort on your part. If you need to expand one area, you can simply make a phone call and get it done, without having to worry about the impact to other systems. Cloud providers have to compete in a very tough market. Because of this, they often offer easy upgrade paths, to be as flexible as possible. This leads to your own IT structure being more flexible as well.

Not happy with your cloud provider? No problem. One simple e-mail or phone call and you begin the process of migrating to another cloud provider. Most cloud hosts include free migration as part of their packages and will help you get it done in no time flat. This provides the flexibility to expand and move your services around at will.

4. Less IT & Network Security Concerns

We all know how important IT and network security is today. We are bombarded by news stories of hacks around the world and if you are a system administrator, you wonder if your network will be next. Investing in security and then maintaining that system can be a daunting and expensive task. In fact, in today’s world security of networks is one of the system admins biggest sources of stress. In case you deal with this daily.

Hosting providers today bring with them their own security infrastructure that most system admins only dream of. With secure data centers across the world and trained professionals designed to prevent attacks, a system administrator can rest easy knowing their network is safer. If a breach does occur, these professionals are trained experts in dealing with them. This includes both stopping the attack and discovering exactly what got hit.

5. Improved System & Network Performance

As a system admin you are always concerned about the performance of your systems. You work tirelessly to provide the quickest connection and fastest speeds for your users so they don’t have to fight with a slow system just because they want to get a few things done.

Cloud providers understand this. They work very hard to provide systems for your company that are fast and reliable. In addition, these providers are constantly improving their networks and optimizing them for the best performance possible. This usually means new upgrades, software updates, and much more. At the end of the day, you will have a system that is much more robust and powerful. This provide your users the best performance possible, at a fraction of the cost of what you would normally spend.

Final Thoughts For System Administrator Professionals

The advent of the cloud marked a new era in computing. Finally, system admins can shed much of their equipment in favor of the cloud. Sure, there will still be desktops and laptops to maintain, especially if, as most Dev Ops do, you make use of a linux laptop or desktop. But much of the server infrastructure can easily be migrated to the cloud.

This migration will provide system admins, developers and even end users, the support and performance needed in an increasingly fast paced and mobile working world, to get the job done. For a system administrator, it means more time to focus on improving the overall user experience and providing increasing value for the end user.

If you’re a system administrator, we thank you. We hope you see the many benefits of migrating to cloud environment for you and your company. Got more questions about the benefits of a cloud environment for your business? Contact Fastmetrics today about direct connections to AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and more.

About Fastmetrics, Inc. Building & Business ISP

Since 2002, Fastmetrics is the Bay Area’s only dedicated business ISP. We provide telecommunication services in California and the San Francisco Bay Area. Reliable service – backed by better live and local support. From install to 24-7 proactive monitoring, get treated like a VIP customer. Not a number by a faceless call center. We specialize in managed business internet and phones, dedicated high speed business fiber internet, business WiFi, SIP voice solutions / UCaaS and managed network services. We are a Microsoft and Cisco Meraki Partner. Our team are Certified Cisco Specialists, Ubiquiti Enterprise Wireless Accredited and Polycom Authorized Solution Advisors. We take care of your business network, so you can focus on growth.

September 18, 2018
5 Business Benefits To A Cloud Phone System

How A Cloud Phone System Benefits Business

Is your business using or considering a cloud phone system? Today, e-mails, texts and instant messaging accounts for a significant portion of daily communications. However, a good old fashion phone call is far from obsolete. That’s particularly true in the business world.

Regardless of business size or industry, a reliable phone service is a necessity. As with many business decisions, selecting the right business phone system for your specific needs can be overwhelming.

In the past, many businesses were forced to implement a Public Branch Exchange (PBX). A PBX is an on-premise or on-site telephone network. A PBX required bulky hardware, dedicated storage and a significant investment in management and maintenance. As such, a PBX phone system often lacked affordability, flexibility and security.

Take office phone presence with you, via a flexible cloud setup

Thanks to ongoing advancements in networking and digital technology, the traditional PBX is no longer the only option when it comes to business phone systems. Instead, many businesses and organizations are turning to external virtual hosted PBX solutions, also referred to as cloud phone systems.

A cloud phone system is managed off-site and accessible anywhere online. These IP powered phone systems make it easier for businesses to tap into enhanced communication features, without investing in on-site management and maintenance.

Not sure if cloud phones are right for you? Below are 5 reasons why today’s businesses are opting for the convenience, versatility and cost-effectiveness of cloud phone systems.

Cloud Phone System: Limited Maintenance & Administrative Requirements

Businesses employing traditional PBXs must train, certify or designate an individual (or multiple) employees or hire external contractors to manage and maintain a PBX phone system. This limitation can create an environment where maintenance and updates are not only disruptive, but inefficient and costly. This can unnecessarily eat away at budget or other critical ITC tasks, preventing business growth and development.

A cloud phone system is hosted off-site. It is managed by a phone service provider. Business owners no longer need to sacrifice excessive financial or human capital to obtain reliable phone service, with enterprise-level features and functionality.

Administration of a cloud phone system is also simplified. Simple online access, like this web based metricVOICE dashboard, allow easy control of phone functions and setup. At any time, anywhere. No advanced IT work is required – anyone phone user can do it. Remote workers can be efficiently setup with phone service too. Shifting phone service from on-premise hardware to a cloud based solution, empowers users to make changes efficiently. Adding rules or setting up out of office, can be done with the click of a button.

Improved Security & Disaster Recovery

When businesses rely on an on-premise PBX, they’re typically housing all their equipment in a single location. This leaves a phone service vulnerable to everything from human error to power failures, fires, or natural disasters.

Conversely, a cloud hosted PBX utilizes remote data centers to mitigate that risk. Servers are protected by layers of physical and network security. This makes it difficult for outside threats to compromise services and information. Along that same line, many cloud phone systems provide redundancy to keep service secure and accessible. Because of this, service is maintained at www.venyu.com/disaster–recovery-services/ even if one or multiple servers suffer a geographical failure.

A Cloud Phone System Provides Global Reach

As the needs of a business, as well as their customers and employees extend beyond the physical boundaries of a single building, the importance of a communication system that can adapt to that need is essential to both scalability and security, not to mention a business’s reputation.

Because cloud phone systems can seamlessly integrate with mobile devices, owners and employees alike have access to the phone system regardless of where they are, allowing for seamless productivity. The same is true for companies that have or expect to have multiple locations. A cloud PBX can connect all locations with a unified front (e.g., one phone number can route calls to locations around the globe).

Cloud Flexibility & Remote Workforce Presence

Planning on scaling up business? Opening a new branch and need immediate access to phone based communications? With a cloud phone system, businesses can enjoy increased adaptability without sacrificing their bottom line. This flexibility isn’t limited to phone lines, which can be added and removed as needed. It is also attributed to mobile presence by smart phone apps and features which enable a truly mobile workforce.

