The main digital office activities and tools with high bandwidth consumption
Bandwidth is a major concern, especially in the age of cloud and hybrid working. This blog will explain which activities and tools in your office use a lot of bandwidth.
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Hybrid and remote working has certainly taken off since Covid and will not disappear any time soon. To ensure that activities such as video calling, telecommuting, and uploading and downloading documents go smoothly, you need the right digital infrastructure and sufficient bandwidth.
However, many activities and tools that are part of modern work consume a lot of bandwidth. Sometimes this is the case without you immediately realizing it. Understanding which activities and tools require a lot of bandwidth helps to set up the new way of working more efficiently. In this article, we explain which activities and applications consume a lot of bandwidth and resources.
Video calls
Video calling is a tremendously convenient way to hold remote meetings or discuss important issues. In fact, it is considered the second most important IT priority of the modern era. But streaming video content with tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Skype is an activity that takes a toll on your infrastructure and bandwidth.
Indeed, a characteristic of video is that its streaming requires a constant and direct traffic flow. And that is exactly what takes a lot out of your connection and bandwidth. Here is a handy overview showing exactly what popular video conferencing tools require in terms of bandwidth, Internet speed, and connectivity.
For example, if 10 people are in a meeting with 5 other people at the same time from 1 office, the required bandwidth is 10 * 2.8 = 28 Mb/s. Are 500 employees also receiving an email at that same time? Then the required bandwidth is already 500 * 50/1000, resulting in a bandwidth of 25. In total, that’s 25 + 28, which amounts to a bandwidth of 53 Mb/s. Streaming audio (think VoIP telephony) is somewhat less demanding than video, but also consumes a more than average amount of bandwidth.
Sharing documents
Sending each other large attachments via email is easy and convenient for many employees. At the same time, it slows down the connection and is not always a good idea from a security perspective either. Programs with a computer-to-computer connection over the Internet are also known large consumers of bandwidth. In fact, they require you to download and transfer files containing large amounts of data over the Internet.
Working in the cloud
The cloud is changing the way we use bandwidth. On the one hand, working in the cloud offers a solution: partly because you free up a lot of space on your hard drives. But the more you do in the cloud, the more bandwidth you use. This is because there are then more devices and users active within the network.
In addition, more services, processes, and operations are going through the Internet as more people work in the cloud rather than on-site. Although cloud computing improves interconnectedness, there may be delays in accessing stored documents. The bandwidth then cannot keep up with the number of access requests.
Programs running in the background
You probably don’t even realize it all the time, but there are often several programs running in the background when you are video calling or working in a particular application. Consider, for example, software that is automatically updated because of system updates or security patches. Or when your antivirus software runs a system scan in the background. These applications slow down the bandwidth, which can be detrimental to performance.
Using heavy applications
Frequent, often multi-person, simultaneous use of heavy applications significantly increases bandwidth usage. These are mostly applications that require an Internet connection, such as programs for Web development, email, and computer games (which are also increasingly used for educational purposes or professional applications). These types of applications require a lot of bandwidth to function properly.
Overloaded connection
If different employees all use the same connection, their devices use more bandwidth. The result: each device is allocated a smaller portion of the total available bandwidth. This decreases the data transfer speed.
Here’s how Eurofiber helps
Fortunately, there are ways to ensure that you have enough bandwidth left over to meet your IT needs.
- Clean devices regularly by deleting nonessential, temporary files and not giving malware a chance.
- Try to keep the number of devices connected to your network within limits.
- Try to schedule software updates at off-peak times in terms of expected Internet traffic.
But ensuring optimal connectivity is, of course, the most important way to benefit from optimal bandwidth. This is where Eurofiber can offer you exceptional help. Eurofiber Business Internet offers your employees a rapid, reliable connection via our advanced fiber-optic infrastructure.
Efficient browsing and emailing, receiving and sending large files, video calling, and working with cloud applications without long loading times and buffering: it’s all no longer a problem. We also offer Managed Dark Fiber for the most demanding applications. You run it yourself with your own equipment and it offers stunning maximum speeds of up to 100 GB per second.
Business optic fiber: fast, reliable and flexible
Curious about the connectivity possibilities of the Eurofiber fiber network for your location? Then feel free to contact us without obligation or do the fiber optic postcode check right away. We would be happy to help you take the next step in your digital professionalization process.