Are you a start-up or big business looking to reduce your internet usage and experience the benefits that come with it? You’re not alone. It can be quite challenging to reduce your bandwidth usage at first, but this guide is going to provide you with some excellent tips to get you moving in the right direction.
The internet is key in the modern world. It allows businesses to sell products online, communicate with customers, let their employees work from home, and much more. Without the internet, you simply can’t be a successful business – it’s a fact.
A downside of the internet, though, is bandwidth usage. The cost of a network connection automatically goes up as bandwidth increases. For example, a 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) link is more expensive than one that can handle 250 megabits per second.
Naturally, when businesses are using more bandwidth than they need to, this can lead to increased bills. In the current economy, this is something that no business owner wants to experience – especially when it’s avoidable in the first place.
So, if you’ve recently come to the realisation that you need to reduce your bandwidth usage, you’ve come to the right place. Below is a selection of carefully crafted top tips that will help you to reduce your business bandwidth usage and ultimately cut down your monthly expenditure!
Firstly, Try Edge Computing
Before anything else, you should use edge computing. Whether you run a small office or a big factory floor, edge computing will transform how you do business.
In simple terms, edge computing is when you ditch traditional cloud data centers and bring computing to the “edge” instead. It’s typically offered by industry specialists, such as Things Embedded as an example. The “edge” means as close to where the data is coming from as possible (e.g., the office building). This then allows devices, such as computers and laptops, to process data at the “edge” of the network via a local server. Sometimes, a device will be able to process the data itself, too.
When you use edge computing, you’ll experience decreased latency and bandwidth usage. This is because less data needs to be sent to the “cloud” or data center, as the data is instead processed on-site. Over the long term, this is a superb strategy for businesses looking to save big money when using the internet.
Use VoIP Less
Since around 2010, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) has taken over business communication. This is a type of phone system that operates over the internet. In order to make and receive phone calls, businesses must be connected to the internet. Otherwise, VoIP systems won’t work.
Now, according to Tech.co, 41.6 million US businesses use VoIP technology, which is a huge number. However, so many of these businesses don’t realize how bandwidth-intensive VoIP can be. Essentially, it hogs the bandwidth.
One of the best solutions is to reduce your bandwidth per line. For example, if it’s currently 150kbps, try 100kbps lines. In addition to this, it’s also worth instructing employees to only use the phones for business calls only – not personal calls. This should also help you to reduce bandwidth usage.
Scan for Malware
If your network becomes infected by malware, this can lead to all sorts of problems, with increased bandwidth usage being one of them.
Therefore, for any business owners out there who suspect that their network has been infected with malware, do a malware scan to see if anything can be uncovered. After a scan, you will then be able to eliminate the malware and start to free up the bandwidth. Fingers crossed, though, you won’t have any malware at all, especially if you keep your cybersecurity up to a modern standard.