Remote workers can be easily setup with business phone service with a cloud based system

Fastmetrics for example, offers customers access to a robust list of included phone features. These include basic business phone service requirements such as call forwarding, conferencing, auto attendants and voicemail to text. Also numerous advanced options, such as click-to-dial CRM integration via the metricCRMconnect Chrome extension.

Service & Call Cost Savings With Cloud Hosted Phones

Cloud business phone systems negate the need for unnecessary hardware maintenance, management and advanced administration. This is typically associated with on-premise PBX systems. In turn, companies can adapt and change as necessary. This brings significant savings to those who make the switch to cloud phone services.

How much can you save? That depends on a variety of factors, such as the number of lines you need. A recent report by Transparency Market Research suggests the cost of phone system ownership can decrease significantly, via a cloud based or virtual PBX. Other reports frequently suggest savings near 60% to 90%, particularly when international calling costs are factored in.

This notion is supported by Fastmetrics business phone service rates. We provide monthly phone service for as little as $20 a line. Our metricVOICE service is a completely managed service to ensure voice quality. It enables businesses to meet customer needs, whilst maintaining a cost-effective and versatile service. When it comes to communication, cloud phone services represent a way to achieve that goal.

Got questions about a cloud phone system or service benefits? Contact Fastmetrics.

September 13, 2018
Popular Small Business Phone Systems
Most Popular Small Business Phone Systems

Before you sign with a phone service provider, you’ll want to have a strong foundation of understanding about phone systems for small businesses. Go beyond simply knowing what features you want the small business phone system to have. Know the various types of systems out there. From phone systems that rely on traditional phone lines to make calls, to those that use broadband or fiber internet connections.

As far as features go, if you’re putting budget into a serious business phone system, you should be expecting to receive multiple lines, voicemail, conference calling capabilities and an auto attendant at the very least in return. Among the choices you’ll be facing for your small business phone system is whether to get a multi-line system, a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) system, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system, or a cloud-based phone system. Let’s take a look at the most popular small business phone systems options and how to determine what will work best for your small business:

Multi-line Phone Systems

These more old-school phone systems are also known as key service units (KSU). These systems use an electro-mechanical switching device that controls the routing and operation of a traditional analog telephone system.

When considering how many lines your business needs wired into the office, it’s important to find a balance between not having more lines than you really need while also giving your business room to grow. If you have a business with less than 10 people, it’s also possible to take advantage of a KSU-less system in which the phone contains all the technology. This means the system doesn’t have to be permanently wired into the office space.

Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Phone Systems

Private Branch Exchange Systems (PBX) are essentially private phone networks for your office that give you more advanced features and options. At Fastmetrics, the system is actually cloud-based. PBX features can include call holding, routing to extensions, and conference calling. These phone systems are different from KSU systems in that the call routing does not occur through the phone unit or building’s wiring but is centralized. These systems, designed for companies needing to cater to more than 40 employees, used to be run on monstrous devices that took up an entire closet. Now, they can comfortably fit on a shelf.

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Phone Systems

If you go with a VoIP phone system, it will run on your broadband internet connection rather than through your phone lines. When this technology first came out, it was very rough and reliability was an issue, especially as your phone system’s effectiveness was tied to your high-speed internet connection. Nowadays, a VoIP system offers a vast number of advantages: from the ease of installation and scale-ability to pricing and advanced features. Among these features is a VoIP system’s ability to integrate with your customer relationship management software (CRM), which can then automatically log interactions.

An IP powered phone system allows seamless communication outside of the officeVoIP systems also boast the ability to host a virtual receptionist or auto attendant to handle calls, as well as all the other bells and whistles that come with a full phone system, such as conference calls, call waiting, and voicemail. These same VoIP features are also offered by Fastmetrics’ cloud PBX solution. VoIP adoption by businesses is growing rapidly.

Cloud Hosted Phone Systems (Cloud Voice)

The key to a cloud-based phone system is that it removes the telephone infrastructure from your office. This system will be run by a third-party company and can be hosted through either a PBX or by a VoIP system. This setup is perfect for your business if you’re on a tight or fixed budget and don’t have the IT staff necessary to operate and maintain PBX hardware or troubleshoot your VoIP system.

With a new cloud-based phone system plan, Fastmetrics customers receive their choice of unlimited FREE and new Yealink or Polycom phones with business voice services. Get in touch with Fastmetrics touch to learn more.

Of course, by having a third-party company managing the system, you are dependent on its reliability as a company and you do lose a certain amount of control. At Fastmetrics, users have a much higher level of control over the standard cloud phone system, in terms of setup and customization. Nonetheless, a cloud phone system is often the most cost-effective solution for a small business and the easiest to deal with regarding scalability.

7 Small Business Phone System Feature Considerations

A lot of features that come with small business phone systems are designed to make your life as a business owner easier and help your employees to be more effective and efficient.

Here are a few small business phone systems essentials:
- Voicemail transcriptions: This feature, which sometimes is called voicemail-to-email or voicemail-to-text, transcribes a message left in the phone system, making it easier to respond to.
- Voicemail: Though voicemail isn’t used much in social calls anymore, people still expect to be able to leave a message inquiring about a product with a company. Though more cumbersome than other forms of communication, voicemail remains an essential feature for small business phone systems.
- Call forwarding: This allows your employees to transfer a customer to the right department or person.
- Call queuing: If your company faces heavy phone traffic and you have limited employees available to answer the phone, this is an essential feature to ensure that you don’t miss clients’ calls.
- Call recording: This is a particularly important feature for businesses that review customer service employee interactions on a regular basis, as it gives you an opportunity to see how your employees are interfacing with clients.
- Interactive voice response: This allows you to create a series of menus for your business that a caller can navigate to help them reach the representative best prepared to help them.
- Conference calling: With more people working on the road or from their home, bringing everyone together in one place can sometimes feel impossible. However, with conference calling, you’re able to pull in everyone around the table (so to speak) and hash out ideas.
These are just a few of the most essential features you’ll want to consider having for your small business’s phone system. Other options include ring groups, directory assistance, internet faxing, call reports, call monitoring, and missed call notifications. Most phone service providers charge extra for extended phone system features but at Fastmetrics, many of these features are included for no additional cost.

Final Thoughts: Choosing Between the Most Popular Small Business Phone Systems

By having a firm grasp on all the options for small business phone systems from those hardwired into your building, to those cloud systems hosted by a third party, you’ll be able to confidently approach a phone service provider and not be overwhelmed by the options, features, and details of what they’re trying to sell you. This is important because you’ll want to settle on a phone system for your small business where you aren’t paying for a lot of lines and features you don’t need, but are still giving your company room to grow.

