In this lesson,
we're going to discuss leased line connections.
Now in the world of wide area networking,
leased line connections stand out as a premier choice
for businesses and organizations that require a dedicated,
reliable, and high-performance internet connection.
Unlike typical broadband services
that will share the capacity with other users,
a leased line is considered fixed bandwidth,
and it has a symmetric data connection
that's exclusively reserved for that subscriber's use.
This exclusivity guarantees consistent speed,
and it offers unparalleled levels of service and security,
which make it an ideal solution for those
who cannot afford any compromises
in their communications infrastructure.
Now a leased line,
often referred to as a dedicated line
or a dedicated leased line,
is a continuous connection between two points
that are set up by a telecommunications provider.
Usually, this will be done either using a copper
or fiber connection.
Now think about it like this.
If I wanted to connect your home and your office together
using a road and I made it a private road
that only you could go on,
it would be really fast because you could drive
as fast as you wanted and nobody could get in your way.
That's the idea with a leased line.
It ensures that your data travels swiftly
and securely free from any kind of congestion
or potential security breaches
because you're off the public internet pathways.
Now one of the features of leased lines
is their symmetric nature.
This means that your upload and download speeds
will be identical,
and this is a critical requirement for businesses
and services that depend heavily on uploading data
because most commercial products use an asymmetric method
where you have faster downloads and slower uploads.
For example, my company does a lot of uploading
because of all the video we create,
and so we need something that has very high upload speeds,
and so a leased line may be a good choice
for a company like ours.
Now another thing with leased lines
is that they can provide an impressive range
of bandwidth options,
starting as low as two megabits per second
and going all the way up to 10 gigabits per second or more.
This means no matter how big or small your business is,
you can get a dedicated leased line that meets your needs.
If you're a small enterprise that needs a steady connection,
you can use a two, four,
or maybe a 10 megabit per second connection.
But if you're a really large corporation
that's streaming a lot of real-time data across continents,
you can get a 10 gigabit connection over fiber
using a leased line configuration
to fit that requirement too.
This scalability is a really significant boon
'cause it allows businesses to tailor their connectivity
according to their current needs
while also providing the flexibility to scale up
as their business grows
'cause normally it's just a matter of opening
or shutting the amount of bandwidth
at the service provider level
instead of installing a whole new line.
Now, reliability is another cornerstone
of using a leased line connection.
Internet service providers will often
have stringent service level agreements, or SLAs,
that provide guaranteed uptime that often exceed 99.9%.
In the rare event that your connection goes down,
your SLA will ensure that the repair and recovery are swift
and you'll be reimbursed for any downtime
per the terms of your SLA.
This helps to minimize your downtime
and any associated costs along with it.
Now this means you have a very high level of availability
by this dedicated nature of the connection,
and this really is a premium level of support
that's offered to your leased line customers
when you're working for an ISP.
Now in terms of security,
you're going to find that leased lines
do offer several distinct advantages.
Because you have a direct connection here,
that means your data is traveling through fewer routers
and switches and this reduces the exposure
to potential cyber attacks.
If your organization handles a lot of sensitive information,
like you're a bank or a financial institution
or a doctor's office or an insurance company
or a legal firm,
this level of added security is really a necessity for you.
Now the premium features of leased lines do come
at a cost though,
and typically, they're going to be much more expensive
than using a shared service like DSL or cable.
The actual cost does depend on several factors
including how much bandwidth you need,
the distance between your premise
and the provider's facility,
and the length of your contract.
If you go for a longer contract,
you'll usually get a lower price.
If you go for a shorter contract,
you'll have a much higher price.
Now when it comes to leased lines,
often they're kind of out of reach for small businesses
because they can cost thousands of dollars per month.
But again, this is a business decision
and the cost needs to be weighed against
the potential losses due to downtimes,
slower speeds, or data breaches,
and it may actually be more affordable than you think
to get a leased line with that better security
and higher speeds.
Now in addition to using them for internet access,
you can also use leased lines in creating a WAN,
or wide area network, between different branch offices.
This can be used to connect disparate offices
of your business and ensure seamless communication
and data sharing across those locations.
I've used this multiple times in my career
when working for large organizations
where we had to connect different offices across cities,
across states, or even across countries,
and these leased lines got very, very expensive
for these purposes,
because there were large bandwidth
and there were large amounts of distances we had to cover.
This application can be particularly beneficial
for businesses who have a significant presence
in multiple geographic areas,
like the one I was working with,
and this requires us to have a consistent
and reliable communication network
to function as a cohesive unit
even though we are spread out across six continents.
So remember, leased lines do represent one
of the highest pinnacles of connectivity solutions
by giving you unmatched speed,
reliability, and security,
but you're not usually going to see this in a home
or a home office network.
Instead, they're going to cater to organizations
where connectivity is not just a utility for them
but it's a critical component of their operational backbone.
If you're working for a large company,
you may be using these dedicated leased lines
because they have this robust,
reliable, and secure communication capability
that you're going to need in those type of environments.
Leased lines stand out not just as a service
but they really are a strategic investment
that empowers your business to navigate the digital world
with confidence and agility using high speed
and high security.