03 January 2019

Kevin Drinkall is EMEA wireless and cloud market development manager at Zyxel.

The perfect switch is centred around individual requirements: from whether you need to power a device from the switch, reduce overheads in installation costs, or have specific application requirements. Consider the following features to simplify the decision-making process:

1. Ease of use:

There are different aspects to think about here. Unmanaged switches, for example, are plug-and-play but lack any form of control. At the top end of the spectrum, enterprises may prefer to deploy switches with CLI, which usually means a Layer 2 or Layer 3 model. Layer 3 switches allow for more advanced functions in a network. The need for such a device is often driven by the need for mission-critical uptime for both applications and connectivity which require a feature that assists in ‘auto healing’ a network. If an SMB is focusing on ease of use and how basic functions can help set up a network, PoE power management and elements of security and control should be the priority. While there are places for unmanaged switches, smart-managed designs should be a good starting point as they give plenty of flexibility in functionality at the price point. For small businesses, a smart managed switch is the ideal solution – but this can become complex if several are being managed at once.

2. Cost-effectiveness

The right switch can help maintain costs and reduce overheads. In businesses, the standard switch for such an environment is often 1GB per port and is smart-managed. This is also sometimes referred to as web-managed. If bandwidth requirements are high, or you are planning for growth, it is important to consider switches with 10GB uplinks to prevent bottlenecks, which would ultimately result in higher management costs.

3. Management

There are plenty of options when it comes to managing network switches – cloud management and smart managed, or standalone are the two key methods. With cloud management, large numbers of switch ports can be monitored and configured over the internet. A physical connection is not required between switches as remote configuration can be used for access devices. Network segregation can also be done remotely, for example, voice VLANs can be assigned and can also control PoE. All of these features are available in a few clicks without on-site IT or complex remote access processes. When managing a network through the cloud, the process becomes simplified as network-wide configuration changes can be made in one click.