“In our universe of digital business and e-commerce, it’s all about speed and responsiveness. Knowing the difference between network speed and bandwidth can be a real asset.”
– Glenn Baruck, Chicago Voice & Data
Can you genuinely compare network speed with network bandwidth? Though interrelated, they are two very different things. In basic terms, network speed measures the transfer rate of data from a source system to a destination system; network bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred per second. Therefore, business owners often assume that high-bandwidth networks would be fast and provide excellent throughput. In reality, this is not always the case—not when you throw latency into the mix.
Latency is the delay packets experience while moving through a network and typically is the culprit behind poor application response time and frustrated users. Latency is a critical issue for businesses who rely on speed for better customer UX and higher conversion rates. The looming question for these companies is then “How much latency can your company afford?”
For a concise overview of this topic, read this article by Steve Madden for Interconnections – The Equinix Blog. Madden does an excellent job of explaining how things travel through the internet and how latency can affect the success of your online business.