Network connectivity is the lifeblood of businesses striving to stay competitive and efficient in today’s digital landscape. Seamless communication and fast data transfer are not just conveniences; they are essential components that drive productivity and innovation. Businesses rely on network connectivity to enable real-time collaboration among teams, facilitate efficient sharing of resources and information, and support the growing demand for cloud-based services. In a world where remote work and global partnerships are increasingly common, dependable network connectivity ensures that operations can run smoothly across distances and time zones.
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, businesses must prioritize investing in reliable network infrastructure to stay agile and competitive in an interconnected global economy.
However, achieving and maintaining robust network connectivity is not without its challenges, particularly as the number of people and devices online continues to soar. This surge in demand, coupled with infrastructure limitations, poses significant hurdles to network resilience. According to Cisco’s Annual Internet Report, global internet traffic is expected to nearly triple by 2026, reaching 50,000 gigabytes per second. This exponential growth underscores the urgent need for businesses to invest in scalable and adaptable network solutions that can handle increasing data volumes and ensure consistent performance, even under pressure. As businesses navigate these complexities, they must prioritize strategies that enhance network resilience to sustain uninterrupted operations in our interconnected digital ecosystem.
What Is Network Connectivity?
Network connectivity is the backbone that allows computers, servers, mobile devices, and other networked equipment to connect and share resources, data, and services. It encompasses the physical and logical connections that enable the transfer of information between different components within a network or across multiple networks.
Among other things, this includes the hardware components that enable the physical connections, (cables, wireless access points, routers, etc.); The network protocols that govern how data is transmitted or received (such as TCP/IP and Wi-Fi); The network services that run on top of the infrastructure (such as file sharing, web browning, email and more); And the network topology which refers to the physical or logical layout of how devices are connected (for example star, mesh, or ring).
Different types of networks, such as Local Area Networks (LANs), Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), and Wide Area Networks (WANs), cater to various business needs, ranging from local office connectivity to global data exchange. Most enterprise businesses today rely on WANs for connecting geographically dispersed locations. The choice of wired or wireless connections, as well as network topologies can impact factors like scalability, fault tolerance, and performance, tailoring the network to specific business requirements.
By understanding and optimizing these network connectivity concepts, businesses can ensure reliable data transmission, efficient communication, ultimately enhancing productivity, collaboration, and customer satisfaction.
What Is the Impact of Network Connectivity Issues on Businesses?
The impact of network connectivity issues on businesses cannot be overstated. Poor connectivity directly affects user experience by causing slow loading times, dropped connections, and disrupted services, leading to frustrated customers and diminished trust in the brand. From a productivity perspective, employees rely on stable networks for efficient collaboration, access to cloud-based tools, and timely communication. Network downtime or latency issues can significantly hamper workflows and decrease overall productivity. Moreover, revenue generation can be directly impacted as businesses reliant on online sales or subscription-based models experience reduced transactions or churn due to these connectivity issues.
Common network connectivity issues with which businesses contend include bandwidth, latency, packet loss and quality of service.
Bandwidth refers to the maximum amount of data that can be transmitted over a network connection within a given time frame. For businesses, adequate bandwidth is crucial for supporting data-intensive applications, video conferencing, and file transfers. A company with a high volume of video conferencing and large file transfers may require higher bandwidth to ensure smooth and uninterrupted communication. Insufficient bandwidth can lead to lagging, freezing, or disconnections during video calls, hampering productivity and collaboration.
To fully utilize bandwidth, businesses need to regularly assess their network infrastructure, optimize configurations, implement bandwidth management strategies, and ensure that their applications and hardware are capable of leveraging the available bandwidth effectively.
Latency, or network delay, is the time it takes for data to travel from its source to its destination and back. Low latency is essential for time-sensitive applications and real-time communication. For example, in the financial sector, where split-second decisions can mean significant gains or losses, low latency is critical. High-frequency trading firms invest heavily in low-latency networks to ensure that trade orders are executed as quickly as possible, minimizing the risk of missing opportunities or incurring losses due to delays.
