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Building Your Network
Foundation: Routing and
Switching Made Simple
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Whatever the size of your organization, a business-class network is within your
reach. By understanding and taking some simple steps, you can implement a
network infrastructure that provides your company with significant and substantive
benefits. From empowering your employees to greatly improving customer
service, networking technology can have a lasting impact on your business.
This guide examines the critical issues of networking, how it works, and how it
can help you achieve a competitive edge. Topics include:
• The basics: What is a network and how does it work?
• What are routers and switches and what is their role in the network?
• How does a network help you control your costs?
• How does a network improve your operational efficiency?
• How does a network help provide complete security for your information?
From increasing efficiency to decreasing costs to boosting customer satisfaction,
every small and medium-sized business (SMB) faces unique challenges. Let’s
start by understanding how networks are put together, and then examine how
they address your business needs.
Moving Data Around: Routers and Switches
The Internet revolution is based on the ability to transport “packets” of data,
where each packet is a unit of data sent between an origin and a destination.
Routers and switches transport data—in fact, they are the basis of the Internet,
as well as all other networks. The movement of data permits one device (such
as your PC) to talk to another device (for example, another PC, an e-mail server,
or a printer), whether the device is in the same building or on the other side of
the world.
At first glance, a router and switch may appear physically similar.
In reality, routers and switches have different functions that complement
one another.
What Is a Network?
There are two main types of networks: local area networks
(LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). For many
businesses, a LAN is typically used to communicate within
a building or campus, and a WAN is used to connect
multiple LANs, and to communicate across a region,
country, or the world.
A more official definition of a LAN is a group of computers
and associated devices that share a common communications
line or wireless link within a small geographic area
(for example, within an office building). The importance
of a LAN is that it enables PCs to talk to one another, and
to share printers or servers. This sharing of data and
resources enables cost savings and increased productivity.
Figure 2 shows a LAN within an office building that is set
up using a switch, so that desktop PCs and wireless
laptops can access and share servers or printers.
A WAN is a network that links together multiple geographically
dispersed LANs, usually via high-speed phone lines.
(You may already be familiar with the various types of DSL
connections that are used in homes and businesses, as
well as even faster technologies such as T1/E1 lines). A
WAN covers a relatively broad geographic area (for example,
communications between two countries) and often uses
transmission facilities provided by telephone or cable
companies.
WANs are helpful in many ways. Merchants use WANs to
validate buyers’ credit cards when erforming a transaction.
Virtual private networks (VPNs) employ WANs when creating
secure connections between users on different private
networks. Companies provide traveling employees with
access to network resources via private dial-up links. In
short, the WAN extends network resources beyond the
local area.
shows London and Paris offices communicating
with one another using routers in a WAN.Routing and Switching Form the Foundation
of the Network
We’ve seen that switches are used to connect multiple
devices on the same network (the LAN), while routers are
used to connect multiple networks (on the WAN) to each
other.While both were originally designed just to transport
data, today they also do much more. Routers and switches
have become the foundation for all business communications—
not just data, but also security, voice, video, and
wireless access. Many of these features are often contained
in modules that plug into the router or switch, or available as
software upgrades.
Containing Your Costs with Routers and Switches
Routing and switching technologies can make a significant
and positive impact on your company’s profit line. The
Net Impact Study, sponsored by Cisco® and conducted
by Momentum Research Group, found that companies
that combined network infrastructures with network-based
business applications, and were willing to reengineer their
business practices to take best advantage of the technology
and actively measure the results, reduced their annual
operating costs by more than 20 percent. What’s more,
they measured a 20 to 25 percent increase in customer
satisfaction.
The award-winning Cisco routing, switching, security,
unified communications, wireless, and networked storage
products stand on their own individual merits, but are also
designed to provide an exponential increase in benefits
when integrated and deployed together. An integrated
network delivers significant savings in time and resources
by anticipating the capabilities and integration needs
of technologies.
According to a study by Sage Research,
organizations with a primary networking vendor (in other
words, one networking vendor provides all their network
technologies) realized benefits in three main categories:
financial savings, enhanced network performance, and
infrastructure and end-user benefits. The financial reality is
compelling—the network cost of ownership per endpoint
(each PC, telephone, laptop, PDA, or other device) in a
primary vendor network is 29 percent lower than that
of a multi-vendor network.
An integrated approach to routing and switching lets all
workers—even those at different sites—have the same
access to business applications, unified communications,
and videoconferencing as their colleagues at headquarters.
Cisco lets you grow your network over time, adding features
and functionality as you need them while ensuring
complete investment protection. An added benefit of this
integrated approach is that your IT personnel can centrally
manage the network from headquarters, which keeps
staffing counts low.
How Is Your Customer Responsiveness?
SMBs face serious challenges in keeping pace with the
business world’s rapidly moving, globally competitive,
connected environment. Customers today have more
options than ever. They have more choices in what and
how they buy, and require options for communicating and
obtaining information. Customers are used to shopping
and interacting with businesses over the Internet, and they
expect instant responses and rapid, personalized service.
As a result, it is no longer enough to provide basic connectivity.
Sophisticated systems and applications are being
asked to link your employees to each other—as well as to
customers, partners, and vendors—by providing responsive
and secure access to relevant data and business
processes. They also need to manage security threats and
meet new government regulatory requirements. At
the same time, while the number of devices, mobile users,
work sites, and security threats continues to rise, limited
IT resources and training budgets make it difficult to
monitor, support, and manage your networks.
Improving Data Security with Routers
and Switches
Perhaps the greatest concern companies have in doing
business over the Internet is the security risk. Hackers,
denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, identity theft, and even
cyber-terrorism are very real dangers. In addition, you may
wonder how to guarantee the performance and reliability
of your Internet-based services. Or, you may not be certain
that you have the resources and support needed to
deploy and manage e-commerce services and processes.
The good news is that a sound network infrastructure can
address all these issues. At the foundation of a robust
e-commerce infrastructure are the routers and switches.
Some routers and switches marketed to SMBs are actually
consumer-grade devices designed for home users who
need simple Internet access. Cisco has led the way in
designing award-winning routers and switches for small
and medium-sized organizations. A business-class router
or switch incorporates features that address the security,
performance, reliability, and manageability concerns of
companies that rely on their network for their business
success.
Security is a critical consideration to most SMBs when
choosing a networking solution. By installing a complete
solution and managing it centrally, you can protect valuable
business data and guard against viruses, spyware,
Internet attacks, and other security concerns.
Routers, for example, can add security to your WAN. If
your WAN is accessed by many users, or if it passes over
high-speed digital phone lines or the Internet, your WAN
is a potential target. Cisco integrated services routers can
be configured with features such as:
• Built-in firewalls
• Intrusion detection and prevention
• Authentication technologies such as Network
Admission Control (NAC)
• Encryption
• Virtual private networks, providing encryption
via the Internet
Based on these powerful technologies, the Cisco
Self-Defending Network offers layers of protection
and self-healing to secure your information across
the company.
Your Next Step
Cisco delivers a complete line of networking products that
provide a strategic platform for basic data connectivity as
well as security, voice, and wireless services. To help you
take best advantage of all these tools, Cisco has designed
a Smart Business Roadmap for SMBs. This Roadmap
provides a structured path that maps business challenges
and “pain points” to technology solutions to help evolve
your business over time toward its optimal performance
To learn more about Cisco networking solutions Contact us 877.390.1166 or 416.398.4448
