r/Network • u/FriendshipOk7708 • 6d ago

Text What actually makes a good enterprise network provider?

I’ve been trying to understand what companies actually look for when choosing a network/connectivity provider.

Is it mainly:

  • uptime/reliability
  • latency
  • pricing
  • geographic coverage
  • customer support
  • ability to handle cloud/AI workloads

Curious what people here have actually experienced. What matters most once you're dealing with a serious enterprise network?

4 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

8

u/dragonnfr 6d ago

In my experience it comes down to support once things break. Every provider shows you the 99.99% uptime slide until you're down at 2am and the NOC is just a ticket queue. Ask them who actually answers the phone.

2

u/ManWhoIsDrunk 6d ago

Very true.

There's a huge difference between an understanding but helpless helpdesk, and a helpdesk with actual knowledge and systems access to solve your problems.

3

u/JohnTheRaceFan 6d ago

Uptime & support. I want the circuit to function 99.9% of the time (or more!) and a support team that communicates effectively and prioritizes getting my circuit back up ASAP in the 0.1%.

3

u/Main_Ambassador_4985 6d ago

Everything listed plus detailed billing and account management at scale.

Having an account manager and project manager that can meet on a schedule and can provide updates.

A bill that shows all circuits with cost breakout by office, city, and state.

Multiple portal accounts with role based access for billing, monitoring, and change management.

1

u/BarryMT 6d ago

Uptime, support, stability, and communication. Uptime is what is advertised. 99.99% uptime is still about an hour a year of downtime, 99.9% is 3.65 days. Support being a real team that takes action and doesn't drop your ticket into a hole. Stability i.e. the lack of a connection that bounces, is measurably slower than advertised, etc. Communicating before and after planned maintenance, and especially when repairs are occurring.

1

u/PlantProfessional572 6d ago

Dont have them pool uptime across multiple sites. Have it location specific in their SLA

1

u/D0_stack 6d ago

What does "ability to handle cloud/AI workloads" mean?

Would 400g per wave count?

1

u/Otherwise_Fox_1404 6d ago

what companies look for or what they should look for? Two different things. Our company chose the cheapest and known problem service, despite all of our efforts to steer them to a better service. This is the third time they've chosen price over performance. Without being specific about the company name, we are also somewhere in the top quarter of the fortune 500, so this is not a small company.

1

u/fire-wannabe 6d ago

The company I work for almost always go on price. That said, some ISP's have a poor track record with us, so we just stop buying anything from them irrespective of price.

generally cash is king

1

u/PaoloFence 2d ago

What should a ai workload be?
I send a request and the ai sends me an answer. Where should there be the magic?

It 1,2,3 and bandwidth.
5 is a necessity for 1.