Consider the Network When Choosing a Good Cloud Service Provider

August 10, 2017
Cloud, Network

At US Signal, we tout our cloud services as being network-powered, but what does that really mean? What problem does it solve for our customers?

With the rapid growth of the cloud in the last few years, it has become trendy for cloud service providers to offer high-level guarantees on service availability. It’s no longer uncommon to see either a 99.999% or 100% uptime guarantee. What those uptimes don’t include, however, is the network to that cloud — something most providers have little to no control over.

Trusting your cloud provider to adhere to their service level agreements (SLAs) is one thing. But can you also trust their third-party network? Have you even had the chance to see that third party’s SLAs?

The High Cost of Downtime

If you have mission-critical services in the cloud and your network connection (or your cloud provider’s) goes down, how will that impact your business? If your organization is anything like those that participated in a 2017 study by Information Technology Intelligence Consulting (ITIC), one of major effects will be cost. Over 98% of large enterprises with more than 1,000 employees said a single hour of downtime per year costs their company over $100,000, while 81% reported that the cost exceeds $300,000. One third noted that hourly downtime costs their firms $1 million or more.

While these are just averages, the message is clear. Downtime costs your business serious money — and that doesn’t consider things like damage to your reputation and brand.

Reliable Cloud Connections

Since the inception of US Signal in 2000, we’ve built our wholly owned, private fiber network to stretch 14,000 miles across the Midwest. It’s built using key Cisco technologies to ensure maximum speeds over the entire network. Because we can provide this fiber from your doorstep to the cloud, we can offer an end-to-end solution that decreases issues like downtime and latency while allowing for increases like redundancy and reliability.

Continuous monitoring by our Technical Operations Center (TOC) helps stop issues before they become problems. And, if problems do arise, we can resolve them quickly. There’s no waiting for a third party. As a result, US Signal can back its cloud services with industry-leading, easy-to-understand SLAs for 100% uptime.

Extra Layers of Security

In addition, cloud-based security, combined with our private network, provides extra protection. HIPAA compliant and PCI DSS certified, US Signal network-powered cloud services are also scalable and customizable to help your organization achieve increased productivity, quicker time to market, and much more. And if you’re interested in connecting to other cloud services, such as AWS, Azure, and Google, US Signal has you covered there too. Our Virtual Cloud Connect provides you with dedicated, direct network access to major cloud providers without having to peer directly or collocate your networking equipment in a provider-supported data center. Use it to establish layer 3 connectivity between your private data center or a US Signal cloud service to other cloud providers.

Make the Connection Now

US Signal cloud and network services work in tandem, you can get something that few other providers can offer: a complete network-powered cloud guarantee. To connect to a more reliable, network-powered cloud service, talk to a US Signal solution architect. Call 866.2. SIGNAL or email [email protected]