A network is a foundation to connect storage, servers, printers, PCs, and wireless clients with business-critical applications to enhance productivity and customer satisfaction. And network switches are like the tyres of a car. Without them, the “car” cannot work normally. No matter the large enterprises, or small and midsize businesses, their systems and applications are interconnected and rely on the network. Today’s post is to introduce the managed switch and why it is important for business networks.
A managed switch is a type of Ethernet switch that has a fixed number of ports. It is designed to deliver the most precise control and management of networks. They are usually deployed in large networks or as core switches in relatively smaller networks. To introduce the basics of a managed switch in detail, here take the 24 port PoE switch as an example (as shown in the below picture).
As shown in the picture, there are three types of ports on this switch: PoE port, SFP port and console port. The number of PoE ports is 24, and they can provide both power and data transmission. There are four SFP ports which include two Gigabit combo ports. These ports can connect with SFP fibre transceivers to uplink to the backbone switch at a long-distance location. The last kind of port is the console port which is for effective management. With a total power budget of up to 220 watts, this managed business Gigabit PoE switch provides a quick, safe and cost-effective Power over Ethernet network solution for small businesses and enterprises.
People who have work experience with switches know that unmanaged switches and managed switches are two common Ethernet switches in networking. And unmanaged switches seem to be a better choice in terms of cost. Therefore, maybe many business owners would ask, compared with managed switches, unmanaged switches are more cost-effective. Why do I need to choose a more expensive switch? Well, managed switches have other features which are more beneficial for your networks.
SNMP is a protocol that facilitates the exchange of management information between network devices. SNMP queries also can help cheque the health and status of devices in a network. Data displayed in an easily understood format is good for IT managers to monitor the performance of the network from a remote location. And it also helps to repair the problems without inspecting the switches or devices personally.
The function of the port monitoring feature of managed switches is to diagnose problems effectively. It copies the switch network traffic and forwards it to a single port on the same switch for analysis by a network analyser. Problems can be found by using the analyser on the monitor port without switching off the network.
This feature of managed switches allows you to prioritize your network traffic by assigning a higher priority to the critical traffic, which is beneficial to improve network performance and transmit delay-sensitive data such as real-time voice.
Apart from the features mentioned above, managed switches also have two features that cannot be ignored. One is that switches can be used in VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) configuration to logically group devices as per the working departments, and managed switches can be used to isolate traffic between these groups, which allows better network performance and an additional level of security. Another one is redundancy which can protect the network when connection failures occur.
Managed switches, especially managed PoE switches, offer great expandability for growing business networks. With business network growth on the horizon, having a clear evaluation of the network requirements is important. If you want to have some input and control over the behaviour of traffic on their LAN, or if you plan to deploy advanced services such as wireless LANs or IP telephony, managed switches are a good choice to realise them. For more information about managed switches, please contact us via sale@fs.com.