Given that everyday business activities are heavily reliant on technology, even minor network performance issues significantly impact business productivity, performance, profitability, and customer satisfaction. In 2023 91% of companies reported experiencing at least one outage quarterly. Two-thirds of these outages cost companies more than $100,000, so network monitoring and measuring network performance should be a top priority for all companies.
In this comprehensive guide, we will outline the principles of network performance monitoring, identify important network performance metrics to focus on, and provide actionable insights to maximize your company’s network performance.
What are Network Metrics?
The speed, dependability, effectiveness, and general health of a network are assessed using quantitative measurements called network metrics. IT teams can obtain important insights into issues by analyzing network traffic, gathering and examining metrics such as bandwidth, latency, packet loss, uptime are all effective methods to do this.
Network administrators measure and assess these metrics to identify issues, optimize IT infrastructure management, and pinpoint areas that require improvement.
Monitoring key network metrics provides three main benefits for businesses:
- Visibility: Metrics reveal network behavior and resource utilization, enabling IT teams with insights into their network infrastructure.
- Diagnostics: Unusual patterns or deviations from established thresholds in metrics can signal underlying network issues. Metrics help pinpoint exactly where problems originate.
- Optimization: By establishing network performance baselines and tracking metrics over time, teams can optimize their network for peak efficiency.
Why are Network Performance Metrics Important?
Businesses should measure network performance metrics for the following reasons:
- Maintain Business Continuity: By regularly monitoring network performance, IT teams can identify and address problems before they become outages, ensuring uninterrupted business-critical application availability.
- Enhance End-User Experience: Customers and staff expect dependable and fast network connectivity. Poor network performance is the top workplace technology issue, according to 51% of workers. Network performance monitoring metrics help guarantee stable, fast downloads, and seamless application performance, increasing user satisfaction
- Optimized Network Investments: Metrics analysis pinpoints areas for network infrastructure improvements. This enables IT teams to strategically invest in solutions that address weaknesses and improve network performance.
- Service Level Agreement Compliance: Measuring network performance metrics helps verify IT services meet specified requirements outlined in service level agreements (SLA’s). The key metrics defined in SLA’s are network uptime, latency, jitter, and packet loss thresholds
- Rapid Problem Isolation: Network performance metrics can help IT teams quickly identify the location and time problems occur, reducing troubleshooting time and improving time to resolution. Using these network performance metrics can reduce the technical issues that IT teams struggle to fix, which is around 60%.
- Capacity Planning: Historical network performance data helps forecast future infrastructure needs as network demands grow, assisting in capacity planning and supporting business growth.
What is Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)?
Network traffic analysis (NTA) uses ongoing network traffic monitoring to protect network assets and ensure network availability.
By identifying performance problems and anomalies, NTA tools enable IT teams to identify these issues and anomalies and take proactive measures to mitigate them. For example, network monitoring can detect and mitigate sudden traffic surges or large data transfers that could have a negative impact on network performance and availability.
Moreover, network monitoring tools play a crucial role in security by identifying and mitigating risks in order to enforce and maintain security standards. They scan for suspicious activity, flagging potential threats before they escalate into data breaches or system outages.
Monitoring systems assess the security of data by checking for vulnerable protocols or encryption ciphers and alerting administrators of security vulnerabilities. Using network monitoring tools to identify weaknesses in the network architecture allows IT teams to plan and implement strategies to fortify the network against potential attacks.
How Can Businesses Measure Network Performance?
In order to measure network performance effectively, businesses need network monitoring tools that provide:
- Network Visibility – Gain insight into all infrastructure and network traffic flows for accurate performance assessment.
- Metrics Collection – Collecting network performance metrics across the infrastructure forms baselines to distinguish normal vs. suboptimal operations.
- Analytics and Reporting – Analytics and reporting tools interpret network performance trends and drill down to specifics.
- Alerting – Trigger alerts when network performance metrics veer from baseline thresholds to ensure IT teams can address issues proactively.
- User Experience Simulation – With network performance metrics, IT staff can emulate user traffic to enhance end user experience and measure quality.
Network monitoring tools help administrators identify problems and make data-driven decisions to enhance network architecture and performance, which will help improve performance and end user experience.
Why Adopting Network Traffic Analysis is a Smart Choice?
For any organization, network traffic analysis is an excellent choice. Continuous data flows and dependable network performance are critical to modern business. By evaluating data flow, IT managers may improve network performance and make necessary adjustments.
Network traffic analysis is essential for modern businesses to maintain continuous data flow and reliable network performance, which are vital for any organization. IT managers can enhance network performance and implement necessary changes by analyzing data flow.
By implementing best practices to improve network security and performance, IT teams can increase the effectiveness and reliability of data flow across the network. Additionally, it will guarantee ongoing and seamless corporate operations.
