In 1965, with some of the first computers ever built only a decade old, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore posited that the number of transistors on a microchip would double every 2 years. Colloquially known as Moore’s Law, this was an observation that the speed of technological advancement was about to rapidly accelerate.

While this sounds ridiculous, Moore’s Law ended up being too conservative. Prior to the turn of the millennium, the number of transistors in modern computer chips often doubled faster than every 2 years! In the last 20 years, technology has advanced beyond what anyone could have ever anticipated, and now you have billions of transistors inside every device you own.

This exponential advancement is not just limited to computer chips either – all technology is constantly evolving and adapting to provide new and better services, along with more connections and more access to these services.

As an Internet Service Provider, RISE matches this constant technological advancement by regularly updating (and upgrading) our network infrastructure. 

Improve network performance

Possibly the most obvious reason to upgrade your network infrastructure is to improve the performance of the network. As new technology is generally faster and more reliable, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on new products entering the market and how they can be deployed within our existing network. This kind of upgrade can enable higher service speeds for our customers, and reduce failover and recovery times when there is an incident like a fiber break.

These performance improvements in both speed and reliability allow RISE to remain competitive and provide world-class internet services to all our customers. We strive to always provide the best internet experience to businesses in the Philippines, and keeping our infrastructure upgraded regularly is a key factor in achieving that goal.

Reduce the chance of failure

If you want to limit the amount of maintenance you need to perform on your network, you need to keep it up-to-date. Regular upgrades to both the software and hardware of a network is a great way to minimise the time spent on maintenance.

Like most things in the physical world, it is common for network infrastructure to fail in a pattern that reliability engineers describe as a “bathtub curve” – referring to a high failure rate early in the lifespan of the product, low in the middle, and high again at the end of their life. 

You may have noticed this yourself when purchasing electronics – they will tend to fail either soon after you purchase them, or late in their life. We make sure to “soak test” all devices (running them without production traffic) before deployment to help reduce the risk of these early failures, and then towards the end of life, we upgrade and replace.

With software on core network devices, the conversation is more complex. The newest versions of software often introduce bugs that were not present in older releases, and our engineers must balance “latest and greatest” with “old and faithful.” 

It is crucial in these cases to ensure firstly that there are no known security vulnerabilities in your software, and then secondarily to balance new features and the benefits they provide vs. the potential for new bugs. 

Once the decision is made to deploy new software, we test, test, test and then deploy slowly (maybe only one, low impact device at first) to make sure we maintain a high level of reliability for our customers.

Improve network security

In the movies, cyber criminals like hackers are often portrayed as geniuses who can learn to compromise any system within seconds. In the real world, it takes time for these criminals to get their hands on the tech and find the weaknesses. 

This means that the longer a piece of technology has been on the market, the more likely it is that hackers have found a way to exploit that tech. Using outdated applications and equipment creates network vulnerabilities that could bring down your network or even your entire organization.

Upgrading network infrastructure cuts this problem off before it can even become an issue. Updates are constantly made to tighten the security on the components that comprise a network, adding in new security features and keeping hackers from becoming too familiar with the systems in place.

Connect to new locations 

An often overlooked but critical benefit of upgrading your infrastructure is being able to connect with other providers and expand the network into new areas. In the past, it was often the case for individual ISP’s to be using different technology that had difficulties connecting with other networks.

In the modern age, most networks have upgraded their technology to be similar enough that they can easily interconnect with other providers, improving the scalability of all networks (how fast and how far you can expand) and creating a more stable, capable and reliable network for all users.

How RISE are upgrading our networks

In our mission to accelerate the internet in the Philippines, RISE are constantly looking to upgrade and expand our network infrastructure. In the last year, we’ve focused on upgrading the capacity of our network to improve the business internet experience of Filipinos, as well as connecting with more uplink providers to increase network stability and reliability.

These activities have been matched by our greater fiber infrastructure rollout, expanding our network into a greater coverage area and connecting more buildings. On top of this, we’ve also upgraded all our core service offerings to provide higher speeds for our enterprise plans. 

Find out more about how a RISE enterprise plan can help accelerate your business today.

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