Speed. That’s the name of the game. And if you don’t get your mojo on, you’ll certainly be laughing at the wrong side of your mouth as a business.
Because consumers have a low attention span, if they don’t get hooked right away they are probably not coming back. For instance, statistics indicate that if it takes more than three seconds for your website to load, more than 50% of your visitors would call it quits on you. Poor network performance ultimately robs you of a huge bottom-line but not without first causing inefficiencies within your workflow.
That’s why your network’s performance is pivotal to ensuring a high conversion rate and ROI. Here are three tips to ensure your network is performing at an optimum level.
Update or Upgrade
If your network is trudging at a snail’s pace, chances are, an overhaul is overdue. For most networks, outdated software or firmware may be the underlying cause. In such cases, an update would be necessary to ensure network doesn’t lag or malfunction.
On the other hand, your whole system may not be able to keep up because it’s outmoded. Surely, you won’t be able to make progress if your IT infrastructure is antiquated. While it may involve expenses – often huge expenses – it’s a worthwhile investment. Thankfully, erstwhile expensive and rare fiber-optic networks have gained grounds and have become easily accessible.
Check for Malware
Malicious software, otherwise known as Malware can easily shackle your network. From viruses, worms, Trojans, botnets to rootkits, malware can be used to steal sensitive data, invade emails, infect a system and even hand over remote access and control to an attacker. A dutiful examination of your system can divulge any such malware that may be eating up your system so that the appropriate action can be taken.
Employee Training
Employees need to be acquainted with networking protocols
Your network may be acting up because employees may be tampering with it, perhaps unknowingly. You never know when your employee is playing a game, streaming from Netflix or making downloads that can slow your entire system. That’s why it is crucial to ensure employees are well-versed in the protocols guiding the use of networks.
Your IT team should develop a protocol that guides employees on everything IT from passwords to sending files. This ensures employees are kept in the loop and are not vulnerable to things such as phishing attacks.
Network Monitoring
The almost clichéd saying “the best attack is defense,” still rings true. To stay ahead, you need to always be one step ahead. In other words, to ensure your network is always at an optimum, you cannot do without network monitoring.
Keeping tabs on the performance of applications, ins and outs of staff, potential hacks and invasions as well as the use of data (data visibility) ensures niggling problems are nipped in the bud. Data visibility, whether it’s throughput vs bandwidth, is crucial to ensuring traffic or jams in a network are avoided.
In a Sum
There are some things in business performance that are a given. If your network performs poorly, your bottom-line is bound to follow. So as a business or an IT department, optimizing network performance should always be top on your priorities.
However, solving network problems is not just a matter of tossing money at the problem. Instead, conduct a thorough examination of your IT infrastructure and figure out if an update or upgrade is required. Other actions such as employee training and network monitoring are important steps that help arrest any challenges.
