The Internet can be used for a wide variety of purposes, from simply browsing for information to streaming video and audio from a variety of sources. Each of the tasks the Internet is capable of accomplishing uses up a different amount of resources. This is why many businesses are looking to curb what their employees are able to do to ensure the right resources are available for business purposes. This is made possible through traffic shaping.
What Is Traffic Shaping?
Many people are unfamiliar with this term. However, the answer to what it means is actually quite simple. In general, shaping traffic means placing priority levels on certain functions of the Internet within your business. For instance, if your employees don’t need to stream video or audio for their job, you can place this at a low priority so more bandwidth is available for the tasks your employees need to do to complete their job.
How Does It Work?
When using this method of prioritizing, a company must evaluate what their employees need to use the Internet connection for and how often. This allows them to rank the various processes in order of importance. For instance, if you place streaming videos and audio low on the priority list, you can restrict your employees from even using these features. However, if you do allow them, you can choose to override these tasks when more bandwidth is needed in other areas.
What Is the Benefit?
The primary benefit of traffic shaping is to speed up your Internet connection and reserve important business resources for business purposes only. With more people using computers as part of their job, there are more people who use their computers at their leisure while at work. This can allow businesses to restrict what their employees are able to do to ensure these resources are only used for business purposes.
When you run a business that relies on the Internet, you don’t want to have to worry about employees misusing your bandwidth for their own personal enjoyment. With the help of traffic shaping, you can prioritize various tasks through the Internet, helping you use your Internet resources for business-related tasks, rather than unrelated tasks some of your employees may be trying to complete online during business hours. This will help you speed up your business’s Internet connection so your functionality doesn’t have to suffer.
