From social media to web apps to ecommerce storefronts, almost every organisation relies on seamless and robust network connectivity to drive their operations. Yet many businesses are shackled by their use of conventional broadband infrastructure, which can prove unreliable, and prone to bandwidth and speed issues at peak times.

Among the various networking solutions available, Private Ethernet is quickly emerging as the premier choice for businesses and organisations. Offering unparalleled performance, reliability, and high availability, Private Ethernet is an increasingly affordable and common-sense choice for all manner of businesses – and the backbone of modern enterprise connectivity.

What is Private Ethernet?

Private Ethernet – sometimes formally described as an Ethernet Private Line (EPL) – is a type of dedicated point-to-point Ethernet service that provides a secure and private connection between two locations. In principle, this is the same as an ethernet connection you’d use at home, connecting your laptop or computer via a cable to your router. The difference is that this connection takes place over a long distance between two sites, instead of over a short distance between a router and a device.

Private Ethernet is often used to link two business locations, allowing them to quickly share data, but may also provide a direct link to a data centre, providing high speed backup or cloud computing services. The service provider establishes a dedicated and uncontended Ethernet link between the customer’s premises, ensuring that all bandwidth is exclusively allocated for the customer’s use. As it does not traverse public networks or the internet, the connection is extremely secure. However, this also makes it somewhat limited in its applications.

The benefits of using Private Ethernet

While communicating and sharing data with other sites over the internet may be sufficient for some, Private Ethernet offers a number of substantial advantages. This is particularly true when an organisation’s primary concerns are stability, security and high bandwidth – all extremely relevant to the ways in which modern businesses work online.

Performance excellence

Private Ethernet provides exceptional performance, enabling businesses to transfer data at lightning-fast speeds. Unlike shared internet connections – such as a typical broadband line, where traffic is sent along busy lines to a busy exchange – Private Ethernet offers dedicated bandwidth that remains consistent, even during peak usage periods.

This ample bandwidth ensures swift and uninterrupted data transfer, facilitating real-time communication and reducing latency in critical applications, where milliseconds may make the difference. With Private Ethernet, organisations can achieve optimal performance levels, which are essential for bandwidth-intensive tasks like video conferencing, cloud applications, and large data transfers, as well as scenarios such as the remote operation of devices.

Reliability at its core

One of the primary benefits of Private Ethernet is its unwavering reliability. Traditional internet connections, such as broadband, can suffer from fluctuations and downtime due to the shared nature of their infrastructure, with performance changing due to peaks and troughs in demand. By contrast, Private Ethernet establishes a direct, secure, and dedicated connection between endpoints, providing a robust and reliable network experience.

Businesses can rest assured that any mission-critical applications and services will function smoothly, without disruptions or latency issues. This reliability is especially crucial for industries like finance, healthcare, and e-commerce, where any downtime can lead to significant financial losses, and damage to the business’ reputation.

High availability for uninterrupted operations

Private Ethernet’s high availability is a key factor in its rising popularity among businesses. EPL service providers often offer Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that include guaranteed uptime, ensuring network availability for a specified percentage of time. This level of assurance is essential for businesses that operate around the clock, spanning different time zones and serving customers globally.

With Private Ethernet’s redundancy options, such as diverse physical paths and automatic failover, companies can maintain seamless operations even if one component of the network fails. This high availability also contributes to disaster recovery preparedness, as critical data and applications can be replicated in real-time to geographically distant locations for added protection, ensuring that critical business applications aren’t interrupted.

Enhanced security and data privacy

With cyber criminals increasingly targeting a wide range of businesses – from large targets to more vulnerable, smaller ones – ensuring the security of sensitive data is paramount. Compared to shared network infrastructures, private Ethernet offers robust security features, protecting data as it travels over a dedicated line.

With encryption and secure virtual LANs (VLANs), businesses can establish isolated network segments for different departments or projects, reducing the risk of unauthorised access and data breaches. Private Ethernet’s closed-loop architecture further fortifies network security, making it challenging for any malicious entities to infiltrate the network without physically tampering with the line.

Scalability and flexibility

Thanks to the use of a dedicated line, Private Ethernet is highly scalable. The ability to provide as much bandwidth as is needed for any given task makes it extremely adaptable to the evolving needs of businesses, with no need to compromise on performance or reliability. A Private Ethernet service that’s initially adopted for fast, reliable backups could later be used to add or scale up a business’ cloud computing services, or cater to other IT needs.

Whether an organisation experiences rapid growth or needs to quickly downsize, Private Ethernet can easily accommodate changes in bandwidth requirements. This scalability makes it an attractive option for businesses of all sizes and types, as it allows them to pay for the bandwidth they need without overprovisioning or under-subscribing.

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Private Ethernet stands out as a premium networking solution, offering remarkable benefits in performance, reliability, and high availability. Its dedicated bandwidth, seamless connectivity, and robust security make it an ideal choice for businesses seeking a dependable and efficient network infrastructure.

As businesses’ digital footprint continues to evolve, Private Ethernet’s ability to adapt and deliver exceptional performance will undoubtedly make it a foundational element in the success of modern enterprises. At Sota, we offer a wide range of connectivity solutions, including our SotaConnect Ethernet service. Learn more here, and get in touch with us today to find out what we can do for your organisation.