Network Audits: Why They're Important and How to Conduct One

Think about the last time your team experienced a slowdown. Maybe it was a sluggish file transfer, a glitchy video call, or a security update that seemed to come out of nowhere. These small issues add up and often signal a deeper story about your network’s health.  

A network audit helps uncover that story. It’s not about reacting to disaster; it’s about understanding what’s working, what’s vulnerable, and where there’s room for improvement. In this post, we’ll explore what a network audit involves, its benefits, and some key steps to conducting one. We’ll also share how a managed network services provider like Techmedics can help streamline the process and keep your infrastructure aligned with your business goals.  

What is a Network Audit?

A network audit is a broad assessment of your network’s infrastructure, performance, compliance, and scalability. It examines all aspects of a network, including hardware, software, capacity planning, traffic flow, and overall efficiency.

Network audits typically have various types, including:

• Network performance audit: Evaluating the responsiveness, speed, and efficiency of the network.
• Network security audit: Identifying network vulnerabilities, risks, and gaps in an IT infrastructure and security policies to protect against cyberthreats and breaches.
• Network configuration audit: Reviewing the configurations and settings of network devices like routers, access points, servers, and firewalls.
• Network architecture audit: Evaluating the overall design and structure of the network to ensure resiliency and scalability.
• Network compliance audit: Ensuring the network complies with relevant regulatory standards and frameworks like HIPAA, NIST 800-171, and CMMC.
• Network inventory audit: Creating and maintaining a comprehensive record of all hardware software components within the network.

A network audit is akin to a routine car inspection — even if everything looks fine on the surface, a thorough check can help you ensure problems don’t turn into major complications.

What are the Benefits of Conducting Network Audits?

Regular network audits can offer several advantages to businesses looking to strengthen their IT environment:

1. Enhanced Security

Network audits can help you identify vulnerabilities like outdated software, incorrectly configured firewalls, or weak passwords. Plus, they can help identify unknown or unauthorized devices connected to your small business IT network. These proactive measures can significantly reduce the risk of cyberattacks and data breaches.

2. Better Network Performance

Audits involve analyzing network traffic patterns, identifying performance issues and failure points, and optimizing network uptime. This is ideal if your business constantly suffers from resource misallocations, outdated configurations, and traffic bottlenecks.

3. Proactive Issue Detection

By regularly reviewing your network, you can proactively detect operational problems and security risks. This allows for timely interventions, preventing system failures before they disrupt business operations, affecting data integrity, or causing downtime.

4. Cost Efficiency

Audits can highlight unnecessary expenses, such as bandwidth usage, unused software licenses, or inefficient hardware. They help reduce the cost of IT support and ensure compliance, reducing the risk of fines and legal fees.

5. Smarter IT Planning

Network audits provide a clear snapshot of how your infrastructure is performing. With real data in hand, you can make confident, strategic decisions about upgrades, investments, and long-term IT planning.

How to Do a Network Audit

While the specifics of a network audit can vary depending on your business size, industry, and infrastructure, most audits follow a common framework. Here’s a high-level overview of what the process typically involves:

1. Define Your Objectives

Identify what you want to achieve from your network audit. Is it to better protect your business from malware and other cyberthreats? Or do you want to improve network performance to speed up data transfer speeds and improve your employees’ productivity? Defining your goals upfront ensures the audit stays aligned with your operational priorities.

2. Take Inventory and Map Your Network

Once you identify your objectives, make a list of all your hardware (e.g., routers, firewalls, servers, switches), and software (e.g., security tools, operating systems, applications) in your environment. Then, map out how these components connect – visually if possible – to understand how data flows, where potential gaps exist, and where unauthorized devices might appear.

Maintaining an updated inventory and network mapping allows you to track changes with your resources and detect unauthorized devices. They also improve troubleshooting and optimize network performance.

3. Identify Security Vulnerabilities

Performing security risk assessments can help you understand potential threats and vulnerabilities to your business’s infrastructure. This can then help you allocate resources and prioritize security efforts more effectively.

