What is network uptime? How is it measured? And what can your business do to improve network uptime? We consider the proactive measures you can take to create the highly performant network your business needs.

In today’s connected society, a well-performing network is essential to effective business operations. A stable network ensures that employees can work, study, or communicate without delays or interruptions. Network downtime can disrupt communication, halt operations and lead to financial losses. Furthermore, unexpected outages can leave systems vulnerable to data corruption or attacks during downtime.

Here, we offer a comprehensive Q&A about how network uptime and how to improve it.

What is network uptime?

Network uptime refers to the amount of time a network is operational and accessible without any interruptions.

Why is it important to have a high level of network uptime?

High network uptime is crucial for ensuring reliability, as frequent outages can disrupt productivity, communication or services that depend on the network.

How is network uptime measured?

Network uptime is typically expressed as a percentage of total time over a given period, such as a day, week or month. It is usually expressed as a percentage. For example, a network with 99.9% uptime means that the network was functional for all but a tiny fraction of the time.

In environments where high uptime is essential, such as cloud datacentres or critical service delivery, operators tend to measure uptime in the number of nines before and after the decimal point. Many service providers aim for “five nines” uptime (99.999%), which translates to only a few minutes of downtime per year.

What are the reasons why a business might not enjoy good network uptime?

There are many reasons why your organisational network might be suffering poor network performance.

These include:

• Network design flaws: Poorly planned network architecture can result in bottlenecks, inefficient routing or vulnerability to outages.
• Aging, ill-maintained or poorly specified equipment: Outdated or malfunctioning network equipment, such as routers, switches or cabling, can lead to inefficiencies. For example, if a server hosting network services is overwhelmed with requests, it can cause delays or crashes.
• Bandwidth congestion: Too many devices or applications competing for limited bandwidth can cause slow speeds and disruptions.
• Poor service from your ISP: Inconsistent service from your Internet provider can result in high latency, packet loss and performance issues.
• Malicious cyber activity: Malware, denial-of-service attacks or other security vulnerabilities can severely disrupt network function and compromise devices across the network.
• Signal interference: Nearby electronic devices, physical obstructions or overlapping Wi-Fi signals can weaken network connectivity. Weather conditions can disrupt connections, especially for some network approaches such as satellite communications. Physical risks should also be considered: for example, building works or roadworks disrupting connections into the building or maintenance work causing physical damage to internal network fibreoptic cables.

Some of these causes are single, isolated incidents where the cause can be immediately identified and addressed. Others are chronic and, as a result, can be less noticeable. Nevertheless, their impact on your business performance, customer experience, staff morale and productivity can be significant, especially if the issues are allowed to continue over a long period of time.

What can one do to improve network uptime?

There are a range of best practice behaviours which will help you to improve the performance and uptime of your network.

• Invest in quality solutions: Use high-quality network equipment and ensure all firmware and software are up to date.
• Ensure systems are well maintained: Perform routine maintenance to prevent wear and tear on hardware and upgrade systems to avoid obsolescence.
• Set up network monitoring with alerts: Continuously monitor the network to identify potential issues before they can cause downtime.
• Use real-time information to optimise network configuration: Ensure network settings are efficient and avoid bottlenecks by proactively managing bandwidth and traffic prioritisation.
• Build in resilience and redundancy: Set up backup systems for critical network components, such as routers, switches and servers. Redundant Internet connections are another facet of avoiding a single point of failure.
• Invest in effective cyber security protections: Protect against cyberattacks that could take your network offline, including firewalls, intrusion detection systems and regular security audits.
• Be ready for the worst: Prepare for unexpected events like power outages or cyberattacks by having a clear recovery plan and backups in place and testing them regularly.

By taking a multi-faceted, proactive approach, you can greatly reduce the chances of downtime and improve overall network reliability and performance.

What next?

If you’d like personalised, expert advice about how your organisation can assess and improve the performance of your network, please reach out to our team.