Executive Brief

Six reasons enterprises are adopting ultra-high-speed data

With hyper fast data connectivity, people and systems can work efficiently, even as more applications move to the cloud.

A growing number of businesses offer digital services. And speed makes a difference.

Regardless of the industry, enterprises increasingly operate beyond their core business — they also run digital services. These are the cloud applications your employees use to stay productive. They are the database services that give you access to client or patient information and the digital touchpoints that bring great brand experiences to your customers.

1 in 4 office workers report that they often experience a slow network connection at work.¹

When digital services run smoothly, systems and people can work efficiently. Offering seamless digital services means breaking through any bottlenecks in data transmission between users, applications, devices and servers on-premises and in the cloud. This reliability is a key objective of ultra-high-speed data (UHSD) solutions.

$4M The estimated amount a company with 2,000 employees loses annually due to tech-related interruptions experienced by office workers.²

UHSD is designed to transfer large volumes of data extremely fast. Cloud-hosted applications feel snappier, remote desktops are more responsive and databases sync quickly. Cloud storage acts more like local storage. Analytics, AI and automation are delivered in real time. Collaboration across distributed locations becomes seamless. By consistently and predictably speeding data transfer across sites, hybrid workforces and multiple clouds, UHSD has become the backbone of modern enterprise connectivity.

97% of senior IT leaders say a modernized network is critical to rolling out AI, cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT).³

Common catalysts for UHSD adoption

As enterprises continue to move services to the cloud and deploy more data-intensive applications, UHSD will drive efficient, competitive operations. Enterprises will need to adopt UHSD to ensure performance, resiliency and scale. Here are six common triggers that spur enterprises to adopt UHSD solutions.

1. Moving to a new headquarters

If you relocate your headquarters, you’ll need to re-establish core connectivity. Often, reconnecting to primary data centers, regional offices, remote campuses and cloud entry points will expose limitations in legacy systems. This is an ideal time to transition to UHSD, which can improve networks with central internet access points, stronger core connections, direct links to public clouds and fast inter-cloud connectivity. In addition, 89% of senior IT leaders say improved network architecture directly drives revenue.⁴

2. Supporting business growth with network modernization

Analytics, automation and AI require transmitting massive amounts of data. At the same time, enterprises are shifting to cloud-first ecosystems and software as a service (SaaS) applications. This makes fast connectivity to the cloud more important than ever. To ensure smooth user experiences and real-time access to data, you’ll need scalable, ultra-high-speed backbone links to the cloud. More than 95% of senior IT leaders say a modernized network is critical to rolling out AI, IoT and cloud.⁵ UHSD provides these links while also establishing a foundation for AI inference, edge analytics, high-volume data ingestion and cross-cloud replication.

3. Reducing the risk of network disruption

Network downtime can have major impacts on your operations and reputation, especially in finance, healthcare and media. More than 90% of technology leaders report that their teams must occasionally deprioritize essential work in order to address unplanned downtime or outages.⁶ It’s critical to eliminate single points of failure and plan for path diversity, geographic redundancy and segmented connectivity, particularly when it comes to mission-critical workloads. UHSD has the speed and bandwidth to enable redundant architectures without major performance penalties. This helps you achieve higher levels of business continuity, meet regulatory scrutiny and create a resilient network design.

52% of senior IT leaders whose organizations experienced recent major network outages say revenue loss was the most significant impact.⁷

4. Planning for disaster recovery

When you use multicloud and hybrid cloud architectures, you need fast, predictable data movement between sites. The growth in the use of public clouds for backup, failover and continuity has made high-speed direct connectivity essential. UHSD enables frequent replication and rapid failover, helping you minimize data loss and restore service quickly in the event of a problem.

5. Enhancing data storage and replication

Datasets are growing larger and becoming more dispersed, with enterprise data potentially living in both centralized cloud storage and distributed data lakes. Networks must be able to meet the performance demands of analytics and machine learning (ML) workflows. Some enterprises are using multi-region replication strategies to copy data across regions, improving availability and disaster recovery. UHSD supports high-volume data movement across hybrid environments and large WAN backbones, with massive throughput to accommodate high-resolution media, medical imaging, data and financial datasets.

6. Consolidating vendors

Working with fewer vendors can help enterprises simplify support, reduce costs and improve accountability. By consolidating connectivity, managed services and cloud on-ramps to a single provider, you can reduce operational friction. Enterprises that work with a single vendor for UHSD can centralize service-level agreements (SLAs); unify monitoring; and gain the assurance of end-to-end support, transparency and reliability.

151 minutes Average downtime for resolving an outage:⁸

Solving modern connectivity challenges with the right partner

With enterprises running on more data and more connections than ever, UHSD is a powerful tool to help ensure the enterprise is ready. However, many enterprises face challenges when attempting to upgrade to UHSD, including:

Skill shortages
Complex multicloud integrations
Unpredictable costs
Compliance with security policies and data privacy regulations
Inconsistent user experiences across sites

The right partner can reduce friction for IT leaders facing limited resources while improving network reliability and performance. Look for a managed services provider with:

A broad, high-performance network footprint
UHSD options for both general and critical applications
Managed services and expert US-based support
Strong end-to-end SLAs
Experience supporting large businesses across distributed locations

Over 90% of Fortune 500 companies rely on Spectrum Business® for technology solutions.⁹Spectrum Business is a winner of the 2025 ATLANTIC-ACM U.S. Business Connectivity Service Provider Excellence Award in the Large Service Providers, Data Value category.¹⁰

Make the most of UHSD with Spectrum Business

UHSD has become the connectivity backbone of the modern enterprise, and Spectrum Business is trusted by many of the world’s leading enterprises to deliver it reliably.

Spectrum Business offers a nationwide fiber footprint and a broad portfolio of managed network services, security services and high-performance connectivity solutions. Our UHSD services are engineered for critical workloads. It’s all backed by end-to-end SLAs that provide industry-leading guarantees and 100% US-based support, available 24/7.

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