Google Networking Best Practices for Large Deployments - Manual (Page 13)

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Chapter 5
Network Evaluation
Chapter 5
Summary
When planning for the implementation, you will achieve better results if you first understand
your current network capacity and the expected amount of network load from Google Apps.
The best way to predict how much load to expect is to benchmark your bandwidth usage in
your network, and create a test environment to simulate how much capacity each user will
require. This section discusses approaches to test your network environment in detail.
If you have already deployed Google Apps without running environment tests and
benchmarking, it may still be valuable to do so, since this may give a benchmark for future
planning and capacity requirements, and may help to identify potential issues before they
affect your users’ experience.
Test Your Network Environment
To see the best results, test your network environment prior to deploying Google Apps to
discover any possible issues. Network testing prior to a Google Apps implementation is
primarily focused on assessing capacity and performance of network bottlenecks, Internet
proxies, firewalls, and any other network components responsible for routing or monitoring
Internet-based traffic.