Managed IT Services Case Study: Stabilizing Network Performance for a Rapidly Scaling Administrative Services Firm
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The Situation
The client, an administrative support agency, was experiencing persistent network performance degradation that had become normalized over time. While full system outages were rare, recurring micro-events such as slow application response times and intermittent latency were frequent enough to impact productivity but subtle enough to be largely overlooked.
At the time, IT support was handled by a single in-house resource responsible for both technical and non-IT operational duties. Following a rapid business expansion in which the organization nearly doubled in size over a short period, these previously tolerated issues escalated into systemic performance failures.
As usage increased, the existing infrastructure was no longer able to sustain production workloads. Internal review revealed additional gaps, including the absence of standardized backup systems, inconsistent patch management, unstructured hardware lifecycle planning, and limited monitoring of core infrastructure components.
The Challenge
The primary challenge stemmed from cumulative performance degradation rather than a single catastrophic failure. Individual applications experienced extended load times often increasing from seconds to tens of seconds per instance. While the delay per event appeared minimal, the aggregate impact across multiple users accessing the same applications repeatedly throughout the day resulted in measurable productivity loss.
As performance declined, end users began experiencing workflow interruptions and increasing frustration. In some cases, employees were held accountable for delays that were ultimately infrastructure-related. The existing environment lacked the capacity, segmentation, and resource allocation necessary to scale alongside the organization’s growth.
The objective was to stabilize production, improve application performance, and increase overall network efficiency while maximizing the use of existing infrastructure and minimizing unnecessary capital expenditure.
The Solution
A multi-layered remediation strategy was implemented to address both immediate performance constraints and long-term scalability.
Personnel and Support Model Transition
The scope of the organization’s IT requirements had outgrown the capacity of a single internal support role. Rather than augmenting internal staffing incrementally, the client transitioned from a single-resource model to a managed services approach.
By reallocating the existing IT salary toward managed services, the organization gained access to a full team of specialists with expertise across networking, systems administration, virtualization, and monitoring resulting in broader coverage and reduced operational risk with minimal net cost increase.
Infrastructure Reconfiguration
While the client’s core networking hardware was sufficient, it was not optimally configured to support the expanded workload. Preferred re-architected the network by implementing a properly segmented Layer 3 design.
Application traffic, VoIP services, and guest network access were isolated into dedicated VLANs with appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) policies applied. This segmentation eliminated congestion points, reduced broadcast traffic, and ensured that latency-sensitive applications were prioritized appropriately.
Proactive Maintenance and Patch Management
A formalized maintenance schedule was established to support consistent patching, system updates, and infrastructure health checks. Continuous monitoring was deployed across servers and network components, allowing performance degradation and minor faults to be identified and remediated before impacting end users.
This proactive approach reduced reactive support incidents and stabilized day-to-day operations.
Virtualization Strategy
The existing workstation and server hardware environment was insufficient to support the required application workloads in its current configuration. Rather than replacing endpoint hardware, Preferred migrated the client from a traditional client-server model to a virtualized workstation environment.
This transition provided:
Centralized application and system management
Server-level redundancy and failover capabilities
A single point for updates and application changes
Significantly improved application performance
Elimination of immediate workstation hardware replacement
Simplified hardware lifecycle management
Near real-time provisioning for new employees
The Results - Stabilizing Network Performance
Following implementation, network performance stabilized, and application latency was effectively eliminated under normal operating conditions. Downtime was reduced to near zero, and the infrastructure was able to support the organization’s increased user count without further degradation.
By leveraging existing hardware, optimizing configuration, and adopting virtualization, the client avoided a large-scale capital hardware refresh, resulting in cost avoidance estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
With ongoing monitoring, scheduled maintenance, and 24/7 managed support, the environment has remained stable and scalable for multiple years, allowing the organization to operate at peak efficiency while accommodating continued growth.
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