Here’s some things you can do during a risk assessment:

• Check for outdated software: Your older programs likely have security flaws that threat actors can exploit to infiltrate your systems.
• Review your firewall settings: Make sure your firewalls are properly configured to block unauthorized access and control incoming and outgoing traffic.
• Scanning for weak passwords: Use password scanning tools to identify accounts that use weak login credentials.
• Identify unauthorized devices: Check for unknown or unapproved devices connected to your network as hackers can use these as entry points to your infrastructure.
• Evaluating access permissions: Make sure your employees don’t have excessive access privileges. This reduces the risk of threats coming from inside your company.

4. Evaluate Network Performance

After assessing your security risks, you need to evaluate how efficiently and reliably your network is running and identify areas that might cause slowdowns or disruptions. You typically need to check for three things:

• Latency: How quickly data moves across your network. If it’s slow, employees and customers experience delays.
• Traffic bottlenecks: These are network areas where too much data is flowing simultaneously, resulting in slowdowns.
• Downtime issues: Instances when your network isn’t functioning, preventing employees from accessing services and using tools.

Thoroughly reviewing these metrics helps you deduce whether or not the network is meeting your business’s operational needs. You can also easily identify issues and improvements needed to enhance network speed and reliability.

5. Review Compliance

Depending on your industry, your network may need to comply with standards like HIPAA, NIST 800-171, or CMMC. A network audit helps you assess whether current configurations

and protocols meet those regulatory requirements, and what adjustments are needed to stay compliant.

6. Generate a Report & Action Plan

Now that you’ve assessed your risks, evaluated your network performance, and ensured compliance with industry standards, it’s time to develop a network audit report and action plan. This document should detail all of your findings about your business’s network, such as vulnerabilities and risks detected, traffic issues, and unauthorized access.

Next, list some initiatives your organization plans to implement to address these issues. These could include:

• Enforcing password policies and MFA
• Updating software and patching systems
• Monitoring network activity for anomalies
• Segmenting the network for better containment
• Backing up data regularly to prevent data loss
• Educating employees on proper cyber hygiene and how to avoid cyberthreats
• Adjusting bandwidth allocation and network configurations to improve speed and remove bottlenecks

7. Implement Recommendations

With a clear plan in place, begin rolling out changes. Prioritize based on risk level and business impact and consider working with a trusted IT partner to streamline implementation.

Signs Your Business Needs to Conduct a Network Audit

It’s generally recommended to conduct network audits once a year. However, there are certain indicators that suggest your business might need to perform one sooner, such as:

• ‍Unclear inventory of connected devices: You’re finding it difficult to track which hardware and software are being used within your company.‍
• Frequent network and connectivity issues: Employees are repeatedly complaining about lagging applications, inconsistent access to applications, or slow internet speeds.‍
• Increased cybersecurity concerns: Your business is constantly battling malware attacks, phishing attempts, and denial-of-service attacks.‍
• Compliance issues: You’re uncertain whether your organization meets industry regulation standards like HIPAA or CMMC.‍
• Expansion plans: If your business plans on adding new locations, scaling IT services, or leveraging new technologies, an audit can come in handy to ensure network reliability.

Partner with Techmedics for Reliable Network Audits and Proactive IT Management

A well-executed network audit is key to maintaining a secure, efficient, and resilient IT environment. But handling it internally isn’t always easy. That’s where Techmedics can help.

Whether you need expert guidance or full-service support, our team provides remote and onsite network management services tailored to your business. Our services include:

• Network design and optimization: Our team will help you achieve a stable IT network through LAN setup, VPN setup, and wired and wireless network design.
• Network monitoring and management: Detect issues before they cause downtime through continuous monitoring of traffic, performance, and network health.
• Network security: Using antivirus software, intrusion detection systems, and enterprise-grade firewalls to protect your system from cyberthreats.
• Cloud and hybrid network integration: Scalable on-premises and cloud networking environments through traffic optimization, workload balancing, and secure cloud connectivity.
• User support and troubleshooting: Our support team will promptly resolve your network issues so you can maintain seamless operations.

The best part? We serve any business across all industries in Dallas, Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and more.

Your network deserves reliable, expert care. Contact us today for a FREE consultation.

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