Fluke Networks White Paper Sample

When applications appear to be slow, frustrated users waste time and energy. Slow applications cause lost time which, in turn, means lost money. Also, IT staff time is misspent. In some instances, help desk or PC analysts expend much of their time rebooting client stations or checking IP configurations and cabling connections.

When an effort is made to learn about troubleshooting applications and the skills are applied to the system to improve the performance of both the network and the applications, it’s an investment in the company. It pays off in dividends the same way that saving on shipping costs, reducing fuel consumption or eliminating any other inefficiency, pay off.

But troubleshooting TCP applications isn’t easy. Unlike voice or video, which are typically UDP based, application performance degradation isn’t obvious. If the sound is bad or the TV screen shows distortion, everyone sees it immediately. But with TCP applications like transaction processing systems, performance tends to be judged based on how the system behaved yesterday. If it is slower today than it was yesterday, users begin to complain. Even worse, if the application degrades slowly, the change may not be detected at all and the company begins to lose money through the inefficiency.