Protect Your Investment & Stay Productive With Proactive Network Management

I bet most of you don’t wake up in the middle of the night sweating about Internet Bandwidth – my team and I do.

Over the course of the last few years, the Internet and connectivity have become one of the most important topics of business conversations.

Why, you ask?

Today, almost every organization uses the Internet and its associated bandwidth for mission-critical applications. Companies are using cloud based-applications ranging environmental control systems (thermostats) and billing software, to ERPs and Shop Floor Control systems.

Software manufacturers and the users of these systems (you and your employees) have become completely dependent on Internet availability. We expect it from jacks on the wall and from Wi-Fi systems, and we’re lost without it. Even a little blip in business Internet performance today interrupts voice calls, manufacturing production, billing, warehouse management, distribution systems, medical office patient processing, etc.

In the beginning of the personal computer (PC) revolution, network management and control were completely thrown out the window. Why? Because big corporate systems (and the big IT departments that ran them) controlled everything. Then the PC revolution came in and saved us all from the corporate IT department’s overreach (that’s how almost every user felt).

The problem is, we desperately need now what we threw out a while back.

We now have systems that rely on the Internet, and we need them to perform without fail. In today’s Internet-dependent and socially connected world, the Internet and network need to be managed closely, or someone on YouTube could keep your ERP or warehouse management system from working!

So, what do we do? Why does this keep me awake?

Because network performance is generally the responsibility of the IT department or IT service provider. We can protect the network with the tools we have by separating the critical stuff – like VoIP phone systems, cloud ERP systems, and Wi-Fi. But the challenge is that the network equipment used by many small and midsize businesses today isn’t sophisticated enough to take advantage of this.

The good news is, it’s possible. Planning is the key.

We need to start planning as soon as possible for equipment and software that allow for system protection and application segregation. That way, your business keeps running, even when someone is downloading a giant file!

Let’s keep business and the Internet rolling!