About Fastmetrics, Inc. Building & Business ISP

Since 2002, Fastmetrics is the Bay Area’s only dedicated business ISP. We provide telecommunication services in California and the San Francisco Bay Area. Reliable service – backed by better live and local support. From install to 24-7 proactive monitoring, get treated like a VIP customer. Not a number by a faceless call center. We specialize in managed business internet and phones, dedicated high speed business fiber internet, business WiFi, SIP voice solutions / UCaaS and managed network services. We are a Microsoft and Cisco Meraki Partner. Our team are Certified Cisco Specialists, Ubiquiti Enterprise Wireless Accredited and Polycom Authorized Solution Advisors. We take care of your business network, so you can focus on growth.
August 29, 2018
Retro Video Games Quiz

Think You Know Your Retro Video Games?

Back in the days before apps and online gaming, way before any Sony Playstation, Xbox or Nintendo Wii consoles, video games came on chunky plug and play cartridges or discs. Some classic old-school retro video games were played by millions of people throughout the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. Popular gaming consoles throughout these times included the Atari 2600, Nintendo NES and the Sega Megadrive.

Do you know your Mega Man from your Super Mario Bros? Your Donkey Kong from Sonic the Hedgehog? Take the quiz below to test your retro game knowledge. Don’t forget to share your results online!

Quiz: Test Your Retro Video Game Knowledge

[playbuzz-item item=”250b4028-c5b6-4488-a58e-d093324cdb25″ wp-pb-id=”438045″]

For some more classic video games, check out this list of 20 greatest retro games.

About Fastmetrics, Inc. Building & Business ISP

Since 2002, Fastmetrics is the Bay Area’s only dedicated business ISP. We provide telecommunication services in California and the San Francisco Bay Area. Reliable service – backed by better live and local support. From install to 24-7 proactive monitoring, get treated like a VIP customer. Not a number by a faceless call center. We specialize in managed business internet and phones, dedicated high speed business fiber internet, business WiFi, SIP voice solutions / UCaaS and managed network services. We are a Microsoft and Cisco Meraki Partner. Our team are Certified Cisco Specialists, Ubiquiti Enterprise Wireless Accredited and Polycom Authorized Solution Advisors. We take care of your business network, so you can focus on growth.

May 4, 2018
Fiber Optic Cables: How They Work
Learn How Fiber Optic Cables Work

Fiber optic cables have transformed telecommunications and connectivity. Fiber technology is a game changer. Via fiber cables, signals can be sent across the world at the speed of light.

Ever wanted to learn how fiber cables work? No one does a better job of explaining how fiber cable works than Bill Hammack, The Engineer Guy. Below is Bill’s clear and concise video, which demonstrates the workings of fiber. Bill also explains how fiber cabling is used and what it can achieve.

Want to know why fiber is a better connectivity choice than other options? Below the video transcript, find further info on how fiber compares to other internet service technologies, what are the main benefits of fiber and where it is available.

Video: How Fiber Optic Cables Work & How Engineers Use Them To Send Messages

Video transcript: I find this a fascinating object. It’s a fiber optic cable for a stereo. If I shine this laser pointer down the cable, it guides the light out the other end. These cables are used to connect our world today and they’re capable of transmitting information across countries and oceans. But first, let me show you how fiber optic cables work.

I have a bucket that I modified with a window in front and on the other side, I put a stopper in this hole right here. I have a bottle of propylene glycol, with just a little bit of creamer in it. A ring stand and of course a laser pointer. Now, keep your eye on this plug when I turn out the lights. That’s wonderful. The light follows the liquid flow all the way to the bucket. Amazing. It does this because of total internal reflection. As the light enters the stream, it is reflected as soon as it hits the interface between here and liquid.

You can see here the first reflection and then the second and the third. This occurs because there’s a difference between the index refraction of the guide material, here propylene glycol, and the outside air in this case. Recall that anytime light strikes a surface, it can either be absorbed by the material, reflected from it or passed into and through it, the latter we call “refraction”. It’s easier to see from a top view. Reflection and refraction could happen at the same time. But if a light ray hits the surface at an angle greater than the critical angle, it will be completely reflected and not refracted.

For this propylene glycol and air system, as long as a beam hits the surface at an angle greater than 44.35 degrees, measured from the normal, it will propagate down the stream via total internal reflection. To create the same effect in an optical fiber, engineers create a core of glass, usually pure silicon dioxide and an outside layer called “cladding,” which they also typically make from silicon dioxide but with bits of boron or germanium to decrease its index of refraction.

A one percent difference is enough to make fiber optic cables work. To make such a long, thin piece of glass, engineers heat a large glass preform. Its center is the pure core glass and the outside the cladding. They then draw or pull a fiber by winding the melt on to a wheel at speeds up to 1600 meters per second. Typically these drawing towers are several stories tall. The height allows the fiber to cool before being wound onto a drum.

One of the greatest engineering achievements was the first ocean spanning fiber optic cable called TAT-8. It extended from Tuckerton, New Jersey, following the ocean floor over 3500 miles until branching out to Widemouth, England and Penmarch, France. Engineers designed the cable carefully to survive on the ocean floor. At its center lies the core. Less than a tenth of an inch in diameter, it contains six optical fibers wrapped around a central steel wire. They embedded this in an elastomer to cushion the fibers, surround it with steel strands and then sealed it inside a copper cylinder to protect it from water. The final cable was less than an inch in diameter, yet it could handle some 40,000 simultaneous phone calls.

The essence of how they send information through a fiber optic cable is very simple. I could have a pre-arranged signal with someone at the other end. Perhaps we will use Morse code and I just block the laser, so that the person at that end sees flashes that communicate a message. To transmit an analog signal, like voice from a phone call along the cable, engineers use Pulse Code Modulation. We take an analog signal and cut it up into sections and then approximate the wave’s loudness or amplitude as best we can.

We want to make this a digital signal, which means discrete values of loudness and not just any value. For example, I will use four bits, which means I have 16 possible values for the loudness. So the first four sections of the signal could be approximated by about 10, 12, 14 and 15. We then take each section and convert its amplitude to a series of ones and zeros. The first bar of value 10, when encoded, becomes one, zero, one, zero. We can do this for each section of the curve.

Now instead of looking at the green wave form or even the blue bars, we can think of the signal as a series of ones and zeros organized by time. It is that sequence that we send through a fiber optic cable of flash for one and nothing for a zero. Now of course, the exact method of encoding is known at the receiving end. So it is a trivial matter to decipher the message. Now you may be wondering how a laser pulse can travel nearly 4000 miles across the ocean. It doesn’t without some help because the light will escape from the sides of the fibers. Look back at our propylene stream.

