Here’s a graph from a current JitterWorks client that tracks and trends bandwidth utilization over the course of a year. You can see the green/dark green lines represent incoming traffic – data that’s being downloaded. The blue/purple lines represent outgoing traffic – data that’s being uploaded.

Notice that, for the most part, this company’s bandwidth utilization didn’t exceed 40 Megabits per second (Mbps). A couple of blips up to 60 and 70 Mbps in February and July seem like they can be dismissed. But let’s talk about that.

With the knowledge of exactly the amount of bandwidth your company uses at your fingertips, you can calculate exactly how much bandwidth you need to subscribe to from your ISP. You might think, based on this graph, that 40 Mbps is enough. But think about your business. If February and July are big business months for your company, you know you need at least 70 Mbps. (Of course, if you think Betty in accounting is downloading the last season of Younger, or the marketing team are streaming the NCAA basketball tournament, you can probably dismiss that.)

Isn’t it nice to know exactly how much bandwidth you need instead of rolling the dice? This particular company was sold on 150 Mbps down and 150 up. As you can see, for a year, they didn’t even come close to those thresholds. That’s money that could have been spent elsewhere. 

So we think we’ve shown that speed has more to do with latency and throughput, but the amount of bandwidth your ISP wants to sell you is important as well. Our advice is to make sure you have a managed device connected to your network, track and trend your bandwidth utilization and make an informed decision on how much bandwidth you need. And don’t pay for what you don’t need!