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Digital transformation; as the name suggests, it's a complete transformation of even the most basic business and organizational processes. It's taking businesses from “the way we've always done it” to “how we'll be doing it tomorrow.” Yet we don't make that leap in isolation. We need the right kind of network to make our transformation truly occur.

• Latency. Mobile internet has a much greater latency than fixed wireless. It takes longer for the signal to run the circuit of cellular towers than it does the comparatively point-to-point access provided by fixed wireless.
• Speed. Fixed wireless is much faster than mobile internet, for much the same reason as its low latency. The method of data provision is faster with fixed wireless, so the connections are faster in turn.
• Bandwidth. Fixed wireless commonly offers much greater bandwidth access than mobile bandwidth, owing mainly to the nature of the connection. Those cell towers are used by everyone in the vicinity, while the point-to-point connection of fixed wireless is generally only used by one party.
• Portability. Mobile internet's big advantage is its portability. It goes most everywhere voice traffic goes. Fixed wireless, meanwhile, requires a line-of-sight connection, or close to it, to produce a connection. Thus, fixed wireless is commonly seen in denser traffic areas.

• Availability. There should be five-nines (99.999%) network availability and 100% network coverage in a given region, or at least the perception of both.
• Bandwidth. Bandwidth should measure 1000 times the per unit area, and cover 10 to 100 times the number of connected devices.
• Energy use. The connection should use 90% less energy, and pose a 10 year battery life for machine-type devices that use little power on the network.
• Speed. A 5G connection should offer between 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps connections to end points, with a latency of one millisecond or less. 

• Current needs will be met briskly. The network as we know it currently isn't in the best of shape, but nor is it at immediate risk of failure. Thus, 5G access will allow us to carry on readily, meeting needs in streaming video, big data analytics and the like.
• Previously unconsidered needs will likely also be met quickly. One of the biggest problems facing an internet-connected society is the "bandwidth gap," most notably in rural areas. 5G's wireless nature should open up this field and bring connectivity to the previously unconnected, or minimally-connected.
• New needs will emerge rapidly. Some advance that there are many potential new uses for bandwidth that are as yet unused or undiscovered in points like augmented reality or virtual reality. With a substantial new source of bandwidth available, and in more places, that greater connectivity will likely put a major strain on the new connection type.

Not all internet bandwidth is created equally, and there are some key questions decision-makers should ask when selecting an internet service for their businesses.

• What provider can deliver service
• The reputation of the provider
• If they have any previous experience with the provider
• Feedback from peers on a particular provider
• Cost

What does my install fee get me? Do you know how far the install fee gets the fiber into your building? Does the fee include extending fiber all the way into the building? Some providers only deliver to just right outside the building, and it's up to the customer to pay for conduit and other expenses to bring fiber from the street to building. These unexpected charges can be significant and potentially delay the install.

While IT departments must work to provide wide-area network (WAN) operations to solve today's needs, the most astute are considering tomorrow's needs as well. That's got more than a few thinking about how to address those future needs, and what the WAN of tomorrow will look like.

An outage of any kind that causes downtime doesn't appear to cost much on the surface. It is the less obvious losses -- from productivity to reputation and beyond -- that form the true cost of a downtime incident.

• Easier to install. Consider for a moment why Google Fiber isn't running a lot of installations any more. Google Fiber got out of fiber essentially because fiber costs too much to put in. Fixed wireless, meanwhile, is significantly less expensive.
• Faster to install. Here, easy equates to faster, as fixed wireless can be set up in days, depending on circumstances. A fiber project can take months start to finish due to the sheer amount of infrastructure involved.
• More dependable. Fiber depends on wires, and wires can be cut, broken, or otherwise fail due to weather or other conditions. Fixed wireless has no such weaknesses, and thus is generally more dependable, improving its efficiency.

• Increased scalability. With WAN and cloud systems working together, there's a better ability to take advantage of collocations and remote operations. Small and medium-sized business (SMB) users are particularly interested in this phenomenon, and more and more, the larger data center is pretty much a province of large-scale operations.
• New app options. With increasing cloud-based options coming available, that means new apps available on every front. Using WAN to tap into those new apps opens up options ranging from big data analysis to customer relationship management (CRM) tools and more.

• Greater demand for security. With all this data flowing through a system, and more points than ever requiring access, the data prizes are richer and the means of access that much easier. A greater demand for security therefore, naturally follows.
• Capacity management is almost as vital. New data is likely to stretch demand for bandwidth to a fever pitch. Trying to keep capacity straight will be vital to ensure the network can handle all the demands placed on it, making capacity management crucial. 

• No more broadband backup. There's no longer a need to hold broadband connections as a backup with SD-WAN. Now, all broadband connections are available for use at all times, making a more reliable network.
• Improve error correction. SD-WAN systems allow for both forward error correction and packet error correction. With multiple error corrections going on at once, that improves the overall stability of the network and reduces the odds of failure.
• Add overall bandwidth. The typical local area network (LAN) is running at gigabit speed, while WAN tends to run in the megabit range. By stepping up to an SD-WAN, the gap is somewhat closed, meaning more bandwidth.

• Reduced downtime. If network downtime drops, then there's more able to be done in the same time. Formerly lost opportunities can be acted on. Businesses using SD-WAN are 25 percent more likely to see less downtime.
• Reduced capital spending. A network up more often means less costly physical augmentation. Sixty-five percent of businesses with SD-WANs saw at least some reductions in capital expenditures.
• Better branch connections. Connecting various branches allows information to be more readily shared and used appropriately. SD-WAN is specifically meant to improve inter-branch connections.

On the surface, it would be easy to think that system downtime really doesn't cost anything. No one ever gets a bill for downtime, after all. In some cases, when a service level agreement (SLA) has been violated, it can even prompt taking something off the bill. 

However, downtime can have many costs that users don't consider. The real costs of downtime aren't always measured in dollars and cents, but many of them can have an affect on the bottom line all the same.

What Might Have Been

A familiar concept to economists--though not always so familiar everywhere else--is opportunity cost. Opportunity costs are costs incurred by not pursuing an opportunity, either by inaction or deliberate choice. When a business doesn't pursue a million-dollar line of business because of perceived lack of potential, the opportunity cost is that million dollars. If a company holds cash, for one reason or another, without placing it in an interest-bearing vehicle, the lost interest is an opportunity cost.

Downtime creates huge opportunity costs. When employees can't work thanks to a down network or application or anything else that experiences downtime, that business's employees are incurring opportunity cost. Not only can the employees not produce, which means that potential gain is lost, but the employees must still be paid, which turns into real cost as well.

Reputation Lost

Another less quantifiable but still important cost of downtime is reputation. It's well known that more people will tell others about bad service than about good. A 2014

American Express study found that the number of people talking about bad service beat those talking about good by a factor of almost three to one.