Here’s how the light attenuates as it travels. You can see here a narrow beam in the bucket that broadens a bit when it enters the stream and then after the first bounce, the beam leaves even broader than it entered. That’s because the interface with the air is uneven and the rays that make up the beam strike at slightly different angles. When that beam makes its second reflection, those individual rays diverge even more. Until by the time it reaches the third bounce, many of the rays are no longer at the critical angle and can exit from the sides of the stream. Here it happens in a few inches but in fiber optic cables like TAT-8, the signal travels a stunning 50 kilometers before it needs to be amplified. Absolutely amazing. I’m Bill Hammack, the Engineer Guy.

Fiber Optic Internet Service Plan Considerations

When it comes to performance, Fastmetrics has explained and displayed how fiber optic internet is by far, the fastest internet service. In some cases, fiber optic internet plans can be up to 20 times the speed, or faster, than common broadband plans. In today’s society most businesses require the support of an internet service plan. To stay competitive, businesses must ensure that they have the best online capabilities. In this post, we look at the things that you should consider when looking into fiber optic internet plans from Fastmetrics, or any other fiber optic provider.

Fiber Optic Internet Plans Offer Increased Reliability

A fiber optic connection is less likely to be affected by service interruptions, due to its construction. As mentioned, engineers designed fiber optic cables such as TAT-8 to survive the pressures of the deep ocean. This is in order to be able to send signals across the world at the speed of light. Central steel wires are wrapped around optical fibers to protect them from breaking. In addition, for protection from water, engineers often seal optical fibers inside a copper tubing. Ironically, copper based internet connections are slower than fiber, but copper complements fiber in its construction.

Anatomy of an undersea fiber optic cable

In a recent Nadex article on copper as a commodity, it was discussed how copper has helped initiate global changes through improving infrastructure. And this couldn’t be more true in the role it plays in protecting fiber cables, offering increased durability and reliability for telecommunications. Because of this durable combination of materials, fiber optic cables are less likely to be affected by power outages. Or, interrupted by external factors such as electrical equipment and lightning. With the internet being the key foundation of many businesses, it is important to consider how crucial it is to have a reliable internet connection.

Fiber Optic Internet Plans Provide Faster Speeds

The first thing that business owners need to decide on when getting a fiber optic plan is the level of speed required. Just how fast do you need your Internet to be? As an example, Fastmetrics offers symmetric connections from 100 x 100 Mbps, 250 x 250 Mbps, 500 x 500 Mbps, 1000 x 1000 Mbps (Gigabit) to the fastest – 10 Gbps x 10 Gbps fiber service, as well as dedicated Ethernet with similar gigabit per second speeds. Depending on the how much your company utilizes the internet in its day-to-day operations, will depend on the speed the business needs. Contact us if you would like an estimate on the fiber speed you might require. This is based on the number of employees at your business, as well as what you need internet service for. Tip: Get an estimate on what fiber optic speed is optimal, so you can get a plan that supports your needs.

Fiber Internet: Faster Uploads & Cloud Access

If your business needs to store or send huge amounts of data, you should consider a plan with faster upload speeds to services such as the cloud. Downloading and uploading large files or data can take a long time on a broadband connection. Tip: Choose a fiber optic plan with adequate upload speed. (All Fastmetrics fiber optic plans provide symmetric speeds for fast cloud access and downloads).

High Speed Symmetric Fiber Connectivity

Not all fiber optic connections are created equal. Some may offer fast download speeds, but what about upload speed? Symmetric connections are ideal when using VoIP or cloud PBX phone services. If your business needs an internet solution with consistent upload and download speed, you need a high speed symmetrical fiber optic connection. Symmetric connectivity prevents unnecessary delays in the downloading and uploading of data.

Fiber Optic Internet Installation Cost

One of the most important things to consider is how much it will cost to install a fiber optic internet connection. Without existing fiber lines, upgrading your internet service to fiber can be a large upfront investment for businesses. Some buildings contain existing fiber internet infrastructure, or are ‘lit’ with fiber already. Lit fiber buildings reduce initial end user outlays for fiber construction.

Information Age states that fiber optic technology has a long life cycle, due to its unmatched internet speeds and protective construction. The tech site states “telecom infrastructures go from one generation to next in a matter of months”. For those considering a fiber optic plan for their business, we hope that this has proved informative. In our post ‘10 Benefits to Fiber Optic Internet’, we provide a summary of the 10 major benefits of why we believe investing in fiber optic connectivity is a good idea.

How Has Fiber Optic Technology Revolutionized Telecommunications?

It has taken many years for fiber optics to be used to their full potential for telecommunication services. Considering fiber optic technology was first created more than 43 years ago, progress has been slow. This is ironic, seeing fiber offers end users access to data at the speed of light. For Internet and bandwidth purposes, fiber optic technology is still largely underutilized. Only a handful of service providers in select countries provide complete access to fiber based networks.

The Basics – How Are Fiber Optic Transmissions Sent?

In addition to the video above, which goes deep into understanding how fiber optic cables work, below are the 3 basic steps to how a transmission is sent via fiber;
1. An optical signal is created using a transmitter
2. The signal is relayed via the fiber, ensuring the signal is not distorted or diminished
3. The signal is received and converted into an electrical signal
How Has Fiber Changed Telecommunications Today?

Since the establishment of the first fiber WAN in Essex in the U.K in 1978, fiber has slowly developed, grown and in some instances, completely replaced traditional copper based telecommunications services. Quite simply, fiber is a more efficient means of transmitting telecommunications signals (data and voice). Signals are sent by light over fibers made of glass, as opposed to copper wire.

Fiber vs. Copper vs. Cable – What Are The Advantages?

Fiber technology can be used for voice, (phones) and data (Internet and TV). It provides the following advantages over copper wire or cable based communications;
- Lower attenuation – the loss of intensity of any kind of physical property through a medium. (For example, the signal strength over the optical fiber).
- Less interference – electromagnetic interference effects an electrical circuit. This may interrupt, obstruct, degrade or limit a circuit’s performance. These effects may range from data limitation to total loss of data.
Disadvantages Of Fiber vs Copper vs Cable Based Internet

Previously, fiber optic infrastructure was not readily available in developed countries. Fiber was also costly and time consuming to install. Due to this, fiber was only used widely in long distance telephone communications, where it is used to it’s full capacity. By 2002, a worldwide network of more than 250,000 kilometers of fiber had been laid by the telecommunications industry, with a capacity of 2.56 Tb/s.

However, since the year 2000, the cost of fiber as an Internet service has been lowered greatly. In some cities in the United States, it is cheaper per subscriber, to roll out fiber to the home, than copper based service. This was evident through the Google Fiber program. The cost of fiber is even lower in countries such as the Netherlands and other developed Asian countries, such as South Korea and Japan. Click the link highlighted to see a complete comparison between DSL vs Fiber vs Cable.

Where Are Fiber Internet Networks Most Accessible?

In countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore and in many Scandinavian countries, fiber has largely replaced DSL as a broadband Internet service. Fiber infrastructure is extremely accessible in countries such as South Korea and also very affordable. This has led to countries such as Japan, Singapore and South Korea developing some of the fastest internet speeds in the world, along with many Scandinavian based countries.

Japan’s So-net offers 2Gpbs fiber speed to the home

Where Is Fiber Most Available In The World?

Our worldwide internet speed study analysed data from global internet speeds between 2015 and May 2018. There was a strong correlation to higher average internet speeds in countries with more access to fiber based infrastructure and service.

Countries in green in the map have the highest average internet speeds. These include; most Scandinavian countries, South Korea, Japan and some European countries. (Full interactive map and tables of data are available via the link above). Coincidentally, many of these countries have a strong fiber internet presence. Whilst it is not always readily available in every country or area, fiber based internet and communications are certainly more effective in today’s Information Age, where the demand for consumers and businesses alike to receive information faster and in a variety of digital mediums, is in high demand.

About Fastmetrics, Inc. Building & Business ISP

Since 2002, Fastmetrics is the Bay Area’s only dedicated business ISP. We provide telecommunication services in California and the San Francisco Bay Area. Reliable service – backed by better live and local support. From install to 24-7 proactive monitoring, get treated like a VIP customer. Not a number by a faceless call center. We specialize in managed business internet and phones, dedicated high speed business fiber internet, business WiFi, SIP voice solutions / UCaaS and managed network services. We are a Microsoft and Cisco Meraki Partner. Our team are Certified Cisco Specialists, Ubiquiti Enterprise Wireless Accredited and Polycom Authorized Solution Advisors. We take care of your business network, so you can focus on growth.
May 4, 2018
Fiber Optic Internet Providers vs. Broadband Services
Fiber Optic vs. Broadband Internet Services

As a society, we are always connected. We expect more from our internet services. Whether that be from nearby cable or fiber optic internet providers, or a local broadband ISP. Today, fast and reliable connectivity is no longer a luxury, it is a must. These service expectations increase exponentially in the workplace.

When the opposite is true, your business can really suffer. Conference calls and videos are choppy; data storage and protection is slow, or worse – compromised. Employees can be become frustrated and less productive, which effects your bottom line. There’s no doubt that internet connectivity plays a significant role in business operations. When paired with the availability of multiple service providers and access options, selecting the right internet for your business or company can be a difficult choice.

This is often a choice that’s frequently between fiber optic internet providers and broadband connectivity options. That decision often comes down to one simple question: which one is better for my business? The answer to the question of broadband vs fiber relies on looking at multiple factors.

Top 5 Factors: Fiber Optic Internet Providers vs. Broadband Services

1. Improved Internet Service Reliability

For most, reliability is a leading factor when deciding what type of internet service to choose. Broadband and fiber optic both represent two of the most reliable connection types available to consumers and businesses today. However, although broadband is often reliable, when compared to alternative options such as fiber, it’s also the service most likely to face interruptions from a host of environmental and location factors.

By design, fiber optic Internet is a dedicated, passive system, meaning it is far less likely to be the effected by service interruptions. The dependable nature of our fiber optic internet solution, metricFIBER, carries a 99.999% service up time Service Level Agreement. This consistently makes fiber optic ISPs an attractive choice for businesses worldwide.

2. Bandwidth Considerations

Bandwidth, or the lack thereof, can have a huge impact on business operations at crucial times. Web conferences, video streaming, online presentations, supporting an IP based phone system or hosted IP PBX, file sharing, and cloud applications, can be challenging when upload and download speeds are stunted due to high demands on bandwidth. Broadband, such as DSL or cable internet connections are typically shared across different customers. Because of this, bandwidth, though sufficient at certain times, can be compromised during peak time or during heavy usage.

Typical Fastmetrics fiber speedtest.net result

Even for businesses with minimal broadband neighbors, periods of high data transmission internally can have the same effect. Fiber internet providers, on the other hand, operate as a dedicated service being used only by the business for which it’s established, negating much of that concern. Further, limits or data caps, though they do exist with some providers, are typically much higher (high enough to be considered “unlimited bandwidth” by many). Fiber certainly is designed to deliver an internet service with upload and download speeds that are as quick as they are reliable.

3. Cloud Access Requirements

Today, cloud computing services and platforms such as cloud storage have become a major tool for businesses across the globe. Delays when accessing or uploading information to ‘the cloud’ can be problematic. Especially for businesses that work with clients or potential customers in real time (i.e., customer service, call centers, etc.) or those that rely on a global workforce.

Because of the two aforementioned benefits of fiber optics, cloud access and data storage, becomes another factor in the decision between broadband and fiber optics. Similarly, broadband, specifically its proclivity for delays and service interruptions, can make it a poor choose for significant cloud reliance. As such, for customers in the Bay Area who rely heavily on cloud storage would benefit from fiber internet.

4. Security Factors

Another concern that is increasingly important in our progressing cyber age – is security. Breaches happen so frequently we sometimes mistake it for normalcy. To combat that, many companies are searching for the best way to fortify their networks and data, from client records to valuable intellectual property. Of the two internet services discussed, a network using broadband is more vulnerable to malicious attacks. Infiltrating a network using broadband services can be easier than gaining access to a network employing a faster fiber optic internet service. For that reason, businesses or enterprises that are looking to increase the speed and reliability of their internet service, as well as fortify data stored online, may find a welcome solution in fiber optic providers.

5. Fiber Internet vs Broadband Pricing

Price and availability are often the two governing factors in any decision between choosing fiber network providers versus broadband. If your company is located in the Bay Area, we’ve got you covered either way. Though most information points to fiber optic internet providers as the clear winner in a battle of internet services, broadband is often the more affordable option. Your business budget for services must come into consideration, first and foremost.

Broadband vs Fiber Verdict: Choose a Fiber Optic ISP

Fiber optic connections are typically more expensive, for various reasons. However, we’ve been working in the Bay Area to make fiber optic more accessible and affordable. Today, as part of our fiberIVY network, we have more than 70 commercial buildings across the Bay Area ready with existing fiber optic infrastructure. For businesses in or thinking about moving to one of these buildings, fiber optic internet access is more cost effective.

Additionally, price is dynamic depending on speed requirements. With business productivity, customer satisfaction, and data security all factoring into the true price of internet service – a more reliable, quicker, and secure service, will lead to a stronger bottom line. In those terms, we truly think fiber optics can be a cost saving service for companies that need it.

There you have it. Broadband and fiber optic internet providers can both supply users access to the internet. While broadband may be a more affordable and feasible option that gets the job done in the short term, for lower bandwidth demands, fiber optics can take things to the next level. If your business needs secure and reliable access to the internet with unparalleled upload and download speeds, regular access to the cloud, contact us about metricFIBER or our dedicated Ethernet service to 10 Gbps symmetric. It just may be the right choice for your business.

