By
Mike Fratto -
Mar 19, 2008
Want cutting-edge capabilities? Then you'd better shop your infrastructure upgrade around. In this Rolling Review, we do just that.
About Network Computing's Network Infrastructure Channel
On Network Computing's Network Infrastructure channel, our real-world technology editors cover the networking products and services that make enterprise networks hum. IT departments must deliver more bandwidth than ever to support network-consuming applications like video, file sharing, real-time communications and more. To support growing bandwidth needs, Ethernet port growth continues unabated, but increasingly IT is looking at solutions like 10G Gigabit Ethernet to aggregate traffic into the core network. We cover other emerging trends as well. For instance, just as important as ratcheting up more bandwidth are new techniques to maximize real-world capacity on existing networks via bandwidth management techniques such as queuing and prioritization using new WAN Optimization and Application Optimization systems. As enterprises become ever more distributed, managing and supporting remote offices has become a key IT chore. Where more bandwidth is needed at the edge of the network, we cover new WAN technologies, including Carrier Ethernet, which offer an affordable alternative. We also cover so-called "branch offices in a box," which combine routing, switching, wireless access, network storage and DNS/DHCP in a single box. Perhaps the most significant application driving new bandwidth requirements is voice over IP, or VoIP, which has emerged as a mainstream, widely-deployed enterprise app in recent years. Network Access Control, or NAC, is also all the rage as vendors compete to offer comprehensive platforms for managing the on- and off-ramps of corporate networks. Check out our reviews, tests and analysis of infrastructure technology and products as well as the latest networking news, white papers and featured sites on the topic of network infrastructure.
