Intelligent silicon heralds cost savings

Intelligent switches used at the edge of the network could reduce performance improvement costs through investment in selective problem areas.

Network giant 3Com argues that network managers can keep the costs of vital network improvements down by making small investments in crucial parts of the network rather than generic upgrades of the entire system.

"Network managers should move away from one-size-fits-all, and only treat those parts of the network where larger capacity is needed," said Karen Oddey, vice president marketing and business strategy at 3Com.

She advised network managers to use smart switches at the edge of the network that can handle future demand through load balancing, application prioritisation and content management. "These switches enable instant peer-to-peer communication that bypasses the central server to avoid network congestion and improve performance," Oddey said.

Tony Lock, senior analyst at Bloor Research, believes that in a few years networks will require more sophisticated routing. Even simple network architectures that cover no more than one building, he predicts, will notice fluctuations in network traffic from notorious bandwidth hoggers such as video conferencing.

"The majority of companies are happy with their network architecture, but this is set to change in a few years time," said Lock. "When capacity needs improvement, don't upgrade all of your network but get a real solution for specific areas"

Layer 4 switches could provide one answer by recognising the type of application running on the network, and then setting priority levels to improve user experience.

"Managed chips are now nearly as cheap as unmanaged chips used to be. This makes them affordable to more companies and allows them to target specific network areas and apply 10Gbit Ethernet only where it is needed," said Nick Ruczaj, business manager at 3Com.

Although in agreement, Lock believes that greater competition and better production methods could force prices down further and functionality up in the future.

"Better technology is always just around the corner. But if you have a business need now you need to buy today," he said. "Don't close your door to future network expansion. Sophisticated switches allow you to upgrade that part of the network where you get most business benefit."