Steps to evaluate a Network's Capacity

Evaluating a network’s capacity for website deployment involves both assessing current capabilities and planning for future growth. Here are the essential steps the technical team can follow to ensure the network can support the site’s current and anticipated demands:

1. Assess Current Network Infrastructure
   • Inventory Resources: Document all hardware (servers, switches, routers, etc.), software, and other resources in the network.
   • Analyze Network Topology: Understand how the network is structured, including bandwidth allocation, redundancy, and any bottlenecks.
   • Check Network Utilization: Evaluate current usage levels to see if they’re close to capacity during peak times, such as CPU load, memory, and bandwidth utilization.
   • Evaluate Security and Compliance: Ensure network security configurations meet the required standards, and check for compliance with industry regulations (e.g., GDPR, PCI DSS).
2. Measure Current Performance Metrics
   • Latency, Throughput, and Packet Loss: Measure these to determine how efficiently data moves across the network.
   • Bandwidth Utilization: Evaluate peak and average bandwidth usage.
   • Error Rates: Look for network errors or dropped packets that could indicate infrastructure issues.
3. Estimate Future Capacity Needs
   • Anticipate Traffic Growth: Project user growth and traffic spikes based on the website's goals, marketing campaigns, or expected seasonal demand.
   • Analyze Application Demands: Evaluate how new features or services might impact network requirements (e.g., high-resolution media or real-time processing).
   • Plan for Redundancy and Scalability: Identify scalable solutions (e.g., load balancing, cloud-based scaling) to handle growth without reconfiguring the entire network.
4. Simulate High-Traffic Scenarios
   • Stress Testing: Use load-testing tools to simulate high-traffic conditions and determine how the network performs under stress.
   • Identify Potential Bottlenecks: Observe where latency increases or where resources become constrained under heavy loads.
   • Analyze Failover Capabilities: Test failover and redundancy mechanisms to ensure they work as expected.
5. Develop a Capacity Management Plan
   • Set Thresholds and Alerts: Establish monitoring systems and alerts for key performance indicators (KPIs) that signify approaching capacity limits.
   • Define Scaling Strategies: Document strategies for adding resources (e.g., horizontal or vertical scaling) and implement automation if possible.
   • Plan Regular Reviews: Schedule routine evaluations of network capacity to adjust to ongoing traffic and feature changes.
6. Consider Future-Proofing and Technological Advancements
   • Research Emerging Technologies: Investigate new networking hardware or protocols that might improve performance or efficiency.
   • Cloud and Hybrid Solutions: Evaluate if moving parts of the network or applications to the cloud might offer better scalability.
   • Upgrade Plans: Develop a timeline for upgrading outdated equipment or software, factoring in compatibility with existing infrastructure.

Following these steps will help the technical team create a network that not only meets current requirements but is also scalable and resilient for future growth.

To enhance the network's capacity and support the needs of a website that the development team is creating, the technical team must assess the current capabilities of the system carefully, as well as estimate the future needs of the site being developed. Click the folowing series of images below to learn about the different tasks the technical team will have to perform in order to properly evaluate the network's capacity.

The widespread use of the World Wide Web and related applications places interesting performance demands on network servers. The ability to measure the effect of these demands is important for tuning and optimizing the various software components that make up a Web server. To measure these effects, it is necessary to generate realistic HTTP client requests. Unfortunately, accurate generation of such traffic in a testbed of limited scope is not trivial. In particular, the commonly used approach is unable to generate client request-rates that exceed the capacity of the server being tested even for short periods of time. This paper examines pitfalls that one encounters when measuring Web server capacity using a synthetic workload. We propose and evaluate a new method for Web traffic generation that can generate bursty traffic, with peak loads that exceed the capacity of the server. Finally, we use the proposed method to measure the performance of a Web server.
In the next lesson, you will learn about the strategies for building a sound network infrastructure.

Click the link below to read about the network's requirements.
Evaluating Networks - Quiz