Why Your Enterprise Needs a Network Performance Baseline

Why does your enterprise need a network performance baseline? Ensuring your network is performing adequately is essential for successful network operation — but without an established performance baseline, your business won’t have the clearest picture of network performance. While measuring your network performance in real-time is important, it’s critical to consider it alongside a network’s baseline operation.

If your enterprise hasn’t established a solid network performance baseline, we’ve listed the ways baselines help companies gain a fuller picture of network performance below!

To help establish a network performance baseline, your company should consider deploying a network monitoring solution. Our Network Monitoring Buyer’s Guide contains profiles on the top network monitoring providers in the market today, including descriptions of the tools they offer and noteworthy features of each. The guide also features 10 questions you should ask prospective vendors and yourself before buying a network monitoring solution — allowing you to easily determine the best network monitoring tool for your needs. You can check out that guide here!

Knowing how your network typically performs

A network performance baseline gives your company insights into how your network typically operates. Network performance can fluctuate over long periods of time, which can make it difficult to track when it’s functioning above or below its usual performance level. Your company needs to have a baseline in place so it can determine whether or not your network’s real-time performance is sufficient for your business needs.

Comparing real-time and historic network data

In order to truly understand your network’s performance, you need to have both real-time and historic network performance data. Network baselines are based on historic performance data, providing a benchmark with which your network monitoring system can judge real-time network performance on.

Finding small changes in network performance

Events that affect network performance can happen at any time, and their impact isn’t always detectable by the human eye. Minor issues may not put a huge dent on your immediate network performance, but they could be an indication of a larger problem. Network monitoring solutions continuously analyzes your network to look for performance that doesn’t match typical behavior; they can detect performance-affecting problems by comparing them against your performance baseline.

Continuously updating performance baselines as a network grows

Networks are not a static technology; as businesses evolve and their demands for their network grow, the devices on a network will need to be upgraded and more connections will be necessary. These changes will inevitably affect your network’s baseline performance, as more advanced network technology increases network speed, throughput, and other metrics. As such, your network performance baseline will need to adapt when upgrades or new installations are made.

Looking for a solution to help you improve your network performance? Our Network Monitoring Buyer’s Guide contains profiles on the top network performance monitoring vendors, as well as questions you should ask providers and yourself before buying.

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