Businesses around the world spent $180 billion in 2018 on their information technology (IT) hardware. Today’s enterprises rely on the internet for their mission-critical operations. But that doesn’t mean that human interaction is no longer important. Take, for example, the fact that 40% of customers prefer a live phone representative when resolving problems. Without a robust hosted phone system, your firm would lose precious revenue.
Still, high-tech components are necessary for daily operations. To get the best performance out of your computer network, you need to know what to weigh before proceeding with a computer network system installation. The following are a few factors to help your business adopt a reliable computer network.
The standardization of hardware and software components of your firm’s network will offer essential operational and cost benefits during your computer network system installation. When your team uses the same software and hardware across the board, it will be easier to onboard any future hires. Thus, you’ll improve efficiency and reduce confusion and frustration.
Additionally, when the majority of your system’s users are running the same components, maintenance becomes more efficient. It will cost you less to maintain a standardized network since you’ll deal with with similar hardware you can purchase in bulk. Whenever you need to bring in specialized professionals to support the network, it will still be cheaper since they’ll be handling one system.
When you standardize your computer network, it also helps your hosted phone system operate more smoothly. The closer collaboration that results will help your business become more productive.
Your IT infrastructure supports vital operational aspects of your firm. Therefore, you should never deploy a computer network system installation before figuring out recovery protocols. If you fail to design recovery procedures, you will face potentially catastrophic losses, should an unforeseen event negatively impact your business.
When disaster strikes, internal and external communication will be a priority. How your network supports your hosted phone systems will prove critical. For example, you can work with your hosted phone systems NJ provider to design a system with extra components that act as a fail-safe. That way, when your phone system goes down on the primary network, you have a fallback option to keep the communication going.
If you decide to host your network, then you will need to factor in a secondary connection before green lighting your computer network system installation. Such a design helps reduce overall downtime when the primary connection is offline, which in turn cuts your losses.
A computer network is an investment in your business. As such, you need to get the maximum value out of the infrastructure. Your firm needs to adopt a computer network that not only cost-effectively meets its needs, but one that will also grow with your business as needed. As a result, part of the preparation for your computer network system installation will involve capacity assessment.
A rule of thumb to adopt while designing your network is to account for a 20% growth every year. That should factor in both new users joining your network along with more backend components. Your backup systems, VOIP system, switches, and other parts of your network need to also grow at the 20% rate as more users come on board.
The number of Ethernet ports on your network should ideally be more than the endpoints for flexibility in scaling your operations. The more ports your ethernet switch can support will imply higher costs, so you’ll need to plan for growth systematically. You do not want to buy new switches before the older ones reach the end of their life, as that is poor network resource use.
Additionally, you should also factor in the level of performance of your network components in line with the predicted usage growth. Invest only in components that will enable you to increase the capacity you handle during their lifetime.
Your business depends on the internet to remain competitive in today’s market. If you use a low-grade network, you risk losing out on more revenue. Therefore, before proceeding with any computer network system installation, you need to identify critical considerations. Doing so will protect your network from obsolescence, spiraling costs, and unforeseen adverse events.
