Four Steps to Diagnose Network Performance Issues. Hidden Secrets for Increasing Productivity by Improving Your Network

Transcription

1 Four Steps to Diagnose Network Performance Issues Hidden Secrets for Increasing Productivity by Improving Your Network

2 Many businesses regard their network simply as a connection that produces a dial tone for phone service, access to the Internet and a feed for sending and receiving . However, in the new age of cloud computing, hosted solutions and always on mobile device support, the amount of data and information being transmitted across most business networks has exploded over the past decade. In 2001, the typical company required only 768 Kbps of bandwidth, or half of a T1 line (the equivalent of a 1.5 Mbps connection). In a world where employees were often tied to their desks, smartphones were only a promise, and robust web capabilities were just emerging, this was plenty of power and reliability at the fraction of the cost of a full T1 line. Entering a new decade, the landscape has clearly changed. Once companies take the time to evaluate their existing network, they often realize their needs are changing. In turn, they are identifying steps to improve their network performance, as well as more cost-efficient alternatives to their current service. In addition, as part of the exercise of auditing their current network performance, these companies are realizing that problems with connection speed, latency and drop-offs, can have a substantial impact on their businesses productivity and growth plans. In the new global economy, companies are expanding their services to new customers and business partners, both domestically and abroad. To keep up with this growth, they are In 2001, the typical company required only 768 Kbps of bandwidth, or half of a T1 line (the equivalent of a 1.5 Mbps connection). In a world where employees were often tied to their desks, smartphones were only a promise, and robust web capabilities were just emerging, this was plenty of power and reliability at the fraction of the cost of a full T1 line. 2

3 adding offices and employees many of which are virtual locations. They rely on web-based and mobile apps to connect with employees and business partners, and smartphones and tablets are replacing laptops both in the field and home offices. Companies are more data-driven than ever, and networks are growing to keep up with the demand. For example, a mid-sized company with between 25 and 99 employees currently has an average bandwidth requirement of 2.2 Factors To Diagnose Number of locations Business continuity requirements Remote networking needs Demands of hosted services/applications Security concerns Traffic prioritization Mbps, according to a research report conducted by consulting firm Altman Vilandrie & Co. As businesses expand further, these requirements will rise. By 2014, companies bandwidth requirements are projected to jump to 14 Mbps. While bandwidth requirements are clearly changing, companies have also found that the solution is not simply running a bigger pipe into your company. In order to match your unique business requirements with the right networking solution, you must consider these factors: Number of locations Business continuity requirements Remote networking needs Demands of hosted services/ applications Security concerns Traffic prioritization The following E-book will examine four key steps companies can take to determine the networking services they will need to accommodate the growing demands of employees, partners and customers. In addition, the E-book will provide suggestions into how companies can optimize the performance of their network, maximizing cost efficiencies as well as the productivity of employees. 3

4 Determine Your True Bandwidth Needs 1To Support New Initiatives & Growth One of the first levers both large and small businesses pull to increase productivity is enhancing IT capabilities. Companies now have access to powerful applications that can help manage their accounting functions, sales pipelines or supply chain. The good news is many of these applications can be hosted remotely, saving companies time and money from setting up separate servers and deploying on-premise. However, the other reality of the shift to cloud-based and hosted applications is they are further taxing networks and could be seriously impacting network performance. Possessing the correct amount of bandwidth is key to network performance, as well as making everyday staffing operations easier. That said, a small investment here can go a long way. To achieve this goal, you must understand just how much bandwidth you are really using. And how much will you need six months or two years from now? The best way to understand the capacity requirements of your communications pipeline is to define your current priorities, and estimate what you expect future growth to look like. The first step is easy. Understandably, determining unknown future needs may seem daunting, but it can be done. Among the top network priorities that businesses currently tackle include WAN connectivity through a standard or remote virtual private network; hosted services; security; VoIP and traffic prioritization. Evaluate your current needs across these areas; including your current number of users, the types of applications that are regularly accessed, how much bandwidth is used for each specific application, and traffic utilization patterns. Some companies may look to deploy a bandwidth management system to measure these details. 4