Packet loss occurs when data packets fail to reach their intended destination, resulting in incomplete or corrupted data transmissions. In streaming media applications, such as video conferencing or online video streaming, packet loss can lead to choppy video, frozen frames, or audio distortions. Businesses that rely heavily on these applications, like remote collaboration platforms, need to minimize packet loss for a seamless user experience.
Quality of Service (QoS) refers to the prioritization of certain types of network traffic over others, ensuring that mission-critical applications receive the necessary bandwidth and priority for delivery. In healthcare settings, for example, where life-critical data and real-time telemetry must take precedence, QoS protocols prioritize the transmission of medical data over less critical network traffic, ensuring that patient monitoring and emergency response systems function reliably.
There are hardly any industries today that are not significantly impacted by network connectivity.
For example, in e-commerce, slow loading times and transaction processing due to poor connectivity can lead to abandoned carts and reduced sales, as well as difficulty in remotely managing inventory and order fulfillment systems.
For SaaS companies, degraded service quality and performance for users accessing cloud-based applications, leads to dissatisfaction and potential churn. Plus increased support tickets and customer inquiries related to connectivity issues can impact operational efficiency.
In telecommunications, voice and video call quality can suffer from network latency and packet loss, affecting communication clarity and customer satisfaction.
In manufacturing, unreliable connectivity leads to challenges in implementing real-time production. And the list goes on.
As businesses continue to rely heavily on digital infrastructure, ensuring resilient network connectivity remains a top priority to sustain competitiveness and operational excellence.
Common Network Connectivity Issues & Their Causes
Since network connectivity issues can disrupt business operations and hinder productivity, understanding these common issues and their underlying causes is crucial for effectively troubleshooting and resolving them.
Slow Network Speed
Causes:
- Network Congestion: High traffic volume on the network can slow down data transmission, especially during peak usage hours.
- Bandwidth Limitations: Insufficient bandwidth allocation can lead to slower speeds, particularly for data-intensive tasks.
- Hardware Limitations: Outdated or faulty network equipment, such as routers or switches, may not support high-speed data transfer.
Dropped Connections
Causes:
- Wireless Interference: Signal interference from neighboring networks or electronic devices can cause intermittent disconnections.
- Weak Signal Strength: Users located far from the wireless access point may experience dropped connections due to weak signal reception.
- Network Overload: Excessive connections to a single access point can overwhelm its capacity, leading to dropped connections.
Latency Spikes
Causes:
- Long Network Paths: Data packets traveling through multiple routers and switches can experience delays, increasing latency.
- High Utilization: Network devices operating near capacity may introduce delays in processing and transmitting data packets.
- Network Protocol Issues: Inefficient protocols or configuration settings can contribute to latency spikes during data transmission.
DNS Resolution Issues
Causes:
- DNS Server Problems: Unresponsive or misconfigured DNS servers can result in delays or failures when resolving domain names to IP addresses.
- DNS Cache Issues: Outdated or corrupted DNS cache entries on local devices can lead to incorrect or failed DNS resolutions.
- Network Configuration Errors: Incorrect DNS settings or routing configurations can cause DNS resolution issues across the network.
IP Address Conflicts
Causes:
- Duplicate IP Assignments: Two devices on the same network using the same IP address can cause conflicts and disrupt network communication.
- Misconfigured DHCP Servers: Improperly configured Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) servers may assign duplicate IP addresses to devices.
- Manual IP Address Assignments: Accidental manual assignment of duplicate IP addresses can occur when configuring network settings.
Firewall and Security Issues
Causes:
- Overly Restrictive Firewall Rules: Misconfigured firewall rules can block legitimate network traffic, causing connectivity issues.
- Intrusion Prevention/Detection System (IPS/IDS) False Positives: Intrusion detection or prevention systems may incorrectly flag legitimate traffic as malicious, disrupting connectivity.
- Outdated Security Policies: Inconsistent or outdated security policies can inadvertently block necessary network traffic.
