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May 16, 2008
• Vol.30 Issue 20
Page(s) 10 in print issue
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A LAN Upgrade: The Preparation Phase
Before Buying Any Equipment Or Services, Get An Idea Of What You Need
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When a company has outgrown its current LAN setup, it’s likely time for an upgrade to the latest equipment and services. But before heading off on a shopping spree, take plenty of time for preparation, experts note.
Much like renovating a house, a major upgrade requires that IT departments ask a slew of questions to make the process more manageable and also to create a long-term strategy that will keep the upgrade in place for years to come, rather than a change that turns out to be a short-term, temporary solution.
 Do You Need The Revamp?
The first step, according to research firm Info-Tech, is to determine whether an upgrade is even needed. In a recent report, the firm noted that new features, functionality, and performance characteristics are becoming more available for LAN products, leading many enterprises to evaluate doing a refresh or even a significant upgrade.
But making the decision to execute a LAN refresh too early can be costly because infrastructure has to be replaced and may not have reached its full utilization level yet. At the same time, waiting too long can burden the budget with unnecessary maintenance and downtime.
The trick, then, is to find the “sweet spot,” Info-Tech’s report notes, where full value can be obtained from the existing infrastructure before it begins failing. For that, there are several main drivers that tend to kick off a LAN upgrade, the research firm points out: the age and reliability of the infrastructure; new applications and services, such as IP telephony; the requirement for more capacity or new features; and company growth, a merger or acquisition, or a mandate from the head office.
Set A Direction
Once the decision is made to embark on an upgrade, it’s time to understand what will be involved, but that doesn’t mean simply knowing what’s new and compelling in the marketplace.
Jeremy O’Dette, spokesperson for assessment advisory firm Tempest Networking (www
.tempestnetworking.com), says that many small to midsized enterprises see an upgrade as swapping out equipment, but there may have been other shifts at the company to consider when doing an upgrade.
“Is your company using video over IP or considering it for the future?” O’Dette asks. “Are security concerns the same now as when the LAN was first implemented? The best thing that people can do is to take stock of how business needs may have changed, since that will lead them down a better path to purchasing.”
Also crucial to note in the preparation stage is what type of in-house support and skills are present, O’Dette adds. There are many products that might be useful in the environment, but if the technology is too maintenance-intensive, it could make an upgrade more of a headache than an improvement. “You want to look for ease of administration upfront because you don’t want a solution that works great on the first day, but three months later turns out to be a monster,” he says.
Traffic, Performance & Capacity
Part of creating a cohesive strategy for an upgrade is to understand what's already in place. According to the Info-Tech report, two of the most important steps are to document and diagram the current LAN, in order to understand its topology and design, and to know how the LAN performs, including traffic patterns, performance characteristics, and capacity requirements.
O’Dette recommends that SMEs leverage technology such as distributed sniffing or NetFlow, an open but proprietary network protocol that Cisco (www.cisco.com) developed. Getting a sense of overall traffic is important, he says, but it’s also vital to understand different patterns.
For example, an SME may look at general traffic numbers at a time when there is no downloading being done and skimp on bandwidth. Or a slice of traffic could be extracted that is wildly inflated because an employee was doing backup over the T1 line, O’Dette says. “Often, the first thing that falls by the wayside is examining traffic, since the IT staff doesn’t have much time for that,” he says. “But when doing preparation for an upgrade, it’s your best way to get a sense of what you need.”
Planning tools can be especially helpful when making upgrades, particularly if wireless is involved, because enterprises will have to consider areas of weak coverage.
“A major question is whether you have enough capacity to meet any future requirements from users,” says Rachna Ahlawat, Meru Networks’ (www.merunetworks.com) vice president of strategic marketing. “If users aren’t mobile now, will they be in the future? What role will wireless play, and where will the equipment be placed that can provide the most access?” These types of questions can help refine a strategy, she adds.
Tweak The System
In addition to a possible leap to a WAN, it’s also crucial to think about any changes to bandwidth, notes J.P. Hebert, vice president of business development at Elfiq Networks (www.elfiq.com), developer of bandwidth management systems. Because bandwidth is available at extremely affordable rates, enterprises tend to buy as much as they can, he says, but they should also be thinking about diversification in order to have redundancy in the system.
Elfiq, for example, uses both DSL and cable modems because they are different networks within the local area. So if one goes down, the other will stay running, and the company won’t suffer from the outage. Other options include microwave technology, Hebert says, or even a cell phone data plan for smaller offices, with a management system in place that can handle all of it.
“Having more bandwidth than you need, and in a diversified form, gives an enterprise a greater sense of resiliency,” says Hebert. “Buy more bandwidth than you need now because there are people watching videos online and downloading large files, and who knows what other technologies and trends are coming. It’s better to be prepared and take the time for planning now, instead of being caught short in the future.” 
by Elizabeth Millard
Preparation Lineup
1. Determine whether an upgrade is necessary based on age of equipment and current functionality.
2. Look at upcoming needs stemming from company growth and applications, such as video over IP.
3. Research hardware and applications, including planning tools, that fit with existing levels of in-house expertise.
4. Understand and assess current traffic patterns.
5. Determine capacity by talking to departments about potential future requirements.
6. Consider making a shift to WAN and buying management tools for both types of networks.
7. Make sure to diversify bandwidth, if possible, such as getting both DSL and cable.
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