It’s said that a carpenter is only as good as his or her tools. This is true in a lot of cases. Many jobs require the right tools to get the job done. You wouldn’t want a surgeon taking out your appendix with a spoon and a butter knife or see a 5-star chef making your gourmet dinner using a skillet and a hot plate.

The same logic holds true for your company network. The technology is in place for ISPs to deliver extremely high bandwidth “speeds” to your network. We’ve talked about how they will recommend up to 500Mbps and even 1Gbps to expanding companies. (We’ve also shown that, in most cases, those numbers are an unnecessary expense, but that’s not the gist of this blog.)

The point is the technology exists to hit those numbers when they are needed. Here’s the rub. Providers expect, if not demand, that your company’s network hardware is up to the task of handling these speeds. Using outdated hardware can and will negate the positive impact of the advancements in internet technology.

There are many great software applications that address the needs of modern business. Programs that make it easier for you to be more productive. In most cases, these software companies expect you to be running the most current Windows or Mac operating systems in order to get the most out of the application.

High speed internet has much the same requirements.

It’s easy for a company on a budget to use the old philosophy, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” And, to some extent, that old router, switch, firewall, wireless access point and ethernet cable seem to be holding up. So why, after spending the money to upgrade to 350Mbps of bandwidth, does your network still seem sluggish?

It must be the ISP’s fault. They are not delivering the speeds they promised.  Well, maybe that’s not the case. If your business is still running an old-school network infrastructure, your new high-speed connection may be stopping at the door. Unable to go any further because your in-house equipment is incapable of transmitting more than, say, 100Mbps to and from the machines in your office. In some cases, it may be a single, inexpensive, 10-year-old Cat5 Ethernet cable causing the problem.

Well, upgrading your entire network infrastructure is a time consuming and expensive process. Maybe not. There are many current technologies out there that are using state of the art protocols they know are required to deliver the speeds that are now available. If you do your homework, you will find affordable options to replace your existing infrastructure.

That old record player works just fine. As long as you’re OK with the fact that you won’t be able to listen to any music produced after the 1980’s. Nostalgia is great. But it won’t keep your business running in the 2020’s.