A bottleneck is a component in your IT systems or services which has the capability of slowing down everything else, typically because data has to flow through a specific component or part of your network before it can go anywhere else.
Bottlenecks occur in all aspects of business, from production to IT or even human resources, where some or all of your output needs to be approved by one or a few people.
However, computer and network bottlenecks have become an increasingly common discussion point in recent years, in part due to increases in the prices of certain computer parts leading to processing limitations.
Theoretically, every computer has a bottleneck, but to understand where it might be a problem for your business and what you can do about it, here is a guide to bottlenecks in IT.
What Causes Bottlenecks?
Bottlenecks can happen for a wide variety of reasons throughout your business, but in the context of IT, the two biggest causes are related to data, either passing through your network or within a particular machine.
Hardware Bottlenecks
In a typical computer process, data in the form of instructions and results passes through the motherboard and other circuitry within your computer from one component to the next, either in the form of inputs from the user or outputs that are displayed to the user.
Theoretically, any component in your computer can potentially cause a bottleneck, but here are the five most common causes:
- Central Processing Unit – Your computer slows down when attempting to make many complex calculations or undertake many tasks at once.
- Graphics Processing Unit – Your computer slows down when attempting to render complex graphics or do GPU-intensive tasks.
- Random Access Memory – Your computer lacks short-term memory, so it slows down whilst it finds space to put temporary data.
- Storage Media – Your computer takes a long time to load or save data as it is limited by the capabilities of your hard disk, pen drive or optical media.
- Display Monitors – Your monitor or laptop display is at a low resolution, making high-quality graphics difficult to see and appreciate.
Depending on how programs are coded and how you are using applications, the effects of a bottleneck can be limited to certain tasks or have the power to slow down or even stop a computer from functioning properly.
Network Bottlenecks
Similarly, limits in the hardware of your server, your router, your computer’s modem/Wi-Fi capabilities and limits in the complex infrastructure of the internet at large can cause websites to sometimes be slow to load properly.
Are Bottlenecks Becoming More Common?
Whilst bottlenecks have always existed as the evolution of the software computers are used for often moves in different directions to existing hardware capabilities, the past decade has seen greater bottlenecks in recent years that are starting to cause serious issues for businesses.
A number of technological bubbles, most notably cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens and large-language model AI have created artificial demand for CPUs, GPUs and memory, significantly distorting and increasing prices by orders of magnitude.
Because of this, some companies are being put in the difficult position of either delaying the progressive upgrades of their equipment, opting for systems with lower capabilities and thus a higher risk of bottlenecks, or spending far more money for the same level of production.
The end of support for Windows 10, an operating system many companies still used because there was no point in fixing what was not broken, in favour of the less efficient and more resource-intensive Windows 11, has only accentuated this bottleneck.
Windows 11 requires not only higher hardware specifications but a component known as a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), a chip which allows for greater security through a physical cryptographic key.
Not having this processor was a remarkably common bottleneck that stopped businesses from upgrading for many years, and it became significantly worse when security updates were no longer provided to a significant portion of the user base.
How Do You Prevent Bottlenecks In Your IT Systems?
Thankfully, preventing bottlenecks does not always require hardware upgrades but simply an understanding of what components and what software are causing issues with your computer and acting accordingly to manage these issues.
First of all, use a computer monitoring tool such as Windows Task Manager and click on the Performance tab. This will show you all of your components and provide visual metrics on how they are being used.
The higher the percentage, the more they are being taxed, and the closer they are to 100 per cent, the greater the chance that they are causing a bottleneck.
The Processes tab will also provide information on which specific task or application is causing bottlenecks, which can help shape your behaviour to avoid slowing everything down.