Networking

March Madness 2009: What network slowdown?

March Madness has officially started. Offices are buzzing with pick-to-win pools, friendly competition amongst peers and co-workers — and the network slowdown caused by streaming live videos of the game. Is your network up to snuff and prepared to handle the rush of the game as March Madness progresses?

The NCAA will be streaming live video of every game, from the round to the last – including a new high-quality option (requiring a Microsoft Silverlight download). CBS will also be providing the live games online, something it has been providing for free for the past four years. Just to provide some scope for how many people will be streaming this game online this year: In 2008, the online audience for the NCAA men’s tournament grew 165% over 2007 with 4.8 million viewers (way up from the 2006 number of 1.3 million people).

Streaming video, as opposed to another productivity buster like online shopping, affects the entire network. According to one calculation on the effect streaming video can have on the network, in a company of 10,000 employees, if 75 of them (on a 100-megabit network) were streaming video at the same time (on decent-quality video streams with other Internet apps going on), the network could be slowed down to a stop.

One company I talked to experienced a 2x increase in bandwidth utilization on Thursday; its normal average of 15MB increased to 30MB. This IT director told me there wasn’t a noticeable slowdown because the company is able to burst to 45MB, but if usage increased further, he was going to lower the priority of CBS SportsLine on the firewall to make the user experience poor and give more important applications better performance.

So that’s one approach to handling NCAA enthusiasts. What else can you do before or during non-work events likely to cause a network slowdown?

Strategically plan for the event with public viewing areas. Set up televisions within the office so employees can keep up with the live footage during breaks. The workplace can only go so far in accommodating employee interests during the day, but for some public interest events like the inauguration or national disaster updates, providing the televisions can help separate work from other things.

Limit the access with policies. Block video during the workday, providing only a limited window of opportunity for streaming or downloading (8-10 a.m. or 1-2 p.m., etc.). This may be away to provide a positive work experience while safeguarding the company from loss of productivity and network overload.

Block it. For many the hassles and risks are just not worth it, and blocking video on the network is a quick fix. The flip side of this? Some employees may try to access the video through less reputable sites, posing a security/virus risk.

The good news is, if you’re thinking about how to handle network slowdowns before it becomes a problem, you’re already strategically planning. Monitoring, preparing and understanding the risks are important when it comes to staying on top of your IT game.

Cyber Monday shopping slowing down the company network?!

Will Cyber Monday holiday shoppers hog all the bandwidth?

A recent Maritz Poll showed that expected Cyber Monday shopping is up from 20% last year to 26% this year.

According to the National Retail Federation’s eHoliday Survey, 84% of online retailers will have special Cyber Monday sales, up from last year’s 72%. Shopping dollars will undoubtedly be wisely spent this season, and retailers everywhere are competing for the sale.

With the online deals presumably drawing in more shoppers, will company networks feel the stress? Nearly 56% of workers plan on shopping online while in the office this year. According to a BIGresearch survey, 70% of people between the ages of 18-34 with Internet access will shop from work, with men being the ones most likely to shop (60% of men vs. 51% of women).

But will people really wait until Monday to start their online shopping forays? More households have high-speed Internet connections, eliminating the need to use office network connections on Monday. The online deals, however, may be the reason people hold off — so a spike in Web traffic over company networks is likely to occur.

America fails - miserably - to capture Internet equality medal

Here’s a shocker: Broadband in the U.S. isn’t up to snuff and because of that our children will fall behind the rest of the world.

So we learn from a new report by speedmatters.org, er, the Communication Workers of America, er, the AFL-CIO.

According to the report, the U.S. is lagging far behind other developed countries in broadband speed. Median download speed for the nation is a measly 2.3 mbps. Compare that to Japan, where the median download speed is apparently 63 mbps. France, for a European example, pulls 17 mbps. Our neighbors to the north aren’t great – 7.6 mbps – but still, that’s better.

Data in the report was compiled by cataloging the results of voluntary upload/download speed tests by users nationwide. The report breaks it down by state. Rhode Island comes out the best, pulling a 6.8 mbps download median. Puerto Rico finishes dead last at a .5 mbps download median. Behind that is Alaska with a .8 mbps median.

The results favor densely populated areas, with rural counties and states dragging the numbers down. This could explain why Japan has done so well.

So take report statements like “At this rate, it will take the United States more than 100 years to catch up with current Internet speeds in Japan” with a block of salt.

Still, it’s hard to argue with what speedmatters.org stands for here: Universal Internet access and an end to the digital divide.

The deck has always been stacked in America. That “haves” and “have-nots” thing is no joke. The Internet is a must-have for any meaningful economic success. Failing to provide quality access to rural and poor children, who have few powerful advocates, will only serve to exacerbate the shameful disenfranchisement.

Meanwhile, our president tells Bob Costas that “I don’t see America having problems” and we’re all supposed to sit back and smile because we’re ahead in the medal count.