Managing and Maintaining Complex Networks

IT is extremely important for not just enterprises, but small businesses as well. IT administrators are able to save businesses a considerable sum just by monitoring and maintaining network infrastructures. By carefully looking after systems, downtime can be reduced, leading to more resources being available for other purposes. Of course, considering the fact that an organization’s network can quickly grow far beyond expectations, this task becomes much easier said than done.

What Makes a Complex Network?
Computers are by no means simple things. If you’ve ever tried to administer even basic maintenance without knowing the details, then you know this is a task best handled by professionals who dedicate their working lives to understanding these complex machines. Traditionally, the workplace infrastructure is made up of centralized servers, which are then connected to endpoints (workstations) and networking components. These machines all communicate with one another toward your business’ end-goal. The Internet makes this even easier, as networks can rely on the Internet for data dispersal, but security takes a hit for this convenience.

Going even further, the more endpoints that you hook up to a network make it more complex. Think about all of the workstations, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other devices that all have access to your organization’s data. It quickly becomes a major issue for organizations that are constantly growing. Keep in mind that this doesn’t even include data that’s stored in virtual environments, like cloud platforms and websites.

Network Monitoring Best Practices
There are many network monitoring best practices, but we want to mention first that it’s much easier to trust the security of your network professionals. Not only does it save countless hours on your end, but it also improves security overall by having trained professionals on the task at hand. Our managed IT services solution is a great way to make sure that your network remains maintained, even under the worst of circumstances.

5 Monitoring Practices to Consider

1. Pay Attention: If you can keep your network healthy, you’ll be sure to suffer from fewer system errors. This type of proactive maintenance is made easier if you are paying attention to issues on your infrastructure so they can be resolved before they become major problems.
2. Find an Overreaching Solution: End-to-end monitoring can help you focus less on individual parts of your network, taking a look at the whole picture rather than just a fraction of it. You want a solution that can be used on both a wireless and wired network, as well as virtual and physical environments, databases, and applications. It should support all the necessary protocols and languages as well, on all types of different devices.
3. Optimize Bandwidth: Data flow bottlenecks are major issues that can get in the way of your business’ tools being used effectively. You should be monitoring bandwidth levels to keep this from becoming a problem.
4. Prepare to Scale: Scalability is incredibly important for modern businesses, as you can never know when you need to make changes to improve productivity or data access. You should be able to scale up or down to meet your business’ specific needs at any point in the near future.
5. Ensure Your Solution is Flexible: When selecting a monitoring platform, be sure that it offers flexibility in its licensing models. This should allow it to be used on many different types of devices and applications.

Horne & Benik’s IT professionals can hook you up with the best monitoring and management network tools on the market. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 499-4400.