Problem to Solve:  With the popularity of the video streaming of the NCAA Basketball tournament, how can I be sure that our network does not collapse under the load?

Under the definition of irony, would be a picture of me .. writing a blog showing how the NCAA tournament adversely affects your network utilization.   I LOVE NCAA BASKETBALL. So this hurts me to my very core.  😳 

However, with the multitude of video streaming media options available for watching the tournament (on phones, tablets, computers, etc), the effect of the video pumping across your network infrastructure is undeniable. The old notion of “shoving a basketball through a straw” comes to mind.    

NCAA Streaming Video

Additionally, think of all of the critical and relevant services that run across your company’s Internet pipe.  The streaming NCAA Video content although hugely entertaining, directly affects business services.  Anything ranging from your company’s:

• Cloud access
• Company home page
• VPN Remote Users
• Office365 access
• B2B links
• E-Commerce
• ETC

This all being said, one of my colleagues, Mr. Kevin Morton created a very nice configuration document that we are making available as a public service on the topic. The PDF document contains the streaming media servers, content engines, etc, relevant to any solution that you would choose to monitor the traffic. Here is the link to view Kevin’s document.

Kevin Morton March Madness 2017  (updated)

I hope that you find this a helpful document, and a thank you to Kevin for sharing.