Business continuity is everything. In 2017, the need for 24/7 uptime is more pressing than ever with an increasing number of businesses working towards round the clock productivity in order to remain competitive in a digitised, globalised industry. However, as businesses place continually higher demands on their IT infrastructure, the cracks are beginning to show. In 2016, Dell’s EMC Global Data Protection Index found that 55% of Australian companies surveyed had suffered from unplanned system downtime in the last twelve months, and collectively lost over $US55 billion in data loss and downtime costs.

Of course, these figures don’t consider the enormous drain on productivity caused by poorly managed IT infrastructure. These costs could be as much as double or triple the costs associated with downtime, as so many companies choose to limp along for years with inefficient systems rather than invest what they assume will be an exorbitant amount of money in upgrading their hardware. Ironically, many businesses cost themselves more this way in lost productivity as a lot of the time, common network inefficiencies can be overhauled through professional IT management, cloud solutions, and a well-planned IT infrastructure rather than through hardware replacement. This week we look at eight classic network inefficiencies which can easily be eliminated to boost the productivity and ultimately the profits of your business.

Slow internet

Symptoms

Classic signs of your internet failing to meet the operational needs of your business include:

• Jittery or lagging VoIP connection as well as low quality video/audio calls
• Difficulty accessing web based applications
• Long download and upload times

Most common causes

• High firewall load, not intelligent Firewall appliance
• Inefficient endpoint management results in a user on the network downloading music, videos, smartphone updates
• Weak Wireless Access Points with no traffic shaping
• Packet loss due to a poor queuing strategy, a lack of buffering during traffic bursts or a lack of bandwidth
• Poor network planning resulting in network bottlenecks
• Physical or DataLink errors impacting link or interface stability
• Routing protocols are not making optimum routing decisions due to an incorrect serial bandwidth setting
• No QoS means important traffic is not prioritised during periods of congestion
• Outdated QoS due to a change in business priorities or needs
• Packets taking wrong or inefficient paths in the network due to route flaps

Solution

As you can see from the list above, most of the causes of underperforming internet relate to the types of policies and strategies put in place to manage it. In these cases, improving internet efficiency in your network comes down to proper management and monitoring. Having these capabilities will enable you to recalibrate the internet connection in your business and continuously monitor it to quickly identify and mitigate issues before they compromise network function and the employees’ user experience. If your in-house IT team lacks the skills or resources to properly manage and monitor your internet, the best solution is to invest in the services of an IT managed services provider who will provide around the clock monitoring and management undertaken by qualified network engineers.

Hardware failure

Symptoms

The number one cause of downtime for small businesses, hardware failure is both predictable and preventable. Some of the classic signs of hardware failure on a desktop include unexplained freezes, startup with system checkup, bluescreens, floating pixels or a blurry screen, random shutdowns. In the case of a server, signs of failure can include random crashes, file system issues and command line freezes.

Most common causes

• The environmental limits of the network are exceeded (i.e. fan failure, power supply issues, overheating)
• Poor hardware maintenance practices (i.e. in the case of server maintenance- failure to regularly perform maintenance on storage drives, CPUs, motherboards and RAM
• Time/age/use/engineered obsolescence

Solution

Although all physical hardware eventually degrades, it doesn’t necessarily mean downtime for your business. The hardware lifespan for servers and desktops is predictable, so hardware failure generally only occurs when a business fails to monitor, log and properly maintain their hardware. If this is the case, then the best way to avoid failure relating to hardware failure is to outsource the management and maintenance of your IT infrastructure to a managed services provider.

Mobile accessibility limitations

Symptoms

For most modern businesses, the ability to work remotely with mobile technology is essential to remain competitive in a digitised, globalised environment. Mobile accessibility issues refer to the difficulty employees can have accessing their desktop environment remotely.

Most common causes

• Poor mobile device management
• Legacy system restrictions (network is not optimised for mobile use)

Solution

Cloud desktop is the best way to improve the mobile accessibility of your network as it allows users to access their desktop environment from any device, making the transition from office to remote working seamless. Any company seeking to increase the mobile accessibility of their network should also invest in mobile device management services to ensure the security, visibility and consistency of their network.

Incomplete backup/data loss

Symptoms

After an event, such as a server crash or ransomware attack, your network backup is either compromised or incomplete. This results in significant downtime and loss of productivity as your company scrambles to recover data fragments.