Furthermore, it will ensure continuous and smooth business operations.
Additional benefits of network traffic analysis:
- Better Network Visibility: Network visibility tools create inventories of devices connected to the network, enabling companies to add new devices securely and secure network traffic to existing devices.
- Compliance: Businesses that monitor network traffic are well-placed to detect threats and safeguard customer data in line with GDPR and HIPAA regulations.
- Robust Performance: Continuous monitoring identifies technical issues that may impact the availability of applications and data centers, allowing IT teams to troubleshoot and resolve issues before downtime occurs.
- Capacity Planning: Engineers can model future network traffic loads and plan for smooth change management.
- Network Analysis: By leveraging monitoring logs, engineers can analyze network performance and identify solutions to improve speed and reliability. Additionally, monitoring provides the context necessary to investigate security incidents.
- Cost Reductions: Analyzing network traffic identifies redundant components and suggests efficient data routing strategies, thereby reducing networking costs.
Step-by-Step Guide
The following are the fundamental procedures for carrying out any kind of network analysis:
- Configuring the network analyst environment
- Adding a network dataset
- Creating the network analysis layer
- Adding network analysis objects
- Setting network analysis layer properties
- Performing the analysis and displaying the results
Step 1: Configuring the Network Analyst Environment
Network Analyst extension must be enabled before performing any network analysis. This will display both the Network Analyst toolbar and window. Detailed steps for this are covered in “Configuring the Network Analyst” environment section.
Step 2: Adding a Network Dataset
The next step is to add a network dataset layer. This may require building the network if it doesn’t already exist. If the source features have been edited or the referencing network attributes have changed, you will need to rebuild the network dataset.
Step 3: Creating the Network Analysis Layer
A network analysis layer functions as a storage area for the inputs, properties, and results of network analysis. It contains workspace in memory, which keeps network analysis classes for both input data and analysis results. The features and records within the network analysis classes are referred to as network analysis objects.
Some properties of the network analysis layer allow you to further define the problem you want to solve. Network analysis is always performed on network datasets. Consequently, a network analysis layer must be connected to a network dataset.
When creating a network analysis layer using a geoprocessing tool, the network dataset is designated as a tool parameter. The network dataset must be added before the creation of the analysis layer to enable the Network Analyst to bind the analysis layer to the network dataset.
Note:
When a network dataset is added, it is referred to as a network dataset layer, or simply a network layer. Network layers represent network datasets, whereas network analysis layers represent the inputs, properties, and results of network analysis.
There are six kinds of network analysis layers:
- Route analysis layer
- Closest facility analysis layer
- Service area analysis layer
- OD cost matrix analysis layer
- Vehicle routing problem analysis layer
- Location-allocation analysis layer
Step 4: Adding Network Analysis Objects
Network analysis objects are features and records that serve as both inputs and outputs during network analysis. Examples include stops, barriers, routes, and facilities.
You can add network analysis objects that can be added to input classes, but not to output-only classes. The solver is exclusively responsible for creating output-only network analysis objects. For example, within a route analysis layer, the route class is output only, so route objects can only be created by the solver.
There are different ways to add objects to classes. The two most commonly chosen options are: loading multiple features into a network analysis class simultaneously, or interactively adding one object at a time.
Step 5: Setting Network Analysis Layer Properties
In addition to object specific properties, the network analysis layer possesses properties that are more general to overall analysis. These general analysis properties include the network impedance attribute to be utilized and any restriction attribute that must be followed.
Additionally, there are properties that are unique to the kind of analysis being performed. All of these properties can be accessed and adjusted within the Layer Properties dialog box of an analysis layer.
Step 6: Performing the Analysis and Displaying the Results
After creating the analysis layer, adding the necessary input network analysis objects, and configuring the set of parameters for the analysis objects and analysis layer, it is time to solve the network problem.
Click the Solve button on the Network Analyst toolbar triggers the Network Analyst to generate the solution. This solution is then integrated into the network analysis layer. As a result, the output network analysis objects are created and the input/output objects are updated with results.
You can look at the map and double-click the network analysis objects in the Network Analyst window to inspect the results.
Conclusion
Analyzing network performance metrics is essential for maintaining a healthy and efficient network. By tracking KPIs & metrics, collecting relevant data, and establishing baseline performance, you can effectively track network health. Regular monitoring of throughput, latency, packet loss, and errors helps identify issues like congestion or bottlenecks.
Using tools for real-time analysis, coupled with root cause analysis, allows for pinpointing underlying problems. Continuous evaluation and reporting enable informed decisions on network optimization and improvement. Ultimately, proactive monitoring and troubleshooting ensure optimal network performance, minimize downtime, and enhance user experience.