Big tech for small networks

Just as Fortune 500 companies do, SMBs struggle with VoIP, SANs, Gigabit Ethernet, and new security nightmares

Niche markets such as video production and genome sequencing aside, two pressures are driving companies toward vast quantities of easily accessible storage. The first is the aggregate of newly enhanced requirements on corporate records and reporting. Electronic record retention has become a critical issue for businesses that have to keep every shred of relevant data accessible for years.

Remote device backup is the second influence on storage requirements. Whether taking entire host images or mere snapshots, the amount of data accommodated by faster client networks and inexpensive terabyte-size arrays opens up the opportunity for online storage that simply didn’t exist five years ago.

Storage vendors are learning that the key to attracting SMB dollars is to make products easier to use. SMB customers lack the budget for a high priest of storage, but need equivalent power in a simple interface. Unfortunately, FC is just quirky enough that true interoperability is a few years away. Minimizing the number of vendors involved in a system is always good practice, but in the world of Fibre Channel, it is an imperative.

A Big Pipe for Faster Backup

Another good reason for SMBs to consider a network overhaul is the growing availability of Gigabit Ethernet as a built-in component of desktop PCs. Whereas a certain fruit-flavored vendor has had GbE as a standard feature for years, the rest of the world is only now waking up to the benefits of the latest desktop networking plateau. Desktop replacements — which were an easy target for deferral during lean times — are long overdue in many shops. In those replacements lie the seeds of an entirely new approach to desktop management.

GbE’s ultimate justification at the desktop is a potentially vast improvement in backup and re-imaging performance. Simple backup on a grand scale, within a fairly narrow time window, becomes possible. Desktop GbE also makes some forms of thin-client computing more palatable to the end-users, especially when the re-image and reboot cycle can be cut to a couple of minutes, about what one could expect from a local restart. Other forms of just-in-time application delivery, such as desktop blade computing, and remote management also benefit enormously from an increase in desktop-bound bandwidth.

Although there’s not much in the way of special skills needed to perform a GbE installation, many network upgrades founder upon the limitations of the existing cable plant. Unless the physical layer’s been overhauled in the last few years using Cat5e hardware, full gigabit performance may not be achieved. The specifications for gigabit transmission over UTP are stringent enough to cause problems in even some well-done Cat5 installations.

Desktop Gigabit sounds like a luxury to those who remember when it was a server-only technology not too many years ago. Refitting networks to support the technology only makes sense if there’s a real understanding of the actual benefits; otherwise, such an upgrade could be used as evidence that “IT’s just wasting money again.” Buying hardware that can be upgraded to support VoIP or any other reasonably foreseeable applications is a smart way to pave the way for future opportunities.

Hold Them Close