Netflow analyzer is a boon to ensure optimum bandwidth usage in networks irrespective of their size. Networks have gained prominence and priority in our lives and we largely depend on them for a variety of reasons. In this blog, I would explain how this technology could be used in the retail industry.
It is not uncommon to see stores like Lulu, Big Bazaar and Wal-Mart and they deal with huge amounts of data running on their networks. An interesting article on Reader's Digest even spoke about how much they were investing on something called Queue management algorithms. Everything right from managing the stock of products to bar coding them to logistics to monitoring through surveillance cameras is dependent on the network. Each operation is definitely going to consume bandwidth and they have a huge reach. For example, there is a chain of such retail outlets in one single city. This way there are several chains across an entire state or a country. This makes the amount of data handled huge. And most of this data needs to be accessible from one central location to ensure smooth running of the business and quick troubleshooting of issues that are likely to occur at any of these points.
So, the vitality of the network in this case cannot be ignored. A small glitch could lead to chaos at a large scale leading to frustration levels soaring high. A network slowdown could result in credit card payments getting rejected, delayed billing, long queues and ultimately overall chaos. So, the retailer cannot afford to make the mistake of choosing not to ensure proper network operation.
To get proper visibility into the network one needs a tool that would give a clear picture about how the network is being used. With Netflow Analyzer, it is possible to drill down to the root of all these issues and get information about top talkers, top applications, top protocols etc. upto a granularity of one minute. This information thus gives a lot scope for identifying traffic patterns. In case of a retail store, IP grouping option could be used to set up separate groups. For example, the IP addresses of the machines used for billing alone could be grouped together and the traffic pattern could give valuable insights into sales trends during different hours in a day. That way, the policies could be fine-tuned and better customer management policies could be brought in. If the traffic exceeds a particular limit during late evenings, additional billing machines could be added for those couple of hours alone leading to better queue management.
Thus, netflow analyzer becomes a very affordable solution to problems arising out of a problematic retail network and the ROI is guaranteed.
To download and try it free of cost with all its features for 30 days, click here.
