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Keeping abreast of all the advances in computing technology such as VOIP, Layer 4
switching, 100BASE-T, 1000BASE-T, VLAN, and Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) are
critical to the network planning process and vital to the success of your corporate
network.
So you treat the issue with the remedies you have available; you share, route, switch,
replace various pieces of hardware, reconfigure or segment your LAN, or migrate to a
higher-speed network. Most of these treatments require some type of capital outlay out of
your budget and may not address the root cause of the issue.
Keep in mind, the vast majority of bandwidth throughput issues that are being addressed
today take place on networks running 10Base-T or switched 100Base-T.
Just imagine when you run full-duplex 1000Base-T…
Another road less traveled in optimizing bandwidth and overall network performance is to
look at the very information highway that your data travels over. In order for your
high-performance data network to run at ever increasing speeds the "road" must
be in race condition. If we take this analogy one step further, all aspects of your road
including the off-ramps must be in similar race condition.
Your cabling plant, from the hub, patch cord, patch-panel, horizontal cable, wall outlet,
and patch cord, to workstation must work well together. Each component mentioned has
physical performance values, most notably impedance. The impedance values of each
connection point and media when matched with similar components performs at its optimal.
Having products mated together that are not "tuned" to work together causes
reduced throughput. Physical performance of each component, operating in unison (tuned),
optimizes your throughput and reduces network errors.
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How to Maximize Your Return on Investment
It is mission critical that today's information systems professional understand the latest
technologies and also understand how to avoid spending 30 percent of every dollar on
non-revenue producing expenses. In order to do this; technology investments must be viewed
as assets with a useful life, or life cycle. Up-front cost vs. lifecycle investment is
really the choice, each having its merits.
If you are planning on being in your facility for a short period of time (18 months) and
have minimal technology upgrade needs (10Base-T) then maximizing your investment may be to
buy a lower performance network infrastructure.
If on the other hand, you just signed a ten year lease, are having a building built, plan
on growing, view technology as a strategic competitive advantage, and want to guard
against obsolescence, you should plan for a robust infrastructure with room to grow
(headroom).
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