Implementing, maintaining, and improving a network environment is a full-time job, and sometimes network administrators need a little help. Even the best-laid plans can be derailed at a moment’s notice, causing frustration and undue stress.
Network Computing’s latest article on the subject has a wealth of information for novices and seasoned admins alike. These eight survival tips are worth noting as follows:
Assess The Network – Understanding your network’s capabilities, demands and resources is the first step to network survival. With the amount of devices connecting today, understanding the network has never been more important.
Acknowledge That Wireless Is The Way – The low cost to buy and manage wireless equipment makes it a no-brainer for almost any environment.
BYO-Everything Isn’t Coming. It’s Here – Employees in organizations of every size now expect that they will be able to connect their personal devices of choice to an organization’s network in some capacity.
Prepare for the Internet of Things – When it comes to surviving the Internet of Things, you first must understand that all of the “things” connect to the cloud. Many of these devices prefer IPv6, meaning you’ll have more pressure to dual-stack your components.
Plan For Scalability – Sometimes infrastructure doesn’t cooperate with the plan that’s laid out. You need to integrate capacity for forecasting tools, configuration management and web-based reporting to be able to predict scale and growth.
Just Admit It Already — It’s All About Applications – Everything we do is because of and for the end users. The whole point of having a network is to run business applications.
Leverage The Right Tools – It’s important that the right tools are paired with the right task and the right skill set.
Revisit, Review, Revise – Constantly reexamine your network to be sure that you’re addressing changes as they arise. Successful network management is a cyclical process, not a one-way journey.
For more survival tips for network administrators, see the full Network Computing article.
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