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[Keith Williams]

Quel surprise, it turns out that we in the UK not only have to put up with slower broadband than countries such as France, Korea and Japan, but we don't even get close to the speeds that we've paid for!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8171074.stm

So you can pay for an 8MB connection, but you'll be lucky to get more than 6 (this tallies with my own experience, both at home and work).

Until BT and the government put some serious effort into upgrading the 1930s copper telephone wiring, it looks like we'll be stuck with this situation.

This has helped fuel the rise of cloud computing applications. Whilst traditional remote access technologies have existed for decades (such as VPN), they fall down due to the limited bandwidth available. For comparison: your computer has a 100MB network connection, and servers usually run at 1000. This is fast enough for a small-to-medium office network.

Because ADSL limits the speed of uploading (typically to 0.8MB), the fastest that you can transfer data between a laptop and a server over VPN is 0.8MB. That's 1/125 the speed of your office network!!

Cloud Computing is based around websites. Because these web pages are optimised for slow connections, they load quickly, rather than connecting across VPN where your laptop will try to use protocols designed for use in a fast office network.

As a company, we've certainly noticed that VPN just doesn't work, unless you're prepared to spend £10k+ per year buying a fibre-optic internet connection for the office. More power to the cloud...

[simon foster]

I agree slow transfer speeds in this country really suck! 

I have been asked in the past to fix VPN because its so slow but there is not a lot I can do until we get faster Broadband connections. Not to mention certain connections that continue to drop and reconnect all day because of the old telephone exchange it uses.

[michaelfoote]

I am sorry if this sounds a bit simple, but I ws under the impression that Cloud computing would be slow as well because surely you are using the same cables/infrastructure that you would be using if you were connecting to a VPN, surely at least with a traditional office network the computers could all link up together and not have to worry broadband speeds in most situations other than working off site. Whereas cloud computing you will always be running from the internet so always limited with the slow speeds.

I am currently stuck between the two options and need to purchase a whole new setup soon, so any advice would be appreciated.

[Keith Williams]

The benefit of cloud vs VPN is that the cloud site is hosted in a high-bandwidth data centre, so only your half of the connection is slow - with VPN, both the office and your end are slow. More importantly, using VPN to share files comes down to browsing network shares in Windows; this is designed to work over local networks, and isn't optimised for low-bandwidth (this is why even browsing files under VPN keeps pausing).

A cloud site uses web pages to list data; these are tiny, and designed to be served over slow connections.

There is a happy medium - it's not about choosing one or the other. Local servers have their place; indeed, are still necessary in any office with 10+ computers for user authentication, roaming profiles, etc. I'd be happy to give you some advice from my own experience - just send me a message.

[Chris]

While we are talking about broadband speeds, I am currently getting around 15Mb/s Download and 0.78Mb/s upload speeds which is rapid compared to a friend of mine in rural Oxfordshire that only gets c.1.14 download and c.0.50 upload, but compared to some friends I have in Holland we are pathetically slow over here,  they are getting c.87.0 download and an incredible 77.0 upload, see image below.

My speed test first and the Dutch one second  

[michaelfoote]

Hi Keith, thanks for your message and for your kind offer. I am going to do some investigative work myself and will get in contact if necessary, thank you.

[Keith Williams]

Don't know if anyone's heard, but it looks like the plan for universal broadband access has been scrapped:

http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/news/20100715-government-drops-internet-all-by-2012-pledge-blames-previous-government

Although I do sympathise with those in rural areas stuck with slow broadband (I used to live in such an area!), my main concern remains that there is no middle-ground solutions for businesses which are too big for ADSL, but can't quite afford a fibre-optic connection.

Question: should companies building business parks install fibre optic connections and rent them out to tenants are part of the package? Or should they at least build the park so that it's easy for BT to install the connection should there be enough demand? That way, the cost could be shared out amongst the businesses in the park.