Everything we design and create to serve a certain function has limitations. Nothing works perfectly in all conditions which is why it’s good to know what are the limits of a particular thing. Once we know where the limits are, we can work on expanding them. The same goes for your network. Today, our networks are dealing with huge high-speed loads. In order to see how the network behaves under huge stress and in order to see how much it can actually handle, we perform network stress testing. That means, we’re deliberately overloading the network with all sorts of protocols and data types (TCP, IP, ICMP, audio, video, image, etc.). This type of torture testing will attack the network more vigorously pushing it beyond its normal operating capacities in order to find the breaking points. By finding them, we can then work on strengthening the weak points and clear any bottlenecks.
Where the limits of the network will depend on how many devices are connected and the amount of data that is being transported via that network. Once the network is overwhelmed, it will crash. Finding the weak spots and dealing with them on time will prevent any crashes.
There are experts out there, such as the ones from Nexus IT that can help you with any issues you might have with your network.
Img source: netscout.com
As technology is developing rapidly, so are the expectations of our networks. The conditions under which the network is operating are constantly changing and that’s why regular stress tests are necessary. Benefits of performing regular stress tests are numerous:
- You can improve the uptime which is incredibly important for all businesses today. No one can afford any downtime in the market as competitive as ours.
- Also, once you’ve set up a new network, it is reasonable that you’ll want to know how it’s performing and what are its limitations. You need your new network to be capable of withstanding a large amount of traffic and data, and to support the growth of your business.
- From time to time, certain businesses promise more than they can deliver. If you make some irresistible offer to your customers with the idea of rising sales, they just might take that offer and overload your network. If you want to prevent that from happening, you might want to stress test your network.
Img source: canterbury.ac.nz
Just as external traffic can mess up your network, so can intense internal processes. This is something big businesses should worry about as they’re dealing with huge data transfers and storage which can put a lot of stress on the network. Furthermore, some data types put more pressure on the network than others. For example, media files and performance or time-sensitive online transactions that need to be handled with more care can put your network under more stress.
You can test your network either manually or digitally. While the manual test is performed by issuing commands using a command prompt, digital network stress testing is done using special applications that were created specifically with the purpose of stress testing the network and giving accurate information.
