Choosing the Right IT Network Infrastructure For Your Business
Posted in Computers on October 12th, 2009 by ComputersNo matter how large or small your business is, you will find that if you want to make sure that it has a future that you will need to think about what you can do to make sure that it has the proper infrastructure. If you are someone who has any say in how the IT infrastructure of your business is going to be designed, you have an important task ahead of you. This can affect the way that your business communicates internally and with the outside world for the next several years, and the right choice will pay for itself over and over again, while the wrong one will leave you with upgrades that you will be regretting sooner rather than later. Take some time and make sure that you consider what your options are when it comes to IT infrastructure, and make sure that you understand them thoroughly.
First and most commonly in place now is the use of an Ethernet structure. With Ethernet, you will essentially be using structured cabling with Cat5 Ethernet cords to make sure that every main socket in your office building is taken care of. As we grow more and more reliant on computers, most of today’s PCs are hooked up through Cat5 cabling. It is perhaps the easiest to explain, and without a doubt, there is a good chance that you have used it before. With many organizations currently moving from 10 BaseT to 100Mb-switched, there are now many companies that are declaring themselves Ethernet only when it comes to networking.
The next choice that you have in front of you is going to be ATM. Although it is considered more problematic to install, and more complicated than Ethernet, there is still a great deal of support for this structure. Now that we are seeing high bandwidth OC-48 switches, we are seeing ATM systems that are increasingly fit to deal with ATM and I protocols. When you are looking to the future, you will see that companies like Newbridge and Cisco are coming to a place where they are providing more IP over ATM services, and this particular infrastructure is seeing something of a renaissance.
Finally, you will find that DSL is seeing a lot of play and it is being touted as the infrastructure that is most friendly and most compatible with the office with people spread across the city. You will find that when you are investigating this option that there are fewer of this type available, but this is due to change shortly. With more and more people telecommuting as time goes on, this type of infrastructure is going to see some phenomenal growth.
Take some time and make sure that you know where your company is going to go before you invest in infrastructure architecture. Unless you have put some thought into what is going to happen with your company and where it will be in the next few years, you are going to find that you are in a difficult place in no time at all. Plan out your infrastructure architecture and reap the rewards later on.