As your organization grows, so does your network, expanding and developing across your infrastructure. With ever-larger networks, it is impossible to know exactly what is occurring on all fronts. Right now, in this moment, do you know every subset of your infrastructure? How is each part managed? What about your performance, processes, and security?
Running a growing network without performing a network assessment is a lot like cooking with your eyes closed. You’ve got all of your ingredients…somewhere. You know what they each add to the dish, how they enhance it–and even though you know how many servings you want to make, you’re just not sure if you have enough… or if what you have is proportionally balanced, if it is really adding the right flavor…
Instead of risking the integrity of the meal–your network–open your eyes: undertake a network assessment.
Tell me: what is a network assessment?
A network assessment reviews your existing structure, and comprehensively assesses the organization and productivity of your performance, management, security, and processes, helping to determine what solutions best yield greater efficiency, and a smoother functioning, of your infrastructure and overall network.
A network assessment will:
- Catch underused resources and overused resources, helping you to redistribute resources where they are needed.
- Identify areas where bandwidth is congested and provide relief.
- Fix any security holes that might threaten, weaken, or otherwise negatively impact your network operations.
- Review your network’s actual configuration, helping you maximize present efficiency, and plan for the growth of the future.
Fixing bottlenecks ensures you have all of your ingredients. Balancing resources ensures all of your ingredients add exactly the right flavor. Buffering your security ensures your meal won’t burn. Appropriately adapting the configuration of your network ensures you have enough of everything you need.
So, when do I need a network assessment?
TIf your organization is about to shift, adapt, or change your network structure, you will want to perform a network assessment. Shifting your structure to the cloud? We recommend a network assessment. Planning a large roll-out? We recommend a network assessment. Your organization has recently grown and your network has been disorganized, mismanaged, or otherwise structurally ignored? Your stove is on fire, and your meal is burning, and if you want to salvage your ingredients, and the hours you’ve spent crafting, it is now or never… Get yourself a network assessment–you’ll never have a fire again.
here are a few signs that indicate you should absolutely pursue a network assessment. You will want a network assessment if you are experiencing:
Performance issues
Your network is slow, sluggish, and temperamental–a network assessment will hone-in on the source of the issue and permanently resolve the problem.
Unusual amounts of viruses/malware
You’re experiencing frequent glitches, and your security is so breached that viruses and malware are infiltrating with greater ease–a network assessment will enhance your security, and buffer your infrastructure against future complications, preventing the worsening of an unchecked problem.
Frustration in the ranks
Your organization is frantic and frazzled, your workers can’t conduct successful video-chats, email is freezing, functions aren’t working, databases are disorganized, and communication is disintegrating, causing headaches and stress for everyone involved–a network assessment will enhance the performance of your infrastructure, develop better organization, and ensure the smooth effectiveness of your organization.
Upgrades/Expansion
You are about to upgrade, expand, or otherwise adapt your network–now is the perfect time to undergo a network assessment to ensure that your new system will be the best system it can be.
Anxiety about the future
You don’t know what’s going on in the intricate facets of your network, your infrastructure is complicated and sprawling, you’re disorganized, you worry about security and performance, you worry your network doesn’t have the foundational strength to carry your organization into the future–a network assessment will ensure you’re organized, efficiently structured and managed, as well as anticipate all future problems so you can feel confident in your organization’s future.
A desire to save money
Spending money on a network assessment now will save you the headache, stress, and even greater expenses of salvaging a costly, complicated, and deeply-rooted problem later on.
Okay, okay, but how much will it cost me?
Do not shy away from a network assessment because you’re worried about the price. When you let your network go unmanaged, the problems and complications of your infrastructure are exacerbated. Your network will need to be assessed at some point. The sooner you have a network assessment conducted, the more efficiently your issues will be resolved, better preparing you for future operations and growth.
Alright: a network assessment keeps my “house” from “burning down.” But how does it help with planning?
A network assessment will reorganize and restructure your infrastructure so it can best adapt to your vision of the future. By ensuring your network is appropriately structured and balanced, your infrastructure can continue to grow and shoulder all of your anticipated needs. A network assessment can also catch problem areas, revealing existing problems as well as issues that might develop. Catching these potential problems before they’re actually problems ensures your organization runs strongly and efficiently.
A network assessment will also give you a cleaner, more accurate picture of where your organization stands right now. This helps you adapt your plans so your present tasks can effectively grow into your vision of the future. You won’t only be in charge of what you want your network to be, but how you want it to get there.
A network assessment ensures you truly know your network: all the in’s-and-out’s, the how’s and the why’s. Your network assessment report will extrapolate new security strategies and adjust for risk–meaning you aren’t only preparing and planning, you’re providing protection. When a network is assessed, you’re protecting your infrastructure from future danger and complications. Having the utmost confidence in your network means you can plan bigger and better.
I know I need a network assessment. Who’s the right guy for the job?
The most useful network assessments come from enlisting a professional network assessment. Employing an unbiased, outside perspective can provide great value and insight to the workings of your network, and when that perspective comes from a knowledgeable, expert professional you are sure to receive an assessment that best fulfills your needs and precisely addresses your problems.
A professional network assessment will:
- Provide an accurate understanding of your network’s strengths and weaknesses
- Precisely identify sources of any interference, bottlenecks, and congestion
- Thoroughly identify flaws in network design and provide effective solutions
- Enhance any strengths of your current network design
- Assess the capabilities of your network, and adjust plans accordingly
- Catch out of date hardware, or malfunctioning hardware, that is slowing your network and weakening your security
- Prevent data breaches and security breaches by rectifying your vulnerabilities
- Assess types of connections used, and provide more efficient options
- Install superior, more sophisticated devices that will enhance performance, connectivity, hardware, and overall efficiency
- Create a stronger norm, or baseline, for your everyday performance
- Establish infrastructure thresholds that provide notifications of problems, complications, or breaches
- Help you intimately understand and manage your inventory
- Update any part of your system that may be outdated
- Block devices or connections that have been assessed as unsafe
Once your professional network assessment is completed, you will be provided a thorough, comprehensive documentation of all findings. This document will prepare you to make future decisions regarding your budget and network administration, and will provide recommendations for initiatives, updates, and upgrades.
Then what? What happens after my professional network assessment?
Once your professional network assessment has been completed, and you’ve reviewed the comprehensive report, it is time to implement changes. From here, you get to create and improve–correcting weaknesses and creating new strengths. You can move forward with great confidence, because you know your network was assessed by a professional and nothing was missed. After completing this important process, you and your company will revel in your organization’s newfound efficiency, effectiveness, safety, and speed.
Want to get started with your professional network assessment? Network Depot is here for you. We can offer you superior, experienced network assessments. When you pursue a network assessment with Network Depot, you are providing your company with a strong, reliable, and expert resource. We will ensure your infrastructure runs at premier efficiency, improving your company’s network and overall operations.