Where are the choke points in your IT infrastructure?

By Ian Fitzpatrick
IT Support Specialist
i2Integration

Thinking about choke points in an office's IT infrastructure might call Mother Nature to mind: Who controls a windstorm knocking out your DSL? Who decides whether your server room will flood? These disasters are easy to fear because they are simple to understand. But there are many overlooked, everyday items that could bring your IT infrastructure to a crawl -- items you can control.

Maxed out Internet connection

A lot of business is done on the web and via e-mail. You already know that if the office Internet connection slows down, that can pose a big problem.       

Do you know how much of your cable, DSL or T1 line is being utilized? Your Internet provider may or may not be helpful in finding the answer. Unfortunately, they usually only provide a "snapshot-in-time view” of your bandwidth usage that tells how much of your connection is being used at that moment. 

What you really need is to track the usage of your Internet connection over time. Installing a network traffic-monitoring tool is a great way to do this.  Cisco™ network routers are enabled with “netflow,” which allows exporting traffic data to be analyzed with a variety of third-party reporting tools. These tools provide a bird’s-eye view as to how much of the pipe is being used, or allow you to drill down and isolate specific heavy bandwidth users.

Once you know exactly how much of your Internet connection is being used, you can make an informed decision as to whether you really need to purchase a faster connection, or if someone on your network is just downloading one too many dog-on-a-skateboard videos.

Poor cabling

Did you know that in many cases someone tripping over one cable in the server room will not only bring your tech-support person tumbling down, but your entire network? When it comes to servers, make sure that 1. The cables are bundled and tied down, and 2. There are no loose wires. 

Also, be sure to label your cables adequately. That way, if a cable does fall out you can swiftly plug it right back in where it belongs.

Not segmenting your network

Would you leave your prized bowling trophy on your front lawn? Probably not. Most likely, you would keep it indoors, on a shelf in a cabinet in your den. Right?

It’s all about boundaries.

Creating boundaries and storing resources based on these boundaries is called segmentation. In the case of your house, the boundary is your front door. In the case of your network, it might be a perimeter firewall. By segmenting your network and putting high-exposure resources such as mail and web servers on the outside and keeping desktop PCs and file servers on the inside, you reduce the risk of one compromised server taking down your entire network.

Skimpy documentation

While this choke point is not a physical problem, that doesn't make it any less real. Documentation is a crucial part of keeping your infrastructure up and running. Knowledge of your IT systems often is spread amongst the minds of your employees. If a server or service goes down, you need an authoritative source to refer to in order to respond as quickly as possible. That way, you spend less time searching for answers to questions such as "Which computer does this service run on?" or "Who knows about this software?" and can instead focus on answering the most pressing question: "How do I get this service running again?"

Software for documentation can be as simple as using Microsoft Word, but to avoid information hoarding it's best to use a collaborative documentation tool such as a wiki (try Tiddly Wiki http://www.tiddlywiki.com) or Microsoft SharePoint – either of which you may already have running on your network. But don't let learning these tools be a hurdle to documenting your network; just documenting something is better than documenting nothing.

A battle with many fronts

Infrastructure choke points come in several varieties. As we've shown here, they can be a matter of resource utilization, physical infrastructure, network design or documentation. There's plenty to consider beyond these points, but you've got to begin somewhere. Addressing the four areas of concern discussed in this article are a great start toward keeping your IT investment operational.