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Testing Can Point The Way Toward An Efficient, Trouble-Free Network

December 22, 2011 by · Leave a Comment 

If you’re a network administrator, you’re well aware of the responsibilities you face in maintaining your network. If your firm is like most, it is all but completely dependent on the network to function. That means that your position is one of the most important in the company. Doing your job well means that all members of the company can perform their jobs without interruption. It also means that your company can operate without significant loss in productivity.

Often, corporate networks are complex, sprawling enterprises that can stretch across continents and time zones. Other networks can simply be confined to a single building, or even just one office. Whichever kind of network you administer, you’re going to want to help ensure that it performs at peak levels. When a network is capable of performing at capacity, it means that workers can consistently reply on the communication and data sharing capabilities that it provides.

Often times, networks can suffer from being overtaxed when higher-than-usual demands are placed on the company’s data infrastructure. With the consistently increasing demand for speed and network capacity for data transfers and rich media streaming, it’s no wonder that many networks are straining to keep up with requirements being placed on them.

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Administrators will want to institute a performance test now and then to ensure that their networks are running smoothly and that no potential problems are in store. Testing can point toward areas, such as new applications that have been introduced to the network, that may eventually become a source of network congestion and perhaps slower network performance. With information garnered from tests, administrators can adjust the network accordingly and prevent possible difficulties from cropping up in the future.

It’s also advisable that administrators consider load testing, which is another form of testing that measures a network’s capacity to manage larger-than-usual quantities of data. Some networks will buckle under the stress of an unexpected uptick in data traffic, and this form of testing can help shed light on areas of network weakness. Administrators can locate areas in the network where data tends to bottleneck, and they can make provisions that will prevent slow-moving pockets of data from forming and clogging the system.

The largest amount of network traffic can occur when employees use certain applications that allows them to stream rich media. Through testing you can determine where difficulties in managing streamed media could lead to a network slowdown and perhaps a loss of productivity, and rules limiting the use of streaming media by employees can be instituted.

With the institution of regular testing, and reasonable rules that limit the amount of streamed data traffic, administrators can ensure that their networks continue to run smoothly, and that loss of productivity is virtually unknown at their firm.

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