The Microsoft 365 Secret That People Can Get Out

Since its inception in 2011, Microsoft 365 has become the go-to productivity suite with over 250 million average monthly users by 2021. Microsoft 365 became critical to many businesses as they navigated the pandemic. At a time when people have never felt so separated, Microsoft 365 brought them together and gave people the tools to collaborate, communicate and feel connected again, even when they are miles apart. After the pandemic, more companies than ever are looking to join in the millions by also adopting Microsoft 365, and for good reason.

The catch

Having said all that, such an inclusive service does not come without technical challenges. Microsoft 365 services are heavy on your internet links. This shouldn’t be too much of a concern if you only have a few employees at a time using Microsoft 365, but as your business scales and gets more users, your bandwidth demand scales with it. Giving too many users access to Microsoft 365 without the right broadband will undoubtedly slow down or even freeze your systems.

This shouldn’t deter you from adopting Microsoft 365, as online use in businesses continues to grow, the need for better broadband is inevitable. Having the right broadband simply gives your business the freedom to use the tools it needs without having to worry about slow services and/or system downtime. In this blog, we’ll shed light on this oft-overlooked Microsoft 365 secret and give you insight into which applications should account for broadband.

Teams

Microsoft Teams is an audio, video, and chat-based collaboration platform that has been Microsoft’s only communications program since it officially replaced Skype for Business and Microsoft Classroom in 2019.

Microsoft 365 and its cloud-based applications like Teams are broadband hungry and require more bandwidth to run effectively than traditional versions of Office. For example, Microsoft Teams conversations are often recorded and uploaded to Microsoft Stream so that they can be shared with colleagues. Uploading video files to the Internet will always put pressure on the upload capacity of your Internet line and affect the performance of all users on your network.

When you bring Teams into your business, you need to ensure that the quality of the network connection is not only low latency and provides adequate bandwidth, but also consistent so that the user does not suffer from issues such as jitter. The need for good internet is especially important when it comes to video calling, it can take up to 1.1 Mbps to stream an HD video call.

While video, audio, and chat-based services are the primary purpose of Teams, it also acts as a front door to SharePoint. Every time you create a new team in Teams, you also create a new Microsoft 365 team site, Calendar, Planner, and SharePoint team site, all of which take a toll on your bandwidth.

one drive

Microsoft OneDrive is a file hosting service that allows users to share and sync their files over the cloud. the platform works by bringing together chats, video calling, and files across many Microsoft and non-Microsoft apps. This creates a single workspace that can be accessed by any end-user at any time from any device, allowing for much more freedom and flexibility when it comes to their work. Unfortunately, in this case getting more means giving more, OneDrive is the most bandwidth-intensive service Microsoft 365 offers.

OneDrive’s architecture makes it a bandwidth-heavy user. To put this in perspective, every document in OneDrive is automatically uploaded to the cloud with every customization made to it. It is then downloaded simultaneously to the devices of all persons with permission to access that document. This can happen several times a day and each upload/download for each user puts a strain on your bandwidth.

This constant updating, uploading and downloading of files is a common theme that runs across all Microsoft 365 services, it allows for much more real-time collaboration, but in turn requires greater amounts of bandwidth to be used.

The solution your business needs

Microsoft 365 offers a whole host of useful applications and is understandably the most popular productivity suite in the world. Because Microsoft 365 data is stored in a connected/shared architecture and offers applications like Teams and OneDrive, collaboration and communication feels as streamlined as possible. Unfortunately, acquiring more tools and streamlining collaboration inadvertently means your business must prepare for increased broadband usage, especially if you have a significant number of users.

Source: entrustit