The Causes of Network Bottlenecking and How You Can Overcome It

As a small or medium-sized business, your network is one of your most valuable assets. It allows your team to access information and applications in a quick and convenient way. However, your network is a very sensitive thing, and even the slightest change in its speed or nature can be a sign of negative things to come; namely, expensive downtime that can potentially harm your operations and break your budget.

A troubled network often presents significant problems for businesses. It can hinder operations, but it’s not entirely unbeatable. Here’s how you can identify network congestion, what some common causes are, and what you can do about it.

What is Network Congestion and Bottlenecking?
Network congestion is when your network deals with so much traffic that your operations grind to a halt. This can easily happen, especially if your business is dealing with unprecedented growth, or simply more network access than anticipated. Bottlenecking, on the other hand, is when data flow is restricted somehow. This could be from a restriction of resources, or if your network doesn’t have enough bandwidth to support the amount of data that’s being transferred with it.

What Can Cause It
Network congestion is a serious problem that might not have a simple cause. If your organization has experienced growth, and your network hasn’t evolved to accommodate this change, it could be getting hit with much more traffic than it was originally designed to. This unexpected traffic can be holding your growing business back from maximizing its bottom line.

If your network congestion isn’t caused by too much traffic, it could either be the result of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, in which a network or server is bombarded with enough traffic to take it down, or it could be the result of faulty network equipment. Even something like a failing network card could hamper your network significantly.

What You Can Do About It
One of the easiest ways to keep your network from experiencing crippling downtime is to plan for and accommodate growth of all kinds. This means that you need to take into account how many devices will be accessing your network at any given time, and how much data will need to be transferred during peaks. Once you’ve determined the maximum amount of bandwidth you’ll need, you should then go above and beyond that. Doing so will help to ensure that even under the worst circumstances, you’ll have a chance of beating downtime caused by network congestion.

Horne & Benik has the skills necessary to help your business get its network back into tip-top shape. Our trusted technicians can help you optimize your network for minimal downtime. We can perform what’s called a network audit, in which we analyze your network for any congestion or bottlenecks that can be remedied. To schedule your network consultation, give us a call at (603) 499-4400.