Want a faster, more reliable network? The key lies in maintenance. Network maintenance is a critical investment that keeps your systems running smoothly. Through regular checks, updates, and proactive troubleshooting, it prevents problems before they impact your productivity.
However, as you incorporate more technology into your organization, managing your network ecosystem can become increasingly challenging. The external environment brings more complexity with escalating cyber dangers and compliance regulations.
Our comprehensive overview covers the key responsibilities of network maintenance and highlights its importance and best practices to help you manage your network smartly and effectively.
What Is Network Maintenance?
Network maintenance involves a series of tasks and services to maintain and optimize your network infrastructure. It’s a vital ongoing function that keeps your network standing and healthy.
But what do we mean by “network”?
Your network is the critical infrastructure that connects all parts of your organization, enabling communication and information flow between systems and devices. It includes physical assets like the hardware (servers, routers, switches) and non-physical assets like software (operating systems, security tools, apps).
With over half of IT spending moving to the cloud by 2025, modern networks also include cloud access and services.
Network maintenance approaches
There are four main approaches to maintenance:
- Preventive maintenance: Preventive maintenance involves regularly scheduled tasks. The goal here is to identify and mitigate issues before they become serious problems.
- Corrective maintenance: Corrective maintenance is remedial action to fix issues that have already occurred. Note that there is some overlap between network maintenance and network support, as fixes and troubleshooting are often also support tasks.
- Predictive maintenance: A predictive approach uses data and analytics to predict potential network complications and tackle them proactively.
- Adaptive maintenance: As an organization evolves, its technology demands change. An adaptive approach implements upgrades and improvements to keep the network up-to-date with the latest technology, security standards, and best practices. For example, introducing an AI-powered tool to audit network settings.
Who conducts network maintenance?
Network maintenance is carried out by three main groups:
- In-house IT team: An organization’s internal IT department can handle the core network maintenance procedures—software management, hardware and bandwidth checks, traffic monitoring, security, and compliance. They sometimes bring in third-party IT professionals to support more complex maintenance and management issues.
- Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs): OEMs often offer a maintenance contract with their hardware or software. They contribute to the organization’s network maintenance by providing specialized support and updates for their equipment and software.
- Third-party maintenance: Given the expertise involved in managing modern IT architecture, many companies outsource network maintenance to a specialist managed service provider. They may either outsource the entire function and receive end-to-end support or engage a provider to assist the internal team with specific challenges or projects.
Why Is Network Maintenance Important?
Your network is your company’s central nervous system, and a good maintenance program promotes a healthy system. Poor maintenance inevitably results in business interruption, extra costs, and frustrated customers and employees.
Consider these advantages of a disciplined maintenance approach:
Less downtime
Effectively maintaining your network makes it less vulnerable to disruptions and downtime. One, because you keep the assets in good shape, and two, because you identify minor problems before they cause device failure and crashes.
Maximizing your uptime allows you to maintain crucial business operations and deliver greater customer satisfaction
Improved network performance
Regular maintenance ensures that all your network components, from routers to servers, perform at their peak. Proactive maintenance highlights weak areas, enabling you to take action to improve aspects like speed, reliability, and overall performance.
Better security
Protecting your company from cyber threats such as malware, unauthorized access, and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks is an urgent business concern—indeed, cybersecurity is a priority for 76% of global companies (2023).
Ongoing maintenance includes updating software security features and resolving misconfigurations. This limits surfaces for cybercriminals to attack. Implementing new and updated solutions to fortify security is also good maintenance practice.
Money savings
A major crash usually involves more costly repairs than routine preventative fixes. In addition to expensive repairs, unplanned downtime and data breaches impact a company’s pocket in other ways. Destroyed data, lost revenues, fines, and reputational damage are some of the consequences.
Ongoing maintenance helps prevent these nightmare scenarios.
Key Components Of Network Maintenance
Here are nine crucial network maintenance tasks and procedures.
Regular network monitoring
Performance monitoring across the network is critical to keep operations running smoothly. Tracking key network performance metrics, like traffic, bandwidth usage, latency, and packet loss (data lost in transmission), allows you to detect potential headaches early.
Software and firmware updates
Updating software is a vital maintenance task. Failure to update your software and firmware means you don’t benefit from the latest features and performance boosts. Crucially, it also poses a security risk because outdated cyber shields don’t protect you from the latest threats.
Managing bandwidth
Bandwidth management is all about ensuring this essential resource is used efficiently and effectively.
Bandwidth monitoring and analysis during maintenance flags misuse and helps optimize usage. Optimized bandwidth means critical applications proceed with zero lag while other users on the network can do their jobs without system delays.
If your team regularly maxes out bandwidth, it could signal that an upgrade or additional allocation is necessary.
Inspecting hardware
Like all equipment, network devices and infrastructure suffer wear and tear over time. Frequent inspections of routers, switches, and other critical hardware alert you to items needing replacement.
Overheating, strange noises, and slower performance are signs that equipment is approaching its end life. Wiring and cabling, connections, fans, and device filters should also be on the checklist.
Diagnostics and troubleshooting
Running diagnostics regularly helps you get “under the hood” and highlights issues that routine maintenance might overlook. The right diagnostic tools and techniques pinpoint the specific cause of the network problem. Then, you can dive in and troubleshoot to restore proper service.
