Switching and Routing

Switching

ANS Group can help to make your Network efficient, reliable, and secure..As your business grows, innovative LAN switch designs protect your investment while preparing you for the future.

Local-area network (LAN) switches are at the core of all networks, providing high-speed connectivity, applications, and communications systems. Today's networks not only need to efficiently and securely transmit bandwidth-intensive data, voice, video, and wireless applications, they also need to provide for evolving traffic patterns, new services, and optimized application performance. To meet current and future network needs, all LAN switch designs must incorporate the following six attributes:

• Application Intelligence
• Unified Network Services
• Nonstop Communications
• Virtualization
• Integrated Security
• Operational Manageability

Intelligent Switches Address Today's Challenges

In today's increasingly complex business environments, the network is facing new challenges and must offer more services than ever before. Applications, and the network infrastructure of switches and routers that transport them, are crucial tools for enhancing user productivity and increasing an organization's ability to grow and remain competitive. Large enterprises, small businesses, educational institutions, and government agencies alike must optimize their network switching. This entails these organizations deriving the greatest value from their existing infrastructures while positioning themselves to take full advantage of such technological innovations as IP telephony and wireless LANs.

Instead of purchasing point switching products, organizations can use a systems approach of data switch and wireless switch equipment, to build integrated, secure, resilient networks that incorporate intelligence. This approach helps them to quickly and easily deploy new applications and communications systems that merge wireless, voice, video, and storage capabilities.

Organizations are investing in providing greater access to advanced applications across extended geographies, which creates new network infrastructure demands, including requirements for:

• More network switch capacity to support bandwidth-hungry applications
• Converged services support including IP telephony, voice over WLANs, and video services
• High availability and uninterrupted access to information assets enterprisewide
• Greater protection against internal and external security threats
• More manageable solutions as IT administrators seek to reduce cost and complexity of network switches

The operational gap between IT staffing levels and the requirements that companies are placing on their networks continues to widen, especially in small and medium-sized organizations where resources are typically limited. Organizations must use network switches with more intelligent features and functionality to:

• Ensure the availability of bandwidth-intensive applications
• Enable greater simplicity in terms of automating time-consuming IT tasks
• Provide new functionality to allow people to get the most value from their applications

Routing

The network router is quickly evolving from a device dedicated to connecting disparate networks to an integrated services device capable of multiple functions beyond routing. Cisco customers are increasingly deploying integrated services routers, or sophisticated network routers that can deliver voice, video, data and Internet access, wireless, and other applications.

Benefits of the Integrated Services Network Router

Growing companies, especially those opening new offices, can take advantage of integrated network router solutions that are highly secure, flexible, and built to be compatible with future technologies.

• One Device, Multiple Functions
• Same Access at Headquarters and Remote Sites
• Centralized Management
• Integrated Network Security

By installing a complete solution and managing it centrally, companies can protect valuable corporate data using multiple types of protection, such as encryption, firewall filtering, antivirus protection, and intrusion detection and prevention.  From reduced capital and operating expenses to increased productivity, the advantages of integrated services apply regardless of the size of company. A small company with two offices can benefit as much as a company with hundreds of branch offices.

The Value of Integrating Applications in the Network

Businesses today demand more from their networks than ever before. Networks today now need to support all forms of media-including data, voice, and video-to enhance business communications and lower operating costs. Access has also changed, as thousands of new devices connect to the network via wireless and wired connections.

To solve these pressing challenges, organizations need their networks to contain intelligence and play an active role in securely integrating applications in a way that is easy to manage. Intelligent networks integrate many advanced applications into an adaptable, pervasive, and collaborative system.

• Integrated Security
• IP Communications
• Wireless

IP-based voice, wireless, and security are only the first in a new wave of advanced applications that are beginning to powerfully change the ways in which businesses operate. Organizations must consider how they can best enable their networks today so that their companies can continuously take advantage of new applications quickly, secure them easily, and manage them efficiently in pursuit of their business goals.