5 Companies should also weigh internal and external factors that may impact these traffic patterns. This includes the bandwidth needed to properly support any Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, especially from remote offices where Internet access, speed and reliability can be a problem. Experts also recommend that businesses factor in growth plans for scalability. Since this is often an afterthought for smaller companies, it is critical to consider a provider which partners with Tier 1 data providers, so businesses can be prepared to cover future locations as a result of expansion or acquisitions. While many companies wind up operating in different regions using different services, the option of having a single network provider can help by centralizing operating costs to a single bill, and one point of contact for all voice and data needs. To understand the capacity requirements of your communications pipeline, define your current priorities and estimate future growth expectations. Checklist For Assessing Your Networking Needs: Number of Users Types of Applications Amount of Bandwidth Used for Each App Traffic Utilization Patterns 5

6 2 Optimize Integration of Voice and Data Taking the time to audit network performance doesn t always point to a need for more bandwidth or a bigger pipe. In some cases, businesses simply need a smarter approach to managing their current bandwidth across their voice and data needs. One example of this is freeing up bandwidth by balancing business needs during different time periods. One of the easiest ways to tackle this task is to allocate both voice and data to the same circuit. Providers with dynamic voice and data services can allocate both streams to the same circuit, and use idle phone lines to boost the capacity of your data access. In this scenario, bandwidth automatically adjusts based on the number of voice channels utilized at any given moment. Providers with dynamic voice and data services can allocate both streams to the same circuit, and use idle phone lines to boost the capacity of your data access. As call paths are released, they dynamically convert to data bandwidth to speed data traffic through the customer s network. This protocol ensures that customers continuously reap the benefit of their network investment based on their calling patterns. For example, voice traffic can be prioritized over data traffic so calls come through clearly. 6

7 This balancing of bandwidth needs can be especially impactful in businesses where call centers are operating only during business hours, or if online traffic peaks during the evening hours. Bandwidth can be allocated accordingly and performance can be optimized for both voice and data needs. In addition to improving data speed and performance, many businesses have actually been able to reduce costs by using their bandwidth more efficiently. SmartVoice Receives Product of the Year Award From Internet Telephony Media company TMC recently named TelePacific s SmartVoice product as a recipient of the 2010 Product of the Year Award from Internet Telephony magazine. TelePacific s SmartVoice portfolio uses Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for call control and is offered as a dynamically integrated solution with Internet access and/or MPLS-based IP VPN. SmartVoice enables customers to optimize their network access resources for voice or data traffic as needed. Available in business lines, PRI, CAS, or native SIP handoff, SmartVoice customers can select up to 120 call paths with integrated Internet access and/or MPLS IP-VPN services. SmartVoice with Ethernet over Copper access is available in bandwidth increments from 1 Mbps to 20 Mbps, depending on distance from the serving wire center. In addition, using Ethernet over TDM transport, SmartVoice bandwidth can scale as high as 135 Mbps. The SmartVoice portfolio also includes up to 22 enhanced calling and data features, as well as local and intra-lata calling, for one flat rate. 7

8 3 for Latency Identify Bottleneck Issues/Real Causes Speed Traps: Common Causes For Network Slowdowns Requirements of connecting to hosted/saas applications Volume of connections to public internet Lack of prioritization for critical apps While many companies blame sluggish network performance on a growing number of users or the transmission of large files, the latency culprits can often be much more far-reaching. One big bandwidth drain is the transition to cloud computing and reliance on Software-as-a- Service (SaaS) applications. Sufficient bandwidth is critical for SaaS application performance and a quality user experience. In fact, the lack of high-speed bandwidth has been one of the major hurdles of wider scale adoption of SaaS environment rollouts. Meanwhile, data proliferation is taking its own toll on latency. Consider this scenario: On a Friday afternoon, people are trying to meet important deadlines, and large data, audio and video files are filtering over the network. With the weekend looming, more employees than usual are playing YouTube videos, streaming music and checking friends weekend plans on Facebook. Each of these innocent connections to the public Internet uses bandwidth and often slows the speed and performance of private networks, forcing swamped employees to wait for information before they can accomplish the next task. Complaints of a slow network forces IT to gets involved, diverting them from current projects. In actuality, the network is not lacking speed at all it s just sensitive to avoidable latency scenarios. The key to solving these issues is to identify where traffic is coming from and prioritize critical applications over non-critical applications. It may be time to minimize connections to the public Internet, and keep internal company data on the private network. Web content filtration systems could be the perfect solution as they keep employees from accessing unauthorized sites and unnecessarily using precious bandwidth. Network-monitoring systems allow you to analyze real time and historical bandwidth utilization and latency statistics. In addition to identifying ways to improve network speed and performance, these evaluations can also minimize security issues. 8