Diagnostics also provide insights into network performance, allowing you to eliminate bottlenecks, optimize traffic flow, and raise performance
Preemptive repairs
Preemptive repairs and replacements are a valuable part of the process. This involves regular interventions on a set schedule based on time or usage.
For instance, a particular component (e.g. a server fan) may be working fine, but historical stats or manufacturer guidance indicate it’s nearing the end of its working life. In this case, proactive replacement is a smart move.
Data backup
A rigorous data backup policy is imperative to prevent file loss and damage. Besides daily backup of critical network data, this plan should include:
- Multiple locations: Backups in various locations for added security.
- Automated backups: Backups running automatically on a fixed schedule.
- Restore testing: Testing of restore procedures every quarter to ensure data is accessible and intact.
- Data encryption: Encrypting backup data to protect sensitive information.
Network documentation
A good maintenance protocol involves maintaining and updating documentation, which entails detailing all network devices, infrastructure, and configurations.
This provides a record for future reference and is especially relevant when more than one party handles maintenance, such as an internal team and professional providers. It also helps with troubleshooting and identifying recurring problems.
Documentation typically includes a network maintenance checklist that covers:
- Asset checked
- Time and date of every activity (patches, fixes, updates)
- The reason for the activity
- The person who handled the task
Security audits
Audits of your organization’s security environment cover several essential questions:
- Are firewalls adequate and current?
- Do user access controls need updating?
- Are access authentications sufficiently secure?
- Are passwords secure; do password controls need updating?
- Is proper regulatory compliance in place?
- Are devices and software configured correctly?
Best Practices For Network Maintenance
Incorporating the following best practices helps keep your network in good health:
Network maintenance plan
A network maintenance plan is a valuable blueprint to organize and guide your maintenance initiatives. It doesn’t have to be complex but should include:
- Schedules and timeliness, covering software updates, hardware maintenance, and backups.
- Hardware replacement, including an inventory of all network devices, as well as their purchase dates and warranty information. A clear policy for replacing aging network hardware is very helpful in this regard.
- Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), documenting network maintenance procedures, including troubleshooting steps, security protocols, and emergency response procedures.
Scheduled maintenance
As mentioned, scheduled maintenance should be part of your plan. This discipline helps identify and address potential issues before they become critical and cause downtime. It ensures all network components function optimally, contributing to infrastructure reliability and performance.
Examples of scheduled maintenance include:
- Preemptive repairs
- Scheduled updates
- Critical security patches
- Performance checks
Use automated tools
Utilizing automated tools for network maintenance ensures consistent monitoring and management. These tools can perform tasks like the following easily and to scale:
- Backup scheduling
- Traffic analysis
- Security updates
- Patch management
Good vendor relations
Vendor and OEM support play a key role in network maintenance. The original hardware and software providers offer expert knowledge, timely updates, and specialized tools. Maintaining good relations ensures quick, convenient access to these vendor advantages.
Disaster recovery plan (DRP)
Disaster recovery planning is incorporated into network maintenance to ensure a disaster event (cyberattack, a major hardware failure, or a natural disaster like a fire or flood) doesn’t cripple your business and network operations.
Without a proper DRP, you risk extended downtime and loss of data and revenue. A well-structured plan builds resilience and operational stability through:
- Regular data backups
- Failover systems
- Clear recovery procedures
- Automating certain recovery and response tasks
How Can Homefield IT Help You Maintain Your Network?
Homefield IT offers comprehensive managed network services backed by 21 years of experience and innovation.
Our full-coverage network maintenance service takes care of your hardware and software as if it were our own. We optimize your operations and security, and manage bandwidth adjustment. We also support your business scaling and can help create network documentation.
Working with us, you can expect:
- Affordable expertise: We understand that IT budgets are often tight. We work with you to tailor an affordable maintenance plan aligned with your goals. Our expertise helps our clients make more cost-effective network investments, and we constantly review ways to create extra technology for your buck.
- Cutting-edge tech: We’re passionate about technology that makes network management smarter and more efficient. We leverage the latest tools, technologies, and techniques to maintain a secure, smart, and future-fit network.
- Ongoing support: When choosing a network maintenance provider, you want a partner who is there for you when you need them. We understand how critical your network is to your business, so we stand by our clients around the clock.
A network maintenance plan with Homefield IT means 24/7 professional technical support, ensuring your IT network’s stability, security, and uninterrupted availability.
Our 4.9-star review rating and Top Managed Service Provider award (2024) reflect our commitment to great customer service.
let’s talk about tomorrow’s network maintenance today!
FAQ’s
Can small businesses handle network maintenance in-house?
Small businesses can often handle general network maintenance like software updates, backups, and hardware checks. However, for major tasks like cybersecurity management, server maintenance, or troubleshooting complex network issues, outsourcing to a managed IT service provider is often recommended.
What is the difference between network maintenance and network support?
Network maintenance involves regularly scheduled tasks to keep your network running smoothly and prevent issues. Network support focuses on resolving problems and assisting when issues arise. Generally, maintenance is more proactive, although good support can also be proactive.The two functions overlap at times and often work hand-in-hand to ensure network efficiency and security.
How often should you perform network maintenance?
The frequency of network maintenance depends on the size and complexity of your network.
- Critical data should be backed up daily.
- Routine maintenance should be done weekly or monthly.
- Major updates, hardware inspections, and audits (including security and network performance audits) should be conducted quarterly (for complex networks) or annually.
Contact us to get started
Find out how Homefield IT can turbocharge your technology.