Hungry for Latency

Hungry for Latency: Why Latency Matters for Your Online Business

Imagine for a moment that you own and operate a thriving online business (it could be anything from hand woven picnic baskets to hosting corporate websites with flashy videos). You will of course have visitors to your site from all over the world who will want more information or desire to purchase what you are selling. Your customers will have certain expectations – that your product is useful, the value is good, and that the service is speedy. Before they can even experience all of those things, they have to be able to get to your site. And they have to get there quickly, from anywhere, anytime.

Welcome to the modern website dilemma. No longer is the singular problem of web success worrying about your website ranking , how your site is designed, or even convincing potential customers to buy what you are selling – the new problem is being more accessible than your competitor. The new problem is making sure your site is always accessible and available faster to more people than your competitors.

This is where latency becomes the key to success. Imagine you are running that corporate web hosting site and one of the services is streaming video. Streaming video looks cool but it eats up a lot of bandwidth. If you are hosted on a poor connection or in one location only, you might as well walk through the streets of  your local town handing out the video on CD’s. That will be the circle of your potential audience – people in other countries, never mind other continents, may experience too much latency when trying to access your content. Things will be slow, they will not stay, you will not be happy.

There are several ways to mitigate this problem. A hosting or co-location facility which interconnects with major providers, allowing for your content to be accessible by a larger audience is one example. Another solution is for your hosting company to Anycast over multiple, geographically varied servers. This will not only help with accessibility, but also increase redundancy (if your server in Guatemala goes down, no problem, people in Montreal can still access your site).

Accessibility is now a serious concern for businesses operating online. The Internet is becoming congested with more traffic and more businesses and one important and vital strategy for becoming noticed and getting new customers is the ability to get your site, your content and your product viewed by potential customers faster than a competitor.

At SmarttNet, we are constantly monitoring our latency and improving our network so that you can have the kind of speed and reliability your business needs.