As a cloud-based software company, we always keep our eyes focused on the big picture. In particular, the state of the Internet…you know, the thing that makes all of this possible.

The good news: you can do just about everything online now.

The bad news: it looks like she’s gonna blow!

Seriously though, there are two major issues the Internet is currently encountering:

1. Exceedingly rapid growth. What engineers thought would last us for decades, is quickly becoming over-burdened and inadequate.
2. Video and on-demand content.

It’s no secret that streaming services like Netflix consume vast amounts of bandwidth daily, which creates troublesome traffic patterns and Internet overloads that will only become more apparent as time marches on. Recent statistics show that forty percent of U.S. households currently subscribe to some sort of streaming media service. And how is the Internet as a whole prepared to cope?

It’s no stretch to speculate that in ten years, the majority of media and entertainment will be predominantly Internet based. Cable and satellite providers are already offering streaming services in preparation for the shift in viewer habits.

For us, nine times out of ten, client issues involving video playback are typically Internet related, so we closely monitor Internet trunk traffic. By using a combination of in-house tools combined with third party services, we can usually pinpoint precisely where the Internet is having issues. The most congestion usually happens on lines that connect residential and mobile networks–again streaming video to homes, coffee shops, airports etc.

Lucky for all, Google and other companies are leading the way with faster connections, fiber and more connectivity, so the good news is that it will get better …eventually.

In the meantime, businesses need to be creative about cloud storage and how they deliver content. CDNs, fast file transfer services and compression technologies are seeing an increased demand for their services. Exciting times for service providers and software companies, but it’s a big shift from traditional over-the-air broadcasting to over-the-top (OTT); so Internet service providers have their work cut out for them.

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