10 signs your IT network isn’t healthy

An efficiently operating IT infrastructure is one of the conditions for success in business for an organization. Smaller and larger downtimes or performance degradations caused by its malfunctioning generate costs. They can also cause a loss of image and even lead to the bankruptcy of the company. So what are the signs that your IT network is in trouble?

According to experienced IT administrators of AdRem Software, such signals can be divided into initial symptoms that are not necessarily a problem in itself but may signal negative trends. If you do not address them on time, they may spiral down to a major problem. Such innocently looking symptoms of network performance degradation include:

1. Network transfer slowing down
2. Excessive energy consumption
3. High load on components in network devices (most often processor, RAM)
4. High level of packet collision on the network
5. Interference in wifi networks

The above symptoms should be analyzed to check whether the devices in the network are efficient and adequately selected for their needs, whether applications and services have sufficient resources to operate smoothly.

In case of more severe symptoms, it is worth checking for potentially improper configuration, security breach, physical damage to the hardware infrastructure, or interruption of the connection. Such serious signals that you should pay attention to are:

1. Error messages on consoles of network devices (e.g., IP conflicts, STP loops)
2. High error rates for network device ports
3. Disconnecting RDP, HTTP sessions, etc.
4. General lack of connectivity to devices/computers on the network
5. Operator failure

Have you noticed any of these signals? To see the performance degradation, it is important to know the ‘normal’ level of your network devices, applications. Do you know what traffic patterns are, what average levels of your network key performance metrics are?

Review your network monitoring coverage, establish what is normal for your network, and keep monitoring to be the first to know about any anomaly, performance degradation, or device malfunction. Be the first to address an issue before it becomes a serious problem and threatens to slow your business down.