The emergance of convergence

LAN: There are many demands being made on the Local Area Network these days as users look for the ability to transfer large files, prioritise business applications, Voice over the network, Video, fast access to the Internet, E-mail, and much more. This is creating an upward pressure from users to IT managers to increase network bandwidth, moving to Gigabit.

With particular focus on the desire to use the LAN to deliver Voice and Video, it is essential that this type of traffic can be prioritised to deliver Quality of Service. Network upgrades must include Network Switches, intelligent and manageable devices that can deliver this capability.

Commsworld promote and support two sets of Network Switching solutions from HP and Cisco. Whilst there is no doubt that Cisco is by far the market leader in this marketplace, in our opinion the HP Procurve range has a lot to offer when it comes to functionality and management, with an excellent price per port threshold.

WAN: As organisations plan to go out into the Wide Area Network with their business applications, there are important implications, depending on the type of WAN platform, that need to be addressed. Firstly any access to the public Internet must be fire walled.

As a Gold Partner of Equiinet Netpilot solutions, we have a range of options that not only have a certified firewall, but can offer multi-functional features covering E-mail server, Web server, Web Cache, Anti Virus protection, URL filtering and more. In addition, Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunnelling offers a secure access to your network and files for you remote branches and travelling users. The ability to pull up such a tunnel through the Internet from anywhere in the world, has seen a large uptake in organisations implementing this solution.

For other Private Networks and VPN cloud structures, consideration needs to be made as to the style of edge device possible. Whilst Cisco Routers are the market leading, established solution, and there is a vast range of solutions available, this is not the only option.

With the new range of integrated solutions such as is offered by Avaya in the IP Office, this gives the option to use the built-in router on this device to replace the need for a separate external router.