Most common causes

• Absence of proper backup outside the network resulting in data loss and significant downtime in the instance of a server crash/power failure/hardware failure/theft or a natural disaster
• Lax data security procedures resulting in viruses and malware making their way into the network and destroying/compromising files
• System timing problems
• Resource conflicts

Solution

In most situations, creating a parallel network backup on the cloud and establishing strong backup policies is the most effective way to protect your data. Aside from cloud backup, proper network management and monitoring is crucial to data protection, integrity and prevention. If you find you are losing data because of hardware or software failure, your network infrastructure needs to be assessed and overhauled.

Slow computers

Symptoms

The signs of a slow running computer will be obvious to the end user and include start-up taking over a minute, as well as applications being sluggish to load.

Most common causes

• Aging hardware
• Lack of network resources (lack of space)
• Inefficient user management policies
• Failure to employ quality of service policies
• Packet loss due to either a lack of bandwidth, a lack of buffering during traffic bursts or a lack of bandwidth
• Network bottlenecks resulting from poor network planning

Solution

Given the variety of problems that can be attributed to slow running computers, it’s important to first pinpoint the issue through a professional audit. If it does transpire that the computer itself is the cause, then a simply memory upgrade is all that’s required. Another common cause of computer slowness in a commercial context is the use of a large system application or tool that is too much for the network to handle. In many instances, businesses are using these large applications unnecessarily and they can be replaced with something ‘lighter’ and more efficient, thus avoiding the need for costly hardware upgrades.

Unexpected system failures

Symptoms

If your network is functioning properly, spontaneous hardware crashes should be a rare event, so if weekly crashes are occurring, it’s a sign that something is seriously wrong and about to get a whole lot worse. Other common signs associated with a failing system include file system issues such as the file system going to read-only for no apparent reason and random system command line freezes.

Most common causes

• Aging hardware
• The environmental limits of the network are exceeded (i.e. fan failure, power supply issues, overheating) causing a device to reboot
• Memory is being eaten up by a bug in the operating system. When there is no more free memory, the device will reboot
• Redundant connections marked as administratively up, but are operationally down that fail as a backup

Solution

Whilst frequent and unexplained system failures can sometimes be put down to viruses, they are more commonly a sign of failing hardware. If your hardware has got to the point where it is failing multiple times a week, then complete hardware failure is imminent. In this situation, you will need to begin backing up and migrating to a new server or cloud immediately to avoid significant downtime. If your company is in this position, then cloud migration may be a viable way to improve the flexibility, scalability and performance of your network, without having to invest heavily in new hardware.

Lost configuration

Symptoms

Configuration loss will be obvious to a user as soon as they start up their computer, as all of the saved settings will have been wiped.

Most common causes

• Having an unsaved configuration (i.e. configuration not backed up on the cloud) will cause it to be lost if the network needs to reboot
• Improperly set configuration register leads to the router bypassing the start-up configuration

Solution

Whilst most businesses backup their data, they often fail to back up the system configurations that allow their office to operate, so in the event of a crash, they still face significant downtime even if they have stored their data separately. Ideally backup should include what is known as a parallel environment, where the system configurations are also saved to the backup location. Configuration can be further simplified with the introduction of virtual desktop infrastructure, also known as cloud desktop. Virtualization allows businesses to provide their endpoint users with a preconfigured desktop environment taken from a ‘golden image’ stored on the cloud. Aside from enabling businesses to provide endpoint users with a consistent environment and cutting down on the need for endpoint users to have a running knowledge of the technology to use it effectively, virtualization makes it easy to setup new desktop environments as the business grows.

Ransomware/malware/DDoS attacks

Symptoms

Many of the inefficiencies we have discussed above can be caused by cyber-criminal activities, and need to be properly diagnosed by a network engineer. The table below lists the most common symptoms associated with these three types of attacks.

Most common causes

• Saved configurations failing to meet company policy
• Poor firewall performance because of a bloated firewall rule set
• Open, unused rules/ACL entries
• The presence of unauthorised devices on the network via a downstream hub or switch
• Lack of user education leaving endpoint users vulnerable to social engineering
• Poorly managed user roles

Solution

If your network has been impacted by cyber-criminal activities, it’s a sure sign that your network security has one or more vulnerabilities, which need to be identified and mitigated. To do this, most businesses will need to undertake a security audit or possibly penetration testing to identify network weaknesses. Next, a multifaceted security strategy needs to be developed and deployed encompassing endpoint security, cloud backup, user education and IT management.

If your office IT is constantly struggling with these kinds of inefficiencies, then it’s likely that your system is outdated. Upgrading your IT network will enable it to effectively manage the workload of your office, protect your data assets, and ultimately improve productivity. If you want to explore upgrading your IT network, get in touch with an AWD network engineer today by calling 1300 855 651.