Many businesses nowadays cannot function at all without their computer systems – information technology infrastructure and networks have become an integral part of working life for many businesses. Network performance issues are less dramatic, but can have just as big an impact in the long term as the more spectacular and memorable system crashes. As our computing environment evolves, there are several trends which are having an enormous influence on network performance management. We look at exactly what performance means, and how to circumvent the impact of the rise of web-based applications to maintain optimal network speed and reliability.
Business information networks are often likened to the transport arteries of a major city. Some data must wait for others to take their turn, as at traffic lights, there are some fast flowing areas and some slow flowing areas, and limited capacity in critical areas can create bottlenecks of information or traffic. Linking this analogy to network performance management, while there are many stops along the way, performance is best measured by end user experience, or how quickly a car can travel from its origin to its destination.
Your Asian IT consultants will design your network, or data transport system, with a specific pattern of traffic flow in mind. When that flow changes, the transport system must also change. Luckily this is a little easier than tearing down and remaking a city’s road system! One factor which information technology consultants have seen having an impact on network performance management more and more recently, is the move to web based applications, rather than server or client based ones. Oracle, Siebel and SAP are some examples of the web based applications that are becoming more popular in organizations. Web-based applications have many benefits, including cross platform compatibility, there is no installation required and therefore no hard drive space or administrator authentication for installation, software costs are much lower and updating is a simple process. However, traditional network architecture doesn’t allow for the specific traffic flows and protocols that web-based software calls for.
Asian IT consultants and network performance monitors consistently see end-user performance suffering due to the rich content and the jumbled prioritization of tasks, when networks expect high priority tasks to be completed over the server, rather than the internet.
SaaS (Software as a Service) and any of the multitude of Web 2.0 applications give your business enormous opportunities and capability, but do call for a reassessment of information technology infrastructure and network design.
Before engaging your Asian IT consultants, it pays to evaluate your own performance in terms of end user experience. Which applications and tasks can be completed in satisfactory time, and which require dead time? Put this information together with network performance monitoring data, and you can enjoy all of the benefits of web-based applications, without the drawbacks.
Datacraft Asia – The leading independent IT Security Consulting firm Asia . Datacraft combines an expertise in operations, integration and security of network communications and data storage solution asia to craft IT solutions for businesses.