How do you analyze network traffic and employee utilization when planning to scale a small network?

Use a protocol analyzer to capture traffic during peak times on different segments and classify it by source, destination, and type; use OS built-in tools to snapshot per-host OS, CPU, RAM, drive, and application usage over time.

Protocol Analysis:

• To understand the traffic crossing the network, capture traffic during peak utilization to get a representative sample.
• Capture on different segments and devices, since some traffic stays local to a segment.
• Evaluate captures by source, destination, and type of traffic, then use the results to decide how to manage traffic more efficiently.

Employee Network Utilization:

Operating systems include built-in tools to snapshot per-host utilization, including:

• OS and OS version
• CPU utilization
• RAM utilization
• Drive utilization
• Non-network applications
• Network applications

Documenting these snapshots over time reveals evolving protocol requirements and traffic flows.

Key insight: This combination tells you not just how much traffic exists but what kind and from whom, which is what justifies budget and equipment decisions when scaling.

Go deeper:

• Wikipedia — Packet analyzer — how a protocol analyzer captures and decodes traffic by source, destination, and type (Wireshark, tcpdump, etc.).