Five Steps to Reduce Network Latency
Instant access is the new normal. When customers, employees, or partners hit the Enter key, they expect an immediate response. An inability to meet such high expectations diminishes a brand’s reputation, lowers productivity, and increases churn. A number of items impact network performance, so let’s take a look at what latency is, how it arises, and how to reduce it. Latency is the time that elapses between when a request for data is made and the delivery of it occurs. Moving information from an end point to a central server and back again involves coordination among many different elements. Slowdowns can occur at many points. With networks, the focus is often on routers and switches. However, server processors, storage systems, end-user devices, application software, and a wide range of infrastructure software (security, operating systems, management tools) also impact response times. A delay at any intersection disrupts communications, and problems follow. Web page load times increase, audio and video streams (which are very sensitive to disruptions) fail, and applications drone on. Illustrating the impatience of today’s user, more than half (53%) of them will abandon a web page that takes three seconds or longer to load. Since businesses require an average of 15 seconds to perform that task, latency impacts companies much more than they realize. So, how can your firm avoid the problem? Get a Measurement Tool or Service The first step to ensuring adequate response times is understanding how well your network is working. Vendors sell performance management tools. In addition, Managed Service [...]
