Why Is My Internet Slow Today?
The need for reliable and fast internet connectivity has been placed back into sharp focus by the rise in hybrid and remote working over the last few years. SaaS applications and video collaboration tools are core to many people’s work lives, and accessing these services from home or other non-office-based locations requires fast and reliable Internet connectivity.
Unfortunately, for many people, access speeds are under par. Estimates vary, but data from reports such as the Federal Communications Commission’s Eighth Broadband Progress Report, around 19 million Americans (about 6% of the population) do not have broadband access speeds at home that are deemed acceptable for modern work and entertainment purposes. Some commentators covering this area think these numbers could rise when mandated Federal protections in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) get phased out this year.
Problems of Slow Internet Connectivity
A common problem remote workers face is maintaining a good connection during video conferences. Typical issues encountered include jittery video, where the picture can freeze or jump, pixelation that degrades the image quality, and dropping audio, making conversations difficult to follow. These issues are often exacerbated in multi-user video calls, where bandwidth limitations and varying internet speeds across different locations come into play. The result is frustrating and often leads to an unproductive experience for all participants. These issues are not just minor inconveniences as they significantly impact productivity and the effectiveness of team communications.
Similar impacts on productivity happen when remote workers collaborate on tasks that require sharing large files. Downloading a large file (or working on it collaboratively via a Cloud service) can be a slow and frustrating experience when the network connection quality close to the worker is poor.
Connection Quality
Businesses with remote workers need to consider the quality of network connections as well as raw speed. Many people will be familiar with the process of running a speed test on their internet connection after a poor SaaS application or video conferencing experience. In many cases, the raw network speeds reported by these testing tools are reasonably good for download and upload speeds.
Raw speed doesn’t capture the full picture of what impacts the connection quality from an end-user device to a SaaS or on-premises data center application. The Ping and Jitter metrics reported by some of the speed test services are frequently a more enlightening metric than raw speed – although it has to be remembered that the speed test does not evaluate the same network path over the internet that a user may be having issues with.
How to Fix Slow Internet? Cloudbrink HAaaS
Cloudbrink’s Hybrid Access-as-a-Service (HAaaS) has the technology to address the SaaS and other media-rich application issues that people often encounter. HAaaS is optimized explicitly for how modern hybrid workforces operate and delivers high performance irrespective of user count, location, or network capacity differences for remote team members.
One of the key differentiators of HAaaS is the use of a meticulously placed global network of FAST Edge points of presence spread across multiple cloud data centers. This architecture guarantees consistent and reliable last-mile connectivity for users, significantly improving the quality of video conferences and other bandwidth-intensive tasks. Independent reporting has shown that HAaaS delivers up to a 30x improvement in speed and network connection quality, which means remote workers get an in-office LAN experience at their remote locations.
As HAaaS builds on advanced network protocols that incorporate features such as high-performance Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), Automated Moving Target Defense (AMTD), and Personal SD-WAN, it delivers an incredible network experience without sacrificing any of the security that is needed to protect the increased surface area that bad actors are looking to probe and exploit.
