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Bandwidth can be greedy. Regardless of how much bandwidth a network has, there's always a need for more. And even if there's no actual need, everyone wants more.
More bandwidth can make backups faster and more reliable, improve communications and data sharing between groups and can allow complex applications to run more smoothly.
Increased bandwidth can improve communications and data sharing between groups. Customers can consider deploying large file transfers or network storage solutions. Voice over IP solutions is yet another network stressor that benefit from network upgrades.
Upgrading also allows complex applications to run more smoothly. Applications generally drive network upgrades because handling multiple tasks and calculations require a lot of network throughput. Take video for example. Even though video servers use multicasting and compression to be more bandwidth-efficient, video that is simultaneously viewed by a large number of employees can strain the corporate network.
Whatever the need, more and more customers are approaching solution providers about installing a 10-Gigabit Ethernet core, or upgrading the existing infrastructure to 10-Gigabit Ethernet. Despite the fact that 10G is just another (albeit, faster) standard for Ethernet, upgrading is not as simple as just using a different network card. There are cabling decisions to be made, new switches and routers to be purchased, and environmental concerns such as space and power to calculate. For this Solutions That Work, the CRN Test Center spoke with Chris Ludwig, the regional director of practice management of Waltham, Mass.-based solution provider NWN, about upgrading the network core to 10G.
Networking vendors have long scrabbled for market share, and 10G products are no different. Of course, the big names, such as Cisco Systems and Foundry Networks, have been delivering 10G products for years, but there are other vendors who've carved out a space for themselves. Force 10 Networks offers both switches and routers in its Force10 E-Series. While Hewlett-Packard's HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9300M Series does not fall in the category of an entry-level device, it's still affordable enough to be used in small deployments. Other vendors include Extreme Networks, Nortel Networks and Woven Systems.
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