In the course of the year, there are dates that network admins circle on their calendar as potential danger points; Cyber Monday, March Madness, the Olympics and other live events that occur during the workday. These admins understand that on these days, they’ll need to be ready for increased traffic and demand on their networks and will have to work to ensure that this traffic doesn’t impact vital business applications and services. But there’s one major event that they may be forgetting to add to the list, namely the Super Bowl, and those that forget may find their networks facing a full on blitz next week.
I know what you’re thinking “How can the Super Bowl affect network traffic? It happens on a Sunday night.” But the problem isn’t traffic from the game, it’s all the follow-up traffic that it generates.
You see this every year. Starting on Monday morning, workers will be sharing clips of the funniest commercials that debuted during the big game. And of course there will be video clips of key plays and moments from the game. Also, let’s not forget the halftime show. If Katy Perry has any kind of wardrobe malfunction on Sunday night, a flood of Internet traffic is sure to follow.
So yes, IT and network administrators need to make sure that their networks are ready for Monday, and possibly most of next week as well. Just as one would prepare for Cyber Monday, you need to be sure your network and Internet connection can handle extra traffic, or be prepared to limit the consequences of unwanted recreational traffic.
Smart organizations will do the necessary game planning and will be able to monitor and analyze their network needs and performance in order to optimize their vital connections. These businesses will put in place the right tools and systems that can limit how much bandwidth non-essential traffic like YouTube videos can consume, so they don’t steal bandwidth from mission critical applications.
Of course, some companies won’t take these steps. And they’ll face potential major problems such as critical business apps that will run poorly or not at all. Bandwidth sensitive services like VOIP and videoconferencing will experience delays and lag. And overall network and Internet usage will be sluggish.
To paraphrase a current ad campaign, don’t be like one of these companies. Get your game plan in place to prevent any network traffic problems from post-Super Bowl content sharing. Or be prepared to have your network hit the turf hard.
Read the Aberdeen report Optimize IT Infrastructure to Maximize Workload Performance
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: Don’t Let the Super Bowl Sack Your Network
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