IT Infrastructure Built for the Future

C-suite Network Readiness Checklist

Understanding the performance of your network, systems, and applications is essential to strategic planning, because if your network and infrastructure aren’t capable of evolving with you in such transformative times, then action must be taken.

Business Context

90%*¹ of business leaders agree that maintaining security, control, and governance across networks, clouds, applications, and devices is critical.

And over 85%*¹ see empowering a workforce with simple, flexible access to smart applications and high-quality collaborative experiences as essential.

Therefore, knowing which of your core applications and systems are suffering from network and connectivity issues is key to IT business productivity.

To assist in an initial assessment of corporate infrastructure, we’ve developed the following Macro checklist to assist business leader analysis:

Macro-level Network Readiness Checklist

• Infrastructure Visibility
  Your infrastructure has many parts – including hardware, cabling, routers, software, operating systems, device drivers, and much more. With so much going on, a malfunction in any one component can leave you unsure of the cause. You need live visibility to pinpoint problem areas so that infrastructure efficiency and productivity is maintained.
• Security Vulnerabilities
  Alarmingly, 88%*² of data breaches are caused by employee mistakes, and most cyber issues are preventable if the security measures are correctly installed. A regular review of IT infrastructure should be done to assess vulnerabilities – such as inadequate antivirus or antispyware protection, weak password management, outdated security patches, and unsupported systems. Network segmentation and a reduced attack surface area will limit how much of the infrastructure will be affected by an incident.
• Network Performance
  Slow user experiences, application malfunctions, and failures are typically symptomatic of network performance and bandwidth issues. Understanding usage thresholds and capacity will avoid overwhelming the network, and analysing network performance identifies capacity needs and the applications using too much bandwidth.
• Data Protection & Compliance
  Whilst data and file protection are cybersecurity issues – breaches can cause major damage to financial stability and reputation. It’s key to know exactly who has access to confidential business information, and how easy it is to gain access and permission. Company Directors can be held personally liable if inadequate protection measures fail to prevent a breach.
• Network Optimisation
  Soldiering on with existing networks and the high cost of maintaining legacy infrastructure is often mistaken for prudent management. Non-optimised networks can limit capacity or overly waste budget if there’s been an over-provision. Modern networks optimise performance with superfast speed, huge capacity, easy scalability, and lower costs.

To ensure your network is optimised and capable of supporting your business over the short and medium term, our Professional Services consultancy and advisory services can help you develop a modular infrastructure that’s built for the future.

Click here for more information about VCG’s Professional and Managed Services.

Source     *¹ Cisco
                   *² Stanford University