Quality of Service. For any company it seems like it should be a universal term used as a general, and obvious, practice for how you run your business. But if you Google QoS, the first pages are littered with explanations of how it is used when it comes to networking. We have a hard time wrapping our heads around that.

At JitterWorks, we have a large white board with “Maintain Quality of Service” written in black marker at the top. Other tasks are written below, and they come and go as they are completed, but QoS – or MQoS in our case – is our goal for running a successful business.

Wikipedia defines QoS this way: “In the field of computer networking and other packet-switched telecommunication networks, quality of service refers to traffic prioritization…” Many other tech sites say pretty much the same thing. 

Think about that; “traffic prioritization.” 

It’s like watching the guy in first class get a drink and a hot towel while you jockey for elbow room in space not much bigger than a child’s car seat. Then wait while the same guy gets his hot meal as the serving cart slowly makes its way up the aisle. Where’s your Quality of Service? Why aren’t you a priority?

Now if you’re an enterprise level company, with a large IT staff running a private network between multiple locations, QoS seems like a very attractive and logical tool. If you have the luxury of being in that position, good for you.

Here’s the rub. No reputable ISP is going to offer you QoS – as it pertains to networking – as part of their service. They can’t. It’s a router thing. QoS doesn’t start until the data enters the building. When it comes to the Internet, we’re all sitting in coach.

One network expert we spoke to said, “when it comes to the Internet, QoS is a crock.” Maybe if you’re large enough, pay enough and have an iron-clad Service Level Agreement, your ISP will “prioritize” your needs. For the rest of us SMB’s, we sit and wait for a bag of peanuts and an ice water in a plastic cup.

It doesn’t make sense to us that a phrase as important as Quality of Service can be so monopolized by the powers that be as the prioritization of network traffic. We see QoS as something we strive for every day with all our clients. It’s the right way to do business.

Our advice? Find a network performance monitoring company that practices QoS on all levels of service. Have them track and trend what’s happening with your network in real time, and when it’s necessary, give you the historical information you need to hold your ISP accountable. Information is power. No matter the size of your business, information will get you EQuality of Service.