What Is The Best Internet Service Technology?

The below video explains the workings of fiber (spelt fibre in the U.K) versus cable, in a battle of the ‘best internet service’ connection technology. Fiber vs copper video provided by Techquickie. Check out more of their videos which explain how tech works.

Video: Fiber Internet vs Copper Based Internet Services Explained

Video transcript: It’s the ultimate battle of the networking communications cables; copper versus fiber! Which will win the ultimate bandwidth challenge and send its opponents ping, crying home to mama? Let’s begin with the key characteristics of those good old, reliable copper phone lines. That’s right, the same basic infrastructure that we’ve been using since the beginning of the 20th century. Copper is highly conductive. This is what makes it so great for carrying the power to your home that you need to do all the things that are important that you need to do there.

Copper wires use the movement of electrons to carry signals by modulating a wave format one end, the demodulating it at the other end, to convert the patterns and the waveform into an analog or a digital signal. A device that modules and demodulates is called a modem. The problem is that copper, even higher bandwidth coaxial cables, can carry only a small number of wave forms, limiting its maximum data capacity and these wave forms degrade very quickly as the distance between the communications devices increases.

In fact, copper only has two main advantages today. One, it’s much less expensive per unit distance than fiber and two, it’s already deployed basically everywhere. Thanks telephone and television. Modern fiber optic cable invented by Corning Inc. in the ‘70s changed the game completely, by allowing the use of light bursts to carry a signal instead of waves traveling through metal.

Today, these cables are made up of a highly transparent, flexible glass core wrapped in a series of layers that protect both the integrity of the signal in the glass and the structure of the glass inside from the elements. Because this is light traveling through a nearly transparent medium, it moves at approximately 200,000 kilometers per second, actually not that different from an electrical signal through copper.

But much more importantly, the integrity of the signal, the ease with which we can interpret the light on versus light off at either end is much easier to maintain at higher switching speeds and over longer distances. I mean we’re talking thousands of kilometers like across oceans, giving fiber optic cables an enormous advantage in speed and well, distance.

There are lots of other cool stuff too. Optical signals are immune to electromagnetic interference. Individual fibers can be bundled together during installation. Some for use now, others dark for expand-ability in the future. Depending on the requirements, fiber can be used with LEDs or lasers and an individual fiber might transmit multiple wavelengths or colors of light at the same time to be a split-out at the end other end to further increase capacity.

Sounds great! Let’s use it for everything, Linus. Well, life is rarely that simple, isn’t it? We’re heading in that direction. But currently fiber is so much more expensive per length than copper that it’s taking a little while to get there. The good news is that copper carries some additional hidden costs that increase fiber’s appeal even further. Thicker, heavier cables are more difficult to install and may require more clearance than is even available in existing underground pathways.

In cases where multiple connections can leverage a single fiber backbone, the cost per capacity argument comes into play where even if two fibers cost 1000 times what copper would. If it can carry over 1000 times the data, the cost per customer and ISP conserved goes down and of course the distance thing comes into play again.

The ISP will save again on repeaters, that you will need all over the neighborhood to maintain the integrity of a signal that’s running on copper lines, so Mrs. Rochester’s connection doesn’t drop out in the middle of her Netflix marathon. But that doesn’t mean that every house will be getting a direct fiber connection anytime soon. It would certainly be nice. (As fiber clearly provides the best internet service). But hybrid deployments with a fiber backbone that serves many customers and copper runs to individuals for the last mile are most common today, because they deliver solid speeds and reliability, while saving a lot of money for the notoriously tightfisted ISPs that are managing the infrastructure.

Speaking of whatever it is I was just talking about, our sponsor today is Fractal Design and instead of me telling you guys about their simple Scandinavian design and great power supplies, cases and cooling products, we actually weren’t sure what to do this time. So I was like spit balling ideas. It was like, “What can we get at a dollar store?” Like glitter and Nick is like, “Yeah, sure.”

So he goes to a dollar store and comes back with a tube of glitter glue. Not only that. A tube of glitter glue, that’s actually completely hardened and dried out. So the only thing we ended up being able to do with it at all was make me pretty for you guys. So I hope you enjoyed it, all you viewers and you, Josh. Do you find me pretty and sparkly? Am I sparkling? Excellent. I’m sparkling. All right! So thanks again to Fractal Design for sponsoring today’s episode of Fast as Possible. Thanks to you guys for watching. Like this video if you liked it. Dislike it if you thought it sucked. Leave a comment if you have suggestions for future Fast as Possible episodes just like this one and Nick, that’s for you buddy. Don’t forget to subscribe.

Need More Help Deciding What Is The Best Internet Service?

Below are links to some additional guides and resources. Check download speed comparison tables, benefits graphics, answers to frequently asked questions and maps. Find what countries have the world’s fastest internet speeds and what technology they are using. Useful info to help you decide the best internet service for your needs;
About Fastmetrics, Inc. Building & Business ISP

Since 2002, Fastmetrics is the Bay Area’s only dedicated business ISP. We provide telecommunication services in California and the San Francisco Bay Area. Reliable service – backed by better live and local support. From install to 24-7 proactive monitoring, get treated like a VIP customer. Not a number by a faceless call center. We specialize in managed business internet and phones, dedicated high speed business fiber internet, business WiFi, SIP voice solutions / UCaaS and managed network services. We are a Microsoft and Cisco Meraki Partner. Our team are Certified Cisco Specialists, Ubiquiti Enterprise Wireless Accredited and Polycom Authorized Solution Advisors. We take care of your business network, so you can focus on growth.
April 27, 2018
Top Cloud Computing Trends 2018 & Beyond

2018 Cloud Computing Trends

Cloud computing trends continue to evolve. As part of the broader Information and Communications Technology (ICT) picture, use of cloud-based technology is an asset for companies worldwide. Cloud based systems continue to enhance competitiveness and have transformed business operations – from logistics and finance to customer relations and human resources. Before talking about cloud computing trends 2018, it may help to first define “The Cloud”.

So, What Is ‘The Cloud?’

The cloud is technology which offers resources, processing power, data storage, application software, backup facilities, development tools and more, in the form of services accessible through the Internet. Cloud computing has transformed business processes both nationally and across international emerging markets. Today, 50 percent of ICT is based in the cloud.

This shift assists growing markets surpass expensive technology barriers, while rapidly increasing workplace productivity and growth. This makes the cloud an optimal environment for many developing markets. Although cloud service usage is still in its infancy in many flourishing markets, the mass adoption of the cloud is likely to become prevalent.

These cloud trends shift by a range of organizations, has resulted in the requirement of providers to invest in cloud infrastructure and data center related offerings, such as security and management services. Cloud computing continues to grow and its trends are likely to transform the IT landscape. Now that you understand the basics of cloud computing, let’s dive deep into cloud trends 2018.

