In an increasingly interconnected world, where the speed and reliability of the internet play a crucial role in commercial and financial operations, the dedicated link has emerged as an essential solution for companies seeking to remain competitive and meet the growing demands of their customers. So when you click on a link on the internet, the uncertainty of the response time can result in frustration, especially in vital business transactions. These unwanted situations can be avoided by adopting a dedicated link. In other words, a direct connection between a company’s network and the network of an ISP, which offers a service known as IP Transit.
This article explores the advantages of a dedicated link, offering insights into how it works, who it’s best suited for and what factors to consider when deciding to implement it. Learn how this technology can improve performance, reduce latency and guarantee the reliability of your internet connection. In this way, it provides a solid foundation for e-commerce operations, financial services and much more. Don’t miss the opportunity to better understand the importance of a dedicated link in the ever-evolving digital world.
Putting the dedicated link into context
It doesn’t look like it. But the moment someone presses the call button on an elevator, a countdown begins. With any stopwatch, the countdown time is known and also visible. But in the countdown to the arrival of an elevator, time will always be an unknown, unpredictable, invisible and, above all, distressing component. It’s not very different from what happens when we wait for a response from a server after clicking on a link. If the person is viewing a social network, the response time may be a little slowed down, but the anxiety won’t be too great. But if the person is making a purchase and the process doesn’t progress, or if the payment receipt doesn’t appear, the anguish can turn into irritation, anger, cancellation of the purchase and other undesirable consequences for the seller.
As you can imagine, situations like these are unacceptable for e-commerce operations, for example, or financial services. Therefore, if the delay in response is not caused by the application on the server, it is certainly due to a lack of special telecommunication care. Among these precautions is the use of a dedicated link for the service, rather than a commercial broadband connection.
A dedicated link, or dedicated Internet connection, is a direct connection between a company’s network and the network of an Internet service provider (ISP). This link is the means by which the customer obtains a service called “IP transit”. This type of connection offers several advantages, such as greater bandwidth, lower latency and greater reliability.
How does a dedicated link work?
When a company connects its network to an internet provider via a dedicated link, this connection will be given a unique IP address and will route all traffic through the provider’s network. This means that traffic destined for the company won’t have to pass through other networks. In this way, it helps to improve the performance and reliability of the service. This is because the provider has access to all Internet routes and can select the most suitable one for each traffic request from a customer. This is precisely what Huge Networks delivers in its High-Performance IP Transit service – high-performance Internet connectivity.
Dedicated links are commonly used by companies of all sizes, but are especially interesting for those with large bandwidth requirements. This is the case for e-commerce companies, streaming media providers and online gaming companies, for example. Dedicated links are also used by companies that need a reliable and secure Internet connection, such as financial institutions and healthcare providers.
How to decide whether to hire a dedicated link
But how do you know if your company needs a dedicated link? Well, there are a few factors that need to be considered when making this decision. The most important in general are the following:
1) Need for bandwidth: if the company needs a lot of bandwidth, such as in the case of a lot of user traffic or video streaming;
2) Need for low latency: when the company’s operation requires low latency, as is the case with real-time services;
3) Reliability requirements: when the company needs a reliable, secure and stable Internet connection. In general, the service provider presents the characteristics to the customer in terms of an SLA (service level agreement).
Choosing a service provider will require a careful examination of the resources it offers. However, it’s not a simple service. The provider must have its own backbone, access to the best submarine cables and terrestrial routes, preferably with virtually unlimited capacity, preventing the possibility of any kind of congestion and providing rapid route changes in a few milliseconds when the need arises. This always translates into speed in customer service.
With regard to performance, the key measure is the number of jumps in the journey from the client to the server. In other words, the fewer jumps (between networks) in fulfilling a data request, the less latency. Each “jump” to another location (another network) requires processing time. In general, better-equipped providers provide fewer hops to fulfill a data request.
DDoS protection is essential
In terms of price, IP transit services are usually charged per megabit (or multiple thereof) per second per month. When your clients hire your service, they usually need others to complement it. For example, traffic filtering to protect against DDoS (distributed denial of service attacks). A DDoS occurs when one or many digital devices overload another with requests, to the point where it can no longer deliver data. In the case of an attack carried out by many devices, it is called “distributed”. Almost always, the sources of this malicious traffic are not even aware that they are carrying out this type of attack. In general, these are devices with weakened security, compromised by Trojans and viruses that allow attackers to take control and carry out attacks.
For this to happen, it is essential that the IP transit provider has a robust structure and reliable support, being able to keep up with the customer’s growing needs.
Do you already have a dedicated link for your business?
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See you next time!