YOUR Network’s Hurting MY Business!
In the early days of the internet, websites were pretty independent. If a website suffered latency problems or endured an outage, the problems were typically isolated to a single company. That was then, this is now…an evermore connected now. Last Friday, Facebook had a “bad day” according to a Facebook IT. However, Facebook’s “bad day” spread across the web like a pandemic. The top twenty news sites across the globe saw page loads slow from the usual 7 .5 seconds to 12.5 seconds. The top 60 retail sites, where faster load times is directly linked to more sales, page load times were more than twice as slow (5.7 seconds compared to the normal 2.2 seconds). How did Facebook affect industries around the world? The “like” button.
The like button is a small, isolated example of how connected the Web 2.0 world is. However, a like button issue is only a glimpse of the damage that can be done. Many companies, across nearly all industries, are heavily dependent on their web presence. In today’s marketplace, an ineffective web presence is simply unacceptable. In fact most companies, regardless of industry, are generating revenue in some capacity via their web presence. But, a sharp, user-friendly web presence is useless without a highly available network.
Whether its API calls, EDI feeds, or social media connecting multiple parties together, LANs & WANs are constantly communicating (internally and externally). Any glitch in your network can bring you down, but it will inevitably bring your neighbors down as well (whether the neighbor is in China, the US, or somewhere between). Whether we like it our not, a poor network will push customers, partners, investors, and leads away.
