The number of applications is growing rapidly. Is your company prepared to handle the connectivity of all these applications?

Are you increasing your sales force to increase your company's sales?

Are you implementing a new ERP, CRM, or other information system to gain greater control over your processes, customers, and business?

Are you optimizing resources and designing a new technology infrastructure to stay ahead of the curve with cloud services, virtual desktops, and applications that aim to make your organization more efficient?

Or do you simply need to improve your network users' experience connecting to applications, communication networks, the Internet, or centralized services per your company's directive?

The Myth of Capacity in Communications Networks

There are several reasons that we have identified in our over 20 years of experience that generate the situations above and many others that plunge leaders, coordinators, directors, IT managers into a cycle of uncertainty that makes them think, through another You ask yourself if your technological infrastructure is capable of facing these and many other changes that businesses and, in general, the globalized and dynamic world demands every day, a question that in some cases can be summarized as... Are the capacity and availability of my channels right?

This question is usually answered with a simple... Bandwidth needs to be increased, which on paper may be a practical and quick solution that gives infrastructure administrators a false sense of tranquility, fear, which manifests itself in a... Sometimes, the practice of expanding channel capacities is applied, but users in accounting, treasury, middle and senior management, operators, general services, visitors, and even the organization's security guard summarize the connection experience with a cold and concise message... The internet works better at my house, and that's 1 MEGA, some of them without even knowing what "MEGA" refers to.

This is the world that those of us who have decided to pursue the telecommunications path as service providers, network administrators, or in general those who, in one way or another, must deal with, so that we can make the most of the natural capabilities of human beings and the benefits offered by the technological world.

To achieve a good result, it's essential to have a thorough understanding of the purpose for which you're designing or optimizing your network. This means you must be familiar with the applications that will be used, understand the traffic that will pass through your infrastructure, and understand the resources and capabilities of your users. Issues such as user volume, profiles, functionalities, restrictions, and permissions are crucial in the initial analysis you must perform to achieve a good result.

Once you have a clear understanding of your network's purpose, you should focus on the current situation, such as the current design and the desired topology and best functionality. What are the best practices and technologies to use from the vast array of possibilities available to the market, including fiber optics, HFC, radio links, satellites, G.PON, ADSL, MPLS, Metroethernet, and many more that must be specifically selected under two criteria: Functionality and Budget. The latter stands out as a predominant factor in decision-making that is not in the IT domain, but in the financial or senior management areas, areas that often continue to question what a "MEGA" is.

Having answered the why and how, according to the previous two paragraphs, it's time to decide on internet service providers (ISPs or PRSTs), infrastructure such as routers, switches, firewalls, access points, Active Directory, DHCP servers, web servers, among others—everything necessary to ensure that technological resources can be delivered to users securely and efficiently, maximizing the significant investments and expenses made by your organization, including expenses with connectivity capacity or internet access, which are much more noticeable if dedicated channels are contracted, which, in theory, provide much more efficient services.

This last step is the reason for this blog, with which we hope to question the decision-making framework for optimizing network resources and capacities, an issue that in a more technical environment is known as expanding communication channels in Kbps, Mbps, or Gbps to achieve higher yields. Likewise, this topic is known in the financial world as increasing operational costs, a topic rarely seen in organizations, especially when the guidelines are to reduce and optimize costs, but maintaining the best operational conditions is, in other words, achieving the long-awaited operational efficiency.