Organizations invest in network dependent applications SharePoint, Salesforce, WebEx and Office 365 on the promise that they will improve employee productivity, operational efficiency and drive business success. However, these applications can only move as fast as the network allows. Time and time again IT receives complaints about slow applications, poor video and voice quality or even getting dropped from customer conference calls.

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While the functionality of business-critical apps is completely dependent on the network they run on, what affects performance can vary from one day to the next. In this blog we will outline 3 common application issues and why improving performance can’t be done with a one size fits all solution.

Scenario 1: Unified Communications

Unified communications applications like Skype for Business, Cisco and Avaya have become vital business tools, allowing employees to connect with each other anytime, anywhere. However, these apps are only useful with high-quality voice and video. When too many users jump on GoToMeeting at the same time, or recreational Internet users drain network resources, the performance of these applications deteriorates.

Solution: Monitor and Prioritize
Unlike traditional applications, unified communications apps cannot be accelerated or compressed. In order to ensure users experience perfect call and video quality, network managers must monitor, prioritize and protect business critical applications.

  • Monitor and analyze network traffic and identify which users and applications are hogging network bandwidth and impeding key app performance
  • Prioritize your unified communications apps and ensure they have the bandwidth they need to ensure consistent and reliable voice and video quality at all times

Scenario 2: File Sharing and Back-Up

From collaboration and sharing to backup and recovery – there are numerous business benefits when it comes to file sharing and storage in the cloud. However, a poorly timed 5GB file transfer during peak hours can congest your network, causing poor performance of key applications that are crucial to day-to-day business operations.

Solution: Acceleration
The performance of your business-critical applications depends on your ability to compress and accelerate network traffic. In order to ensure your users experience reliable and lightening fast performance, you must set policies to accelerate your most important apps.

  • Ensure large data transfers have the bandwidth they need but never at the expense of other business applications
  • Strategically time file sharing and reduce the amount of data transfers during business hours to eliminate network latency and ensure key apps are always fast

Scenario 3: Recreational Network Traffic

Recreational traffic not only affects workplace productivity, but it also drives enormous amounts of unwanted traffic over the network. Whether your employees are streaming the most recent Apple keynote or watching the latest viral video on YouTube, recreational Internet activity creates application delays and a great deal of frustration amongst your employees.

Solution: Control and Contain
To ensure optimal performance of your most important applications during business hours, you need to orchestrate your network to control and contain all recreational traffic.

  • Place limits on the amount of recreational traffic that can be consumed during business hours
  • Create policies that guarantee bandwidth to your business critical applications like SharePoint or GoToMeeting

You have made significant investments in network dependent applications with the promise they would drive business success. Take control by monitoring, prioritizing and accelerating the applications most important to your business and achieve the application performance you were promised and that your employees expect.

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