How a Small Bottleneck Issue Can Significantly Hinder Network Performance

If you shell out for brand new office equipment, you’ll naturally expect it to perform better than your older machines. Sometimes the age of your network hardware isn’t the only problem affecting your network’s performance. More often than not, network bottlenecking could be the issue at hand.

In case it’s not clear, bottlenecking is a term that’s named after the way a bottle is shaped; narrow at the top, wider at the bottom. The bottleneck is supposed to control how much liquid is poured from the bottle. Techquickie defines bottlenecking (also known as a choke point) as, “Holding back the performance that could otherwise be achieved.”

Unfortunately, locating the source of the bottleneck on your company’s network is often easier said than done. You must locate the source of the issue and resolve it as quickly as possible if you hope to achieve optimal performance in the workplace. Most of the time, resolving the issue is as simple as upgrading whatever is causing the bottleneck so that it’s at the same performance level as the rest of your network.

One example of this is upgrading a single aspect of your PC and expecting an overall increase in performance. For example, you may upgrade your video card in hopes of making your PC run better. This fix might make your display look prettier, but it won’t do much to fix problems with your CPU or RAM. If these are old and have already hit their limit, upgrading your video card won’t do anything at all to increase the performance of your PC because they are the bottleneck.

The chances of a bottleneck occurring in your network increase as the complexity of technology increases. Therefore, if you’re dealing with a computing infrastructure that’s filled with complex workstations, server units, and other mission-critical hardware, you’re going to witness a substantially larger number of network issues. For instance, if you’re working with top-notch workstations, but your router isn’t up to snuff, this bottleneck will prevent you from maximizing your computing potential.

Finding the exact cause of a network bottleneck requires a comprehensive analysis of your network infrastructure, which is why you should call in professional IT technicians if you suspect a potential bottleneck. Directive, with our years of expertise in the technology industry, can troubleshoot and identify issues with your IT infrastructure.

Without our ability to quickly diagnose performance issues, it can be easy to place the blame on a piece of hardware that might be as good as new. Knowing with certainty where your network issues lie is one of the most beneficial aspects of working with Directive. This helps you get the job done right the first time.

Directive can run diagnostic tools that will determine the exact cause of your network bottleneck. This helps us resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Even better, there’s a good chance that we can resolve the issue remotely without an on-site visit. This makes our services even more convenient.

If you think you’ve got a network bottlenecking issue, give Directive a call at 607.433.2200. We’ll work through the issue with you to make sure it’s fixed right with minimal wasted time.