When it comes to business internet, speed, reliability, and security are everything. 

If your business depends on voice calls over VoIP, you know that a good connection can make or break a sale. If your organization relies on cloud computing, you know how costly it can be if access to those services slows down or is interrupted.

The competitive advantages of fast, reliable, and secure internet are obvious. And yet, the typical experience with commodity internet (the big internet providers most consumers know) tends to be the opposite: slow, spotty, and all too vulnerable. This occurs because instead of routing internet traffic via the fastest and most efficient path, commodity internet providers route it across lower cost, longer, and frequently more congested paths.

Thankfully, there’s a single solution for every one of these internet woes: Direct Peering.

What is Direct Peering?

Direct Peering is an internet design concept that allows carriers to exchange internet traffic with each other without having to pass through one or more intermediary networks.

Enterprise-grade internet providers such as C3 employ multiple peering points, each with multiple redundancies and lower congestion. Conversely, commodity internet offerings generally rely on fewer exchange points with less redundancy built in, leading to lower performance and higher packet loss.

By avoiding congested and unpredictable paths, Direct Peering enables C3 to connect an organization directly into its go-to platforms. These include mission-critical services like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce, as well as more bandwidth-intensive providers such as Netflix, Facebook, and Apple. The result? Fast and reliable internet. 

A metaphor is helpful here: imagine you need to pick up medicine from the CVS across town. To get there, you’ll need to drive through the town square, stop at several traffic lights, and scout out a parking spot. Now imagine you live next door to a CVS: there’s no need to even get in your car, much less cross town. Traffic is no longer a concern, nor is the possibility of being re-routed due to road construction.

This is essentially how Direct Peering functions: it brings the backbone of the internet directly to you, so you no longer need to make multiple stops en route to your content.

The Benefits of Direct Peering

Let’s dive even further into how Direct Peering can benefit your business.

It will come as no surprise that Direct Peering offers faster content delivery: there is simply less ground to cover between networks. This is particularly important for businesses relying on streaming video or other real-time content, as even a slight delay can significantly impact customer satisfaction, user engagement, and e-commerce activity. Organizations that truly value (or require) internet speed should ensure they select an internet service provider that is directly peered with their core service providers.

How about reliability? With a direct connection, traffic is far less likely to get lost or delayed due to a congested path (remember our CVS metaphor?. This means uninterrupted voice and video calls, less customer downtime, and far fewer complaints about slow or unreliable service. Even better, if a Direct Peering-enabled internet provider detects even the earliest hints of congestion or performance issues, they can simply route traffic around the problem. It’s a level of performance visibility that results in a far smoother user experience. 

Lastly, let’s address security. By connecting directly to another network, businesses can more easily monitor and control the traffic coming in and out of their network. Such direct paths reduce the risk of a Man-in-the-Middle (“MITM”) or Denial of Service (“DoS”) attack due to the reduction in intermediary networks. As a result, suspect traffic is much more visible and more easily mitigated.

Needless to say, this trifecta of reliability, security, and speed delivers another benefit: happier customers. Simply put, with faster and more reliable service, customers are more likely to be happy and engaged with your business. 

A New Era of Internet

The modern internet is an unbelievably convoluted landscape, with ample opportunities for disrupted connectivity. Providers that heavily leverage Direct Peering — like C3 — give organizations a powerful tool for improving connectivity, collaboration, content delivery, and ultimately, customer satisfaction. If your internet provider can’t make a similar claim, it may be time to find another who can.