How businesses can fight the latency bug

Speed is money – and it’s official. According to research by Ericsson, Arthur D. Little and Chalmers University of Technology, doubling the broadband speed for an economy increases the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 0.3%.1 To put this into perspective, a 0.3 percent GDP growth in the 34 countries covered by international economic organisation OECD is equivalent to £75 billion – or more than one seventh of the average annual OECD growth rate in the last decade.2

In a 24/7, always on, global economy, businesses and customers alike have come to expect access to information almost instantaneously. It is therefore unsurprising that customers get impatient very quickly if a website does not provide what they need – two seconds or less is the expected page-load time for 47 per cent of users. In fact, poor website performance makes 79 per cent of those browsing the web less likely to revisit a website.

Internet performance is key to effectively running and managing businesses and brands, and opens up opportunities to enter new markets and demographics. It is clear that in order to stave off the competition, enterprises must put network latency at the top of their agendas – otherwise, someone else will be sure to step in and offer a quicker, better service usurping their hard fought position in the market.

For many, overcoming latency isn’t an easy feat. Understanding and managing Internet performance is a complex and multi-faceted business – however by following a few simple steps, businesses can ensure they’re ahead of the game and their competition:
· Using the right technology: For those not in the business of DNS, choosing between different DNS technologies and provides may seem insignificant – however, it can in fact make all the difference. By analysing network topologies, a DNS provider should be able to determine how to reduce the number of network interfaces, routers, switches, and servers – cutting delays and providing a better service in the process.
· Going the distance: Distance really is the key here – and scaling infrastructure horizontally can be a secret weapon for tackling latency. In essence, horizontal scaling involves breaking up a company’s infrastructure into small pieces and strategically placing them around the world in various data centres. Once businesses scale horizontally, the best infrastructure for a customer’s location can be detected – and the reduced distance between customer and infrastructure results in much faster performance, greater reliability, and isolation of failures.
· Routing for success: Without proper routing, businesses can still see latency issues, even if they have data centres in all the right places. Setting up anycast routing can be highly beneficial in the quest towards reducing latency. In simple terms, anycast means bringing the request closest to that of the user. However, just because a service offers an anycast network doesn’t automatically mean users will be allowed to utilise its full potential – it’s all down to choosing the right provider.
· Monitoring performance: Tracking DNS performance can help catch problems early on and fix them as quickly as possible, without affecting the latency of the network. Keeping an eye on performance will help businesses avoid interruptions and downtimes and ensure a better customer experience.
While some of these tactics may require some investment, they should be instrumental in reducing overall latency – and key to improving user engagement, enhancing user retention and creating a better customer experience. Ultimately, geography counts for a lot when it comes to DNS - it’s all about mapping the service as close to the user and central hubs as possible. The tools and technologies to deliver seamless, fast service wherever and whenever exist and are readily available – it’s up to businesses to tackle the problem and defeat latency, once and for all.

1 http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/08/26/does-high-speed-broadband-increase-economic-growth/

2 http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/08/26/does-high-speed-broadband-increase-economic-growth/