IT Consumerization Driving Cloud Computing Trends

Today, expectations for seamless user experiences have increased in both these areas. As mobile devices expand their power, reach, and sophistication, users are constantly trying to streamline native application experiences, automatic interfaces, and consistent data availability.

Furthermore, phones have centralized peoples’ online lives. Advanced social apps have proliferated BYOD culture, where support from multiple platforms is expected. Consumer websites like Facebook and Twitter, are building mobile elegance and interactivity, due to advancements in front-end languages.

Many popular consumer sites also have mobile apps that offer on-the-go access. Even the most successful IT departments are trying to adapt properly. These user expectations are responsible for cloud popularity, due to browser-delivered flexibility. Various cloud apps offer multiple operating systems and mobile devices, compared to on-site solutions that have lesser compatibility.

Cloud applications also benefit from similar front-end programming developments, such as consumer applications. This means they have finer interfaces that are easier to update than their on-site counterparts. Moreover, most cloud solutions have companion mobile apps as part of the latest cloud trends. These offer secure access to the native experience users look for. From a support point of view, native apps allow IT departments to deal with today’s BYOD climate, by assigning compatibility and data security to providers.

Cloud Trends 2018: Machine Learning (ML) And Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Machine learning is moving into the cloud space and has become so user-friendly, that developers can integrate it into cloud-hosted applications. Gartner says advanced machine learning technologies will play an important role in the tech space in the coming ten years.

Machine learning offers radical computational power, data in bulk, and unparalleled advances in deep neural networks. These all help enterprises with smart machine technologies to access data, align with new situations and solve other data issues.

Machine learning generates enough information to stop anomalous action and deliver automated security operations. Deep learning is important because it helps in the practical application of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Deep Learning divides tasks so that all types of machine assistance become possible.

Now, neural networks and advanced predictive algorithms are easy to create at a much lower cost. Security analytics engines consume data from network gear in search of anomalies that point out threats. By fixing a baseline for normal, these engines detect unusual behaviors and track any malicious activity. With the improvement of these platforms, they will be able to detect attacks in earlier stages and prevent them before they turn into active breaches. Next, here’s how computing trends factor into the world of cloud trends;

Computing Trends: Software And Hardware Will Stay Away

John Manley is a Director of HP’s Automated Infrastructure Lab. He says that in the future, software and hardware will stay away from each other, with various technologies consumed as a service; “cloud computing is the end means by which computing will be invisible,” he says. Even back in 2012, David Merrill, Chief Economist of Hitachi Data Systems said due to this, by 2020, if you were to ask a CIO to describe their infrastructure, they wouldn’t be able to. “He might say ‘here are my service providers’,” he says, but drawing a diagram would be difficult.

This will happen because cloud computing trends show that it will be an “extremely abstracted space,” where software is written differently so that it passes through various filters before it works with hardware. This means that front-end applications or applications developed on top of a platform-as-a-service, are likely to be hardware agnostic.

Bottom line: cloud computing trends will continue to help you benefit from improved security, cost-savings and cloud monitoring services. Therefore, businesses of any size – big or small – will continue to engage, develop, and integrate services on the cloud. Microsoft’s recently launched Windows virtual desktop on Azure is one of the futuristic products which has features like multi-session Windows 10, optimizations for Office 365 ProPlus and support for RDS environments.

So what are some future trends for cloud computing? Only time will tell.

About Fastmetrics, Inc. Building & Business ISP

Since 2002, Fastmetrics is the Bay Area’s only dedicated business ISP. We provide telecommunication services in California and the San Francisco Bay Area. Reliable service – backed by better live and local support. From install to 24-7 proactive monitoring, get treated like a VIP customer. Not a number by a faceless call center. We specialize in managed business internet and phones, dedicated high speed business fiber internet, business WiFi, SIP voice solutions / UCaaS and managed network services. We are a Microsoft and Cisco Meraki Partner. Our team are Certified Cisco Specialists, Ubiquiti Enterprise Wireless Accredited and Polycom Authorized Solution Advisors. We take care of your business network, so you can focus on growth.

January 15, 2018
FCC Announces Vote To Destroy Net Neutrality Next Month

FCC To Vote To End Net Neutrality Rules On December 14th

The Federal Communications Commission will vote to put an end to its net neutrality rules next month, commission chairman Ajit Pai said today. The proposal will reverse the Title II classification of internet providers, which allows the agency to put strict limits on their behavior, and replace it with the old “information service” classification, which a federal court has ruled is less comprehensive, weakening any protections that might replace those currently in force.

That is if the agency even wanted to replace them: it sounds like this proposal will leave the internet without any sort of net neutrality protections. The full text of the order — a final revision of the proposal that received 22 million comments over the summer — will be released tomorrow. For now, we only have a summary from Pai.

“Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the internet,” Pai said in a statement emailed to reporters. “Instead, the FCC would simply require internet service providers to be transparent about their practices so that consumers can buy the service plan that’s best for them and entrepreneurs and other small businesses can have the technical information they need to innovate.”

THE FCC IS HANDING OFF OVERSIGHT TO THE FTC

The FCC’s goal is to set up the Federal Trade Commission to handle all anti-competitive disputes, and the idea is that if ISPs violate their stated policies, the FTC will be able to take action.

This is a puzzling plan and one that the FCC has to be well aware will not offer any legitimate consumer protections. Companies’ terms of service and related policies aren’t meant to protect consumers, they’re meant to protect companies — and they can change at a moment’s notice. While it’s entirely possible that a company could violate its own policies and get in trouble with the FTC, a company could also just promise open internet protections until it doesn’t feel like following them anymore, rewrite its policies, and then implement new and potentially discriminatory practices.

Image: http://gsnetworks.org/blog/net-neutrality-day-action/

And while this all might work out if American consumers had several internet providers to choose from at home, so that they could switch away from a bad provider and over to one that values an open internet, that’s far from the case. Less than a quarter of the country has two or more home internet providers that offer basic broadband speeds — so if you don’t like what your provider is doing, you’re stuck.

[THIS PROPOSAL] THROTTLES ACCESS, STALLS OPPORTUNITY, AND CENSORS CONTENT.

Republicans have argued that the FTC is the expert agency on anti-competitive practices and ought to be in charge here, but that obfuscates what’s really happening. The FTC is a single agency tasked with protecting consumers across a wide range of industries — it simply doesn’t have the focus of the FCC to narrow in on just internet providers. Nor does the FTC have the ability to proactively set tough rules. The FTC can only establish guidelines, which gives internet providers a lot more leeway to experiment with practices that work to their own advantage.

