7 Common Network Latency Culprits

Latency is the time delay experienced between when an action is performed and when it is completed. When looking at enterprise devices that communicate over a data network, latency can be caused by any number of factors that may or may not be network-related. Yet, no matter how latency forms, the result is the same. Application performance is either degraded or unusable. Modern applications and architectures – including the cloud -- are becoming increasingly sensitive to latency. This is due to apps requiring real-time communication between a client and server. Thus, any slowdown or disruption in service is going to be abundantly clear to end-users. That's why it's so important to be able to troubleshoot and identify the most common network latency culprits quickly.

There are plenty of non-network related causes of application latency. For example, a misconfigured or faulty DNS server can severely degrade application performance. While not a true network latency issue, it certainly looks like one. Another common problem that's non-network related would be a backend database that's poorly optimized or over-utilized. This again will look and feel as though there is something wrong with the network when in reality it's a completely different part of the overall enterprise architecture. Lastly, latency can seem as though it’s the fault of the network, yet it ends up being that the end-user device is low on memory or CPU cycles to complete application instructions in a reasonable timeframe.

That said, our list of seven common network latency culprits are focused squarely on the network components that move data from point A to point B. This includes physical cabling and any network components between the source and destination IP address. We're talking routers, switches, and Wi-Fi access points, as well as other network devices that sit in-line with the network including application load balancers and security devices such as firewalls and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS). Really, anything that a typical network administrator would be responsible for making sure that data was flowing properly through these devices. And it's here where seven common latency offenders make a regular appearance. If you can quickly identify and remediate these, applications are far more likely to operate as intended.