Operating a large-scale WAN network in today’s business environment can be a strain not only on your server hardware and networking software, but also on your IT staff. The complexities that come with running a network and the hundreds, if not thousands of devices that come into play need to be managed efficiently in order for businesses to stay ahead. To keep your WAN network smoothly and minimise downtime, it’s essential to strike a balance between maintaining credible network reports and minimising the impact to your server’s performance.

Make sure your network reports are reliable

Maintaining credible reports on a local network is tricky enough in today’s bring-your-own-device work environment, and the implications are compounded when dealing with a large scale WAN network. It might seem obvious, but unless your reports are consistently accurate, it’s impossible to take any meaning from them.

Perform regular device audits across all your networks and check whether your network capacity plan needs to be adjusted to handle the amount of devices connected during peak times. It’s easy to underestimate the number of devices connected to your network, and the consequences to your reporting can be devastating.

Reports are no good unless you can read them

While your network reporting software is partially responsible for generating consistent reports, they’re of no use if your IT staff can’t decipher them. The amount of data involved in reporting on a large-scale WAN network can be intimidating to say the least, so reframing it in a more digestible format is strongly advised.

Opt for network reporting software that can generate visual reports on demand, and make sure your IT staff understand what they’re looking at. It’s often easier for people to process information when it’s presented visually, so the boost to your productivity should be significant.

Keep a birds-eye view of your network

Any IT engineer with experience in WAN networks knows the value of time. Collecting data from all ends of your network can waste valuable time and resources, so your network monitoring solution needs to fetch holistic organisation-wide data and display it in a central, easily accessible place.

Keeping an overview of your WAN network that provides a detailed log for errors, events, bottlenecks, developing trends and performance issues will allow you to easily identify problems and apply prompt solutions.

Strike the right balance between detail and performance

Having reliable reports on a WAN network is imperative, but the more you ask from your network monitoring software, the heavier the hit to your performance. Some software suites are more demanding on resources than others, so do your research and decide which works best for you.

Ideally, your monitoring software should have as little impact to your network overhead as possible – not only to keep bandwidth where it’s needed, but also to ensure that your monitoring software’s load on your sever doesn’t interfere with the accuracy of your reports.

Choose a software partner that works for you

Choosing a software partner that can cater to your needs is a decision that can’t be taken lightly, especially when operating a large scale WAN network. IRIS offers lightweight, non-intrusive network monitoring software that provides you with all the data you need, in a format that you can easily understand and use to make informed decisions.

Image credit: Expeditors

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