Why Does Your Business Need Reliable Internet Service?

Most businesses today need reliable internet service. Let’s look at some potential reasons why businesses might need reliable internet or broadband service.

1. Your business uses a VoIP phone system.
2. Your business relies heavily on e-mail for communications.
3. Your business uses an online CRM platform.
4. Your business develops or tests games / software / applications.
5. Your business has an e-commerce (online) store.
6. Your business uses an online customer chat or needs to reply to business inquiries, instantly.

If you are considering a new business ISP, ask to see the SLA or Service Level Agreement that comes with the service. This details expected uptime and the Service Provider’s response if downtime does occur.

Services such as fiber optic internet come with a high level of uptime. T1s and bonded T1s are also reliable, but do not offer as much speed as fiber internet. aDSL2+ broadband can provide great upload speed, whereas download speed is limited. Uptime is also not as high as fiber or T1 internet connections.

Of course there is the wireless option. This is easy to set up and can offer good speeds. However, speeds rarely reach advertised speeds and downloads can be limited. Reliability can be patchy, depending on the area.

When shopping for a new business internet service, consider your employee size. Do you have a small office of 1 – 10 people or a large organization you need to provide service for? Will you be using VoIP? Do any of the above 1 – 6 points apply?

For instance, you will need more internet speed if you have a large sales department using a CRM platform. On the other end of the scale, aDSL2+ is sufficient for supporting a small office LAN, web or email server.

Other important factors; is bandwidth unlimited or capped? (How much can you download before being charged a fee). Is hardware included or an extra cost? IPs included? Install fee? How long will install take?

These are common questions for businesses searching for a new provider. Of course, prices vary greatly and there are many different plans available.

Choose one that suits your business needs. If uptime is critical, get the most reliable service. If you download alot, look for a provider who has no data caps or unlimited bandwidth.

CJM

Emergency Technical Support In Action – Pizza Business At Risk!

This afternoon at 3pm we received a call from non-customer Mozzarella Di Bufala Pizza restaurant, who’s XO phone system was down.

They have voiced their concerns with us before about their Internet & Phone service. They must have known in this case, we would deliver!

3:02pm: Fastmetrics Engineer Matt, configures 4 x Polycom Phones.

4:30pm: Phones hand delivered to Di Bufala & set up. Phone service back up and running.

4:31pm: Pizza order picked up. Return journey to Fastmetrics HQ for consumption. Delicious pizza!

A: Fastmetrics, Inc.
B: Mozzarella Di Bufala Pizza Restaurant

CJM

Wireless Crunch Looms – sfgate.com/technology

“The flipside to the mobile revolution is that we’re rapidly approaching a wireless spectrum crunch”.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/08/BUJ31N47QI.DTL

CJM

Data Centers & Rack Space San Francisco – 365 Main + 360 Spear Street

Fastmetrics manages presence in 2 x San Francisco Data Centers. Fully equipped SAS Certified Data Centers in the heart of San Francisco.

360 Spear Street San Francisco: cabinets, cages, rack space, dedicated servers & hosting on the main floor.
365 Main Street San Francisco: high speed point to point fiber optic internet access.
Data Center Power
- 110V/20A or 220V/20A power circuits fully backed up by generator
- Standard power allocations of 20 amps per cabinet
Data Center Rack Space
- Cabinets – 24″ x 36″ x 7′
- Cages – 6′ x 8′
Data Center Security
- Key card access
- 100% telecom, controlled access building
- Security cameras at all points of entry and exit
- Fully secured loading dock facilities

Data Center Fire Safety
- Pre-action, dry-pipe sprinkler system
- Heat / smoke detectors tied back to security desk & remote monitoring system

Data Center Routing
- HSRP Routing
- BGP4 Routing

Data Center Web Hosting
- Ensim Control Panel Hosting (Ensim)
- Linux Web Hosting
- NetApp Load Balancing

Our San Francisco Data Center Core:
- Capacity of 4 Gigabits from multiple transit providers.
- Our network core is multi-homed.
- Our backbone network load is managed to be well below 30% for burstable connectivity when needed.

For access to test servers, contact 1-800-724-7100.

CJM

Test Your Internet Speed – Fastmetrics Internet Speed Tester

Here it is: http://netspeedtest.fastmetrics.com/

How does your Internet connection test measure up?

CJM

fiberIVY – Fiber Optic Internet Service – Entry Level Cost

Our fiberIVY service allows Silicon Valley businesses access to high speed + high reliability fiber optic internet, at lower cost.

fiberIVY delivers much more reliable business-class bandwidth than traditional T1 or Bonded T1 service at a much lower cost. Our fully-managed solution is backed by an SLA that guarantees 99.99% uptime.

Fastmetrics has fiber presence in many buildings around San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Clara & more areas. See a complete list of addresses here: http://www.fastmetrics.com/fiberivy.php

Fastmetrics connects your business through existing fiber infrastructure to symmetrical fiber speeds of 10mbps x 10mbps, 20mbps x 20mbps or 50mbps x 50mbps fiber. Service includes hosted PRI or Analog phone lines + free calls (if requested). Installation is free also.

Pricing from $499 per month.

sales@fastmetrics.com or call: 1-800-724-7100

CJM

Fiber Optic Internet – San Francisco – Speedtest Video

The following video is a speedtest of a limited Fiber Optic Internet connection from Fastmetrics HQ to our Data Center @ 365 Main Street, San Francisco.

Fiber speed is limited to 79mbps x 42mbps, due to modem performance, but a full 250mbps x 250mbps or faster is available.

Fastmetrics provides the fastest speedtest results: http://www.speedtest.net/result/1535461809.png

4ms ping, faster than 99% of the U.S.A. High quality fiber optic internet!

CJM

The Best Selling Streaming Player – Roku Releases Roku 2 Streaming Player

Another of our Fiber Optic Internet customers, Roku.

Roku has just released Roku 2 Streaming Player. Smaller and faster, Roku 2 delivers all your favorite movies, games, NetFlix and channels wirelessly to your TV.

You don’t need a PC as Roku delivers instant streaming to our TV.
Featuring NetFlix 1080p HD video. Current TV shows with Hulu Plus. Hundreds of free movies from Crackle. The latest Hollywood releases on Amazon Instant Video.

There’s even access to premium services like HBO GO and EPIX, available via participating providers.

Check out Roku 2 Streaming Player for the best high quality streaming to your TV.

CJM

San Francisco Mobile Game Developers Using Fiber Optic Internet

Fastmetrics would like to welcome CyberAgent America to our list of valued customers. We recently hooked up CyberAgent with a 100mbps x 100mbps Fiber Optic Internet connection to their San Francisco office.

CyberAgent is a Mobile Game Developer who have produced apps & games such as Alice’s Wonderland, Coin Pusher Mafia, Animal Bakery, Zombie Restaurant & FreeAppKing.

CyberAgent joins another recent Fastmetrics customer – TinyCo – another San Francisco based Mobile app developer. TinyCo has been enjoying a 300mbps x 300mbps Fiber Optic Internet from us since last year, at their San Francisco office as well.

TinyCo has developed games such as Tiny Pets, Tiny Chef, Tiny Village, Tiny Restaurant, VIP Poker and many other games for the iPhone & iPad & Android OS.

Mobile Game Development in San Francisco is growing and we are pleased to provide our high speed, unlimited bandwidth fiber optic solutions to such front runners in the industry.

CJM