It’s hard to deny the amount of digital transformation happening in all corners of almost all industries – some of it predictable but some of the use cases coming to life have been rather unforeseeable. Some networks have become throttled by increased traffic while others still sit dark, and at the same time an estimated 18 to 36 million Americans currently lack broadband altogether. We’ve noticed the changes in internet and network usage being seen by our peers has been extremely unique to each company and their offering, so this month we asked our network of industry experts:

What’s one word to describe the change in bandwidth demand you’re seeing and one initiative your company is undergoing to keep up with it?

Rosa White | Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer; DRFortress

“UPGRADES! Most of our customers in Hawaii are asking DRFortress for upgrades in their internet capacity. The recent months have proven that network connectivity has become even more critical to any business. Fortunately, DRFortress customers have multiple carrier options in Hawaii and we are able to secure competitive upgrade pricing to meet their growing requirements. In addition, we recommend our customers consider purchasing a backup circuit for essential departments/locations or our DRFConnect blended internet service for backup purposes.

In order to keep up with demand, DRFortress has hardened our DRFConnect infrastructure and we have increased the capacity available for our customers so upgrades can be turned up in hours vs. days. We also added another provider to our DRFConnect solution to ensure the 100% reliability of the service.”

Erik Garr | President of Consumer and Small Business Services; Consolidated Communications

“Successful marketing is about meeting people wherever they are on the platform of their choosing. Whether it’s current or potential customers or partners, your messages need to be as accessible and easily consumed as possible.

When it comes to online communications, having a varied and multifaceted approach — while being consistent — remains key. That means producing informational content (like on our blog), sending emails with helpful resources and remaining in touch with the customer through multiple points of contact. In fact, our omni-channel CPaaS solution is built for this kind of marketing philosophy, and we’re happy to be helping the market meet customers wherever and whenever needed. “

Milad Abdelmessih | Vice President of Business Development, Marketing and Sales; KDDI America

“The one word that best describes the change in bandwidth demand and consumption we’re seeing is diversification. The world is becoming more virtual, businesses are expanding globally and IT frameworks are incorporating more tools, platforms and locations. So, connectivity needs to be faster, more robust, more secure, and above all, help organizations reach more destinations.

Peering and interconnection have emerged as highly strategic tools for not only increasing bandwidth capacity, but getting a one-to-many network connection that opens up a world of cost savings, agility enhancements, expanded geographic reach and more — all while ensuring connectivity is protected. This is why with NYIIX, one of the largest neutral IXPs on the U.S. East Coast and across the world, we’ve been continuing to grow and unveil new partnerships that deliver even more opportunities for our ecosystem’s demands.”

Bruce Lehrman | Founder/CEO; Involta

“One word we would use to describe the change in bandwidth demand is that it is exploding. The rapid demand has been building for nearly a decade, but was accelerated in the earliest days of the pandemic, is continuing today, and will do so into the foreseeable future. At Involta, enterprise organizations are seeking both increased bandwidth and resilient connectivity options in all of our markets.

To keep up with the explosion in demand, Involta is dedicated to expanding connectivity offerings strategically in our markets. The most recent example of this is our expansion in Youngstown, Ohio. This fiber expansion, spurred by increased customer demand for higher capacity, redundancy, disaster recovery, business continuity, and connectivity, also brings enterprises closer to the edge. These critical fiber routes serve major hospital systems, manufacturing facilities and financial services organizations.

In addition, over the last year Involta acquired assets in Canton, Ohio and expanded its facilities in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The Canton acquisition added a new data center and a highly skilled team to Involta’s national portfolio, further empowering its ability to enable digital transformation for enterprises in northeast Ohio. In Pittsburgh and Cleveland, Involta nearly doubled the data center footprint at facilities in each market and owns more than 10,000 fiber miles providing sub-millisecond latency to clients in those markets. The strategic expansions were driven by a surge in customer demand for edge data centers and critical infrastructure in the tech, manufacturing, healthcare and transportation sectors.”

Dean Campbell | CTO; LightRiver

“My single word answer (first part) – is “Quality.”

There are too many interactive (audio, video, gaming) applications running to just support “best effort.”

Tomorrow’s networks require superior performance across the board – uptime, latency, and jitter, in order to support the new use cases and real-time applications.

LightRiver continues to lead the way with our award winning, multi-vendor, Factory Built Networks® and netFLEX® vendor neutral, Optical Domain Control Software solutions. We engineer, commission, automate and support next generation, software controlled, transport networks for mission-critical clients that require the highest capacity, reliability, resiliency and manageability that today’s optical communications technology can deliver. Well-planned network design is the first step in laying the foundation for a stable and successful infrastructure. Our process is customized from start to finish to address all network design needs.”

Philip Olivero | CTO; Lightpath

“The word I would use to describe the change in bandwidth is mission-critical. Demand for bandwidth has increased significantly over the last several years and has accelerated dramatically during the pandemic. Addressing the increased demand in bandwidth needs is a mission-critical factor to business continuity. This is due in part to a shift in a largely at-home workforce. Powerful and reliable connectivity has never been more important. Lightpath is committed to leveraging our dense, 100% fiber network to get enterprise-class businesses to their digital destinations. Lightpath’s network is more than 18,000 route miles and connects more than 12,000 locations, including dozens of data centers and multiple cable landing stations. Lightpath also offers a portfolio of all-fiber solutions and managed services. The flexibility of service locations, in addition to customizable solutions to address specific needs, is what sets Lightpath apart.”

To explore this topic further, join the conversation with us during our next JSA Virtual Roundtable, “Transforming the Transformers: Digitizing the Connectivity Industry.” Moderated by George Lawton, a journalist with VentureBeat and TechTarget, this virtual roundtable will address the long-standing challenges faced by network buyers and sellers, and new ones brought on by the rise in trends such as SD-WAN and 5G. Register here for the event on Thursday, October 21, 2021.