9 4 Address Business Continuity and Redundancy Needs System failure is the cause of 75% of instances of data loss. Every hour of downtime equates to approximately $50,000 in lost time and productivity for a small- to mid-size company; and some large corporations can experience up to 87 hours of network downtime a year, according to Gartner Research. While these statistics prove that too many companies still have insufficient plans in place for business continuity and redundancy, the timing has never been better to create one. The first step is to partner with a provider that has a secondary or co-located site that serves as a backup in case of a network failure. Some large corporations can experience up to 87 hours of network downtime a year, according to Gartner Research. with a provider who keeps your goals in mind and strives for 100% uptime. The ideal partner should be a conduit between your company and your Internet Service Provider (ISP), and can quickly identify and correct any problems before and after they occur. Still confused on how to establish a business continuity plan? The end goal is to maintain at least a minimum level of network performance, regardless of sluggish connections, weather, natural disasters or technical issues on the service providers end. To address your continuity and redundancy needs, experts advise organizations to partner 9

10 Managed routers are another redundancy option. Operating similar to a firewall, it allows users to control IP access for Internet, intranet and extranets with an added level of security. It also may be time to weigh the benefits of migrating from legacy copper T1 connections to frame-based Ethernet pipes. Often, companies can make this decision based on their future growth plans. If users require significant bandwidth to support their daily responsibilities, industry observers encourage making the transition. The end goal is to maintain at least a minimum level of network performance, regardless of sluggish connections, weather, natural disasters or technical issues on the service providers end. Another back-up option is a fixed wireless platform. Comprised of fixed wireless devices that pull electrical power from utility mains, they are more reliable than portable or consumer wireless devices that are powered by batteries. These are also new options at the office as well as in the virtual home office. Acquisition of Covad Wireless Provides Firms With Fixed Wireless Backup Option TelePacific for example, recently acquired MegaPath Inc. s NextWeb, Inc. a subsidiary of Covad Wireless, a broadband fixed wireless carrier operating in California and Nevada. The purchase gives TelePacific control of approximately 3,500 profitable broadband fixed wireless business customers in California, Nevada and suburban Chicago. Customers will gain access to TelePacific s enhanced business services including converged voice and data networks in California and Nevada, and WAN capabilities globally. The broadband fixed wireless network allows TelePacific to offer quick-to-deploy wireless Internet, and reinforces its business continuity solutions with both wireless and wired network paths. 10

11 Conclusion With employee productivity top of mind, and competition intensifying on a seemingly daily basis, addressing your networking performance is an imperative to supporting business growth. In addition to voice and web connectivity, networks support mobile apps, access to mission critical enterprise applications and databases, and most importantly, the transference of data, voice and video files within the company and beyond the organization s four walls to supplier and business partners. By taking the time to evaluate and determine their optimal networking needs, companies are also taking proactive steps to manage risk, add security and ultimately, make employees more productive. In a business environment where speed-to-market is an absolute necessity, companies are now required to have a reliable network that is always on and scalable enough to support growing levels of data traffic. In the past, companies solved the need for speed by either paying for more bandwidth, which was often costly, or putting up with slow speed and jeopardizing productivity. By executing the four steps covered here, companies will be well on their way to diagnosing performance issues and understanding their true network needs, both for today and into the future. About TelePacific Communications provides services through a combination of switches and network infrastructure, including its own and leased robust fiber-optic network assets. Offering local and long distance voice, dedicated Internet access, private networking, data transport services, converged voice and Internet solutions, as well as mobile voice and data and wholesale services, TelePacific manages more than 38,000 customer accounts with more than 1.1 million access lines in service. For more information, visit 11