Map Out Your Network’s Growing Pains

Business growth is a double edged sword. It is great that you are increasing revenue, but you now have to deal with growing pains. These growing pains are often felt with your technology. Is your network cobbled together with random computers and your wires are one big tangle ball? Preferred can help relieve these IT growing pains with network mapping.

In hindsight, maybe you should have planned your technology expansion better; then you would not be facing this scary jumble of Ethernet cords. But hindsight is 20/20 and now you must deal with these growing pains. You could spend hours untangling it yourself, tracing every wire back to the source, although, about halfway through the project you might get the urge to make a noose out of your wires and end your misery...by going wireless. Don't let IT growing pains push you over the edge. Give Preferred a call and have our skilled technicians make sense of your mess.

Mapping networks for businesses is a little more involved than playing connect the dots on a restaurant placemat. There are several networking tools that are used to integrate auto network discovery with network mapping. Network mapping techniques like route analytics and simple network management protocol (SNMP) make it possible to visualize and understand the relationships between end devices and the transport layers that provide service.

Through this mapping process, computer components that slow down networks are identified. This process can also be used to discover if your hardware is underutilized; for example, you may have the hardware capability to virtualize your servers in order to reduce the amount of servers running on your network. Whatever the hardware needs of your network are, we can provide you with hardware solutions that will best fit the needs of your business while working around a price plan that you can afford--because fixing painful problems should not be painful to your budget.

Having a network mapped out for maximum efficiency will make everything run smoother, but even if all of your hardware is mapped out perfectly, it can all be undone with a software security threat like a computer virus. When we design networks for our clients, we can also strengthen network security with an optional procedure called pentesting. Also known as penetration testing, this a process that evaluates the security of a network by simulating a virus attack to discover the parts of the network and firewall that are vulnerable. Pentesting discovers weak points that your network may have; this allows us to go in and shore up your vulnerable spots so that any future attacks will be unsuccessful and not derail your company's growth.

Once your IT infrastructure is secure, mapped properly, and equipped with the correct equipment, your technology will be running at maximum efficiency and your growing pain will be relieved. One service that we offer that will ensure that your network will be able to handle future growth, and not become a tangled mess once again, is our IT consulting service. After a smooth running network is established, we will then create an IT roadmap to prepare you for your future IT expansion. Using an IT roadmap, we will analyze how fast your company is growing, and accurately estimate how many additional servers, workstations, and software licenses you will need in the next few years, and then work with you in order to plan accordingly. An IT roadmap will set you up for pain free growth on the technology side of your business for years to come.

Of course, rarely does a growth spurt happen without pain. From time-to-time, your computers will have hiccups, and you will require a service call. It is these future service calls where a properly mapped out network really pays off, because now visits from our technicians will be short and to the point. With an intimate knowledge of how your network is designed, we will know exactly how to find problems and be able to quickly find a solution.

Additionally, if a well-designed and managed network is coupled with Preferred's remote monitoring and maintenance service, then a physical visit from a technician will become a rare sight. This is because we will be able to remotely catch and correct IT issues before they are able to cause enough damage to warrant a service call.

Having a growing business guarantees that you will encounter growing pains, but the more prepared you are for growth, the less painful your expansion will be, and the more you can enjoy the fruits of your labor. If your business is growing and you feel like the mess of your network is holding you back, then give Preferred a call at 708-781-7110. We can evaluate your network and point out the spots that are bottlenecking your growth. We can also run a free security scan on your network to look for vulnerabilities, and provide you with technology solutions that will strengthen your IT infrastructure. Preferred will do everything we can to alleviate your IT growing pains so that you can dedicate more time to growing your business.