In reality, the FCC is trying and will likely succeed in giving internet providers the leeway to try whatever policies they want over their own networks. Pai’s argument has been that by giving internet providers this flexibility, they’ll be able to make money in new ways, which they could then pour back into building out their network. The theory is that they could then bring service to areas that wouldn’t be profitable enough to reach today. Since the agency wants to get more and more Americans connected, that could be considered a win — though the service may look different than what we receive today in some very important ways.

A COURT BATTLE IS CERTAIN TO FOLLOW

Net neutrality supporters are already fearing the worst based on what Pai has announced. Democratic FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn said the rules (or lack thereof) “would dismantle net neutrality as we know it by giving the green light to our nation’s largest broadband providers to engage in anti-consumer practices, including blocking, slowing down traffic, and paid prioritization of online applications and services.” And fellow Democratic commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel described the same fears, saying this proposal “hands broadband providers the power to decide what voices to amplify, which sites we can visit, what connections we can make, and what communities we create. It throttles access, stalls opportunity, and censors content.”

The Internet Association, a trade group that represents web 40-some web companies including Google and Facebook, pointed to lack of ISP options as a critical flaw in the plan. “Consumers have little choice in their ISP,” the organization said, “and service providers should not be allowed to use this gatekeeper position at the point of connection to discriminate against websites and apps.” And ACLU policy analyst Jay Stanley issued a similar warning, saying, “Gutting net neutrality will have a devastating effect on free speech online. Without it, gateway corporations like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T will have too much power to mess with the free flow of information.”

GUTTING NET NEUTRALITY WILL HAVE A DEVASTATING EFFECT ON FREE SPEECH ONLINE.

The rules go up for a vote next month, on December 14th, when they’re almost certain to pass. The FCC is majority Republican right now, and Republicans have been calling for the end of net neutrality ever since the policy was first put in place. There’s also no reason for Pai to put the measure up for a vote unless he knows it’s going to pass.

After the vote, it’ll take a month or so before the new policies appear in the Federal Register and go into place, overwriting the only net neutrality rules. That doesn’t mean everything will be all over, though: there’s certain to be a court battle — or two, or three — to follow. Net neutrality advocates will take the commission to court, likely claiming that it failed to find enough evidence to warrant overturning a decision made just two years earlier. Advocates may also say the commission ignored process, having made up its mind from the start and ignoring millions of comments from the American public in support of net neutrality.

Supporters of net neutrality have long argued that the rules are necessary to protect consumers’ from price gouging and protect small companies from anti-competitive behavior. Paid fast lanes could allow wealthy companies to pay for better service, giving them an edge over upstarts (say, YouTube vs. a brand new streaming service). A lack of discrimination rules could let internet providers like Comcast and AT&T advantage their own content — like NBC and HBO — over others’, by making it stream faster or not count toward data caps. And an absence of no blocking rules means that internet providers could stop apps that compete with their own from reaching consumers.

This content was originally published on The Verge. Find out how you can fight for net neutrality here; https://www.battleforthenet.com/

Full disclosure: Fastmetrics supports net neutrality, for many reasons. We believe that internet access is a utility for everyone. Other reasons that make net neutrality important are well explained here.

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November 28, 2017
Authentication Now Comes With A Wave Of Your Hand

Two former Leap Motion employees think they’ve solved the perennial problem of passwords and identity management authentication. Under the nom de guerre of Redrock Biometrics, the company’s technology is waging war on the world’s legions of identification cards, pin numbers, passwords, and voice identification technologies with a combination of off-the-shelf hardware and proprietary software to identify palm-prints to verify user identity.

Redrock Biometrics’ chairman, Lenny Kontsevich, said that the company sees broad applications in authentication of payments in virtual worlds, physical security, and cash withdrawals among other transactions.

“You can think about the palm as a very large fingerprint,” says Kontsevich. “It has a rich structure and can be captured by any camera touch-lessly.”

After Kontsevich worked with the startup Kaching! the graduate of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology went to the lab to demonstrate (using only existing database technology) the matching software algorithms between palm prints and their unique signatures that would become the basis for Redrock Biometrics.

The issue, for Kontsevich, was capturing the images and processing them from a background. That’s where Hua Yang, Kontsevich’s Leap Motion colleague came in. The two absconded from Leap Motion in 2015 and founded Redrock biometrics on the basis of Kontsevich’s work and Hua Yang’s background in machine learning and visualization.

“There is no other commercially available palm biometric which works with RGB camera,” Kontsevich told me.

Redrock’s technology converts a palm image into a unique signature and authenticates the user in 10- to 100-milliseconds depending on CPU speed, according to a statement. The technology uses machine vision techniques to detect a palm in a video stream and pass its descriptor for enrollment or verification, according to a statement. The technology runs on either a client or a server and matches a verification request against an enrollment template, using proprietary algorithms tested on thousands of palms.

Positioning palm biometrics vs. either fingerprint or iris scanners, Konsevich says that the palm scanning technology he’s developed doesn’t require special equipment. And it’s far more secure than scans like the face scanning technology currently the rage thanks to Apple’s new iPhones. There are thousands of images of people’s faces publicly available on social media that can be used to fake a face scan, says Konsevich.

“A palm, in this regard, is much harder to get. People don’t make photographs of their palm in good resolution.”

Most of the company’s competitors are coming from university research products, which haven’t developed a fully integrated product, but one company that did manage to take something to market was Fujitsu, which has been pitching a service called Palm Secure.

“The beauty of our approach [is] it’s secure and works across all devices that have a camera,” says Konsevich.”That provides a breadth of applications that can start with online, banking, or an ATM.”

The company is also claiming that its biometric authentication and identification technology is “enrollment portable”, with authentication technologies available for sign-in authentication across Windows, Android, iOS, Mac OS, and Linux as well as stand-alone client-server technologies. Any device with an RGB or infrared camera and a central processing unit can use the technology, the company said. Beyond the feats of prestidigitation and portability that Redrocks biometric scanning technology allows, the company also differentiates itself by showing intent rather than presence, according to Konsevich.

“A face shows your presence. A palm shows your intention,” says Konsevich.

The company, whose software becomes publicly available today, was operating as part of the Wells Fargo Accelerator program. “We’re an early stage seed partner,” says Bipin Sahni, who serves as the Head of Innovation and R&D, Innovation Group – ‎Wells Fargo. Sahni says the biggest asset of the accelerator is the validation it gives to other potential bank clients. That said, the accelerator has notched some notable successes. It’s portfolio EyeVerify was brought into Ant Financial and Zowego is a company that’s seen exceptional growth, Sahni says.

“We’re not doing this to make 10x, 20x, or 40x,” says Sahni. “This is a ‘return-on-innovation’ point of view. Some of these companies will go on to be very big enterprise service providers. It helps them work in our environment and helps them mature as a company too.”

This article was originally published on TechCrunch.

October 24, 2017