6 Industry Secrets For Optimizing Your Network Functionality

A strong network is much like a healthy heart for a modern business. It facilitates work, prevents problems from occurring, and aids in expanding your business even as you upgrade software and hardware components.

The problem is that many businesses have networks that function as anything but optimal. They maintain numerous flaws that only hurt any efforts they make to expand their business.

Let's take a look as six industry secrets to optimizing your network. We'll look at everything from simple fixes to the types of applications you should employ to keep your network running smoothly.

1. Check for Failing Hardware

Although it may seem to be otherwise, machines do have lifespans. You can't expect them to continue working free of flaws forever.

One of the most common problems that plague networks is failing hardware. Hardware failures can be incredibly difficult to spot, considering how there are varying degrees of network hardware failure.

For example, a router may stop working completely. It will generally give a solid error message that states something has made it stop functioning completely.

It's when a router functions erratically without failing completely that hardware problems can degrade your network's quality. That's why you should regularly have your network inspected from top to bottom for problematic hardware.

2. Use Custom Settings

No two networks are identical. That is why the standard router setup that works for home environments may be insufficient for business environments.

Your business may have more app-based or have VoIP traffic, for instance. A network administrator should handle these transmissions differently to ensure that your network quality does not degrade.

You can generally optimize your network for different types of traffic by utilizing the “Quality of Service” (QoS) settings of your router.

3. Prioritize Traffic

Operations such as web surfing can deal with a few seconds of extra transmission time when that surfing occurs outside of your business's needs. Traffic that deals with customer service and support desks should always have priority within your network.

This circumstance is when prioritizing your network traffic comes in handy. Doing so can ensure that the most important traffic is received first.

VoIP, virtual faxes, video conferences and live-streaming media should all have priority over outside network traffic. This will ensure your business runs smoothly.

4. Consider Using the Cloud

Cloud software is one of the greatest developments that business has ever seen. The software can be loaded on almost any piece of hardware that supports the underlying architecture.

Given that this architecture is usually web-based, even mobile phones capable of displaying web pages can have access to the same applications that drive your business.

Integrating Citrix Xenapp 6 with your business can enable you to use cloud-based applications and file management. This can free up some of the strain from your network by allowing employees to use their own Internet connections to access applications through several devices and operating systems.

5. Assign Static IPs

Machines connected to your network by a wired connection should generally have a static IP. This makes setting up routing tables, forwarding ports, and performing other actions significantly easier and faster because the device is responsible for acquiring an IP address that remains static.

You may even consider limiting your dynamic address pool and assigning mobile devices, such as laptops and tablets, static IP addresses based on their logical groups. This can cut down on conflicts that arise within your network, which in turn optimizes it for performance.

6. Plan for Mobile Devices

Using mobile devices for work, and even the concept of bringing your own device to work, are two things that businesses should begin planning for now. Gartner estimates 70% of professionals will use their own mobile devices at work by 2018. Mobile devices take a fair amount of planning to get right. You need to configure your network and ensure that it can handle many small devices.

If your network can't, then these devices may overload single routers before causing problems elsewhere. Given that these devices will grow in number, now is the time to begin optimizing for them.

Perfecting Your Business's Network Design

The six tips listed here should be more than enough to begin optimizing your network. They should point you in the right direction and ensure that your network remains optimized enough to handle the increased traffic you might see in just a few years.