Excessive Data Usage
Causes:
- Bandwidth-Intensive Applications: Streaming services, large file downloads/uploads, or cloud backups can consume excessive network bandwidth.
- Malware or Botnet Activity: Infected devices participating in malicious activities can generate significant network traffic, leading to bandwidth exhaustion.
- Unregulated Network Usage: Lack of network usage policies or monitoring can result in users consuming more bandwidth than allocated.
How to Fix Common Network Connectivity Issues
Network connectivity issues can be addressed effectively through proactive management and innovative technologies. Below are some of the most common strategies that can be implemented to help mitigate potential problems and optimize network performance.
Proactive network monitoring is essential for identifying and addressing connectivity issues before they impact operations. By deploying network performance monitoring tools, IT teams can continuously monitor key metrics such as bandwidth utilization, latency, and packet loss. Real-time alerts and notifications can enable swift intervention to resolve emerging issues and ensure optimal network performance.
Cloud-based networking solutions offer scalable and resilient connectivity by leveraging distributed infrastructure and global points of presence (PoPs). Organizations can benefit from flexible bandwidth allocation, dynamic routing, and built-in redundancy provided by cloud networking platforms. By migrating network services to the cloud, businesses can optimize connectivity, improve application performance, and reduce dependency on on-premises hardware.
Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) technology enhances network performance and reliability by intelligently optimizing traffic routing. SD-WAN solutions enable organizations to prioritize critical applications and services, dynamically allocate bandwidth based on demand, and reduce latency through intelligent path selection. By centralizing network management and utilizing cost-effective internet links, SD-WAN can offer greater agility and control. SD-WAN isn’t right for all business needs, however. For global businesses, it does not solve network connectivity problems that emanate from mid-mile as opposed to last-mile issues. Pricing can also be a prohibitive factor, as SD-WAN vendors often offer proprietary solutions, which can lead to vendor lock-in and potentially higher costs for future upgrades, maintenance, or expansions.
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) play a crucial role in improving content delivery speed and reducing latency for users across diverse geographic locations. CDNs cache content closer to end-users, reducing the distance data needs to travel and resulting in faster load times. By leveraging CDNs, organizations can enhance user experience, optimize application performance, and efficiently deliver multimedia content, web applications, and software updates globally. Similar to SD-WAN, however CDNs also pose certain limitations, particularly for content that is dynamically generated and can’t be cached in nearby locations.
Improve Poor Network Connectivity/Performance with Teridion
For businesses with distributed locations and cloud resources, Teridion’s AI Network as a Service improves network connectivity performance using an innovative approach that addresses the challenges faced by traditional WAN architectures.
Teridion is the only WAN with a global backbone that spans 25 public cloud providers in over 500 global PoPs to always find the optimal path between any two points on the internet. By leveraging multiple cloud providers and ISPs, Teridion’s network offers increased redundancy and fault tolerance. If one path or provider experiences issues, traffic is automatically rerouted over alternative paths, ensuring continuous connectivity and minimizing downtime.
Teridion’s network can also aggregate bandwidth from multiple sources, effectively increasing the available bandwidth for data transmission. This feature is particularly beneficial for bandwidth-intensive applications, such as video conferencing, large file transfers, or cloud-based services, enabling smoother and more efficient data delivery.
And since Teridion integrates with public cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, businesses can extend their corporate network to cloud resources seamlessly. This integration simplifies cloud connectivity, enhancing performance and security for cloud-based applications and services.
Teridion’s AI WAN solution eliminates the need for complex hardware deployments and configurations. The centralized management console allows IT teams to monitor and manage the global network from a single source, streamlining administration and reducing operational overhead. Deployment takes less than 24 hours, and compared to standard WAN solutions, such as MPLS or leased lines, there is no vendor lock-in and no high upfront investments.
Real-world examples of businesses benefiting from Teridion’s AI WAN service include multinational enterprises with distributed offices, cloud-based service providers, and organizations with extensive remote workforces.
By addressing the challenges of global connectivity, Teridion enables these businesses to enhance productivity, improve user experience, and drive digital transformation initiatives more effectively.
