Almost all of the users of your network will never be able to accurately judge the inherent quality of your network. Most will complain that they don’t have a GIG port at the desk, which makes the network “slow”. Few users will understand how network delay and TCP will incredibly decrease their transfer rate, regardless of their LAN port speed. Only the IT team will see all those great network templates you designed. And next to none will comprehend the elegance of a global, fully dynamic BGP design.
Alas, most users are going to decide if the network is good or bad based on how fast applications respond. Even when the server or the back-end network storage or the application itself is having a problem, users will immediately say “the network is slow”. Sigh.
So, one of the best ways to make your network “faster” is making the application faster. And since a lot of user applications these days run over HTTP in a web browser, I argue you should get a faster web browser. Enter Google Chrome.
I’ve been an IE user for years. Mostly because it had all my bookmarks and that a lot of internal, corporate web sites require it. Then my neighbor mentioned that he had tried Chrome when it was released and it was “FAST”. So, I gave it a spin. WOW! He wasn’t kidding…it is fast!
I have a My Yahoo page that is rather large. It includes 26 RSS feeds or Yahoo applets. It’s where I get all my news. It can take a while to load in IE, but loads very quickly in Chrome. In Chrome, it takes 5 seconds to load that page. In IE it took 15 seconds. NetworkWorld’s home page: Chrome in 9 seconds, 12 seconds in IE. Foxnews.com: Chrome = 11 seconds, IE = 16
It seems minor, but it adds up. Plus, Chrome paints the page faster so you see content earlier.
Chrome’s one drawback – and this is really not its fault – is some internal websites don’t work with it. They have been programmed to work with IE, using special Microsoft features. Thus, I am forced to use two browsers right now. But, it’s worth it. Internal, corporate web sites in IE, everything else in Chrome.
If you haven’t tried Chrome, go speed up your network today
More >From the Field blog entries:
Is Comcast’s Usage Cap Really That Bad?
Cisco’s Arrogance Bugs Me Again
Your Team Organization is Just as Important as Your Standards
