Like many enterprises, TacDoh has grown organically through mergers and acquisitions and comprises an eclectic mix of new gear and older equipment that's still chugging along. Devices have been replaced as needed, but this piecemeal approach means the company isn't taking advantage of the latest technology. That's a problem because bandwidth and security needs are rising like one of TacDoh's signature pastries.
We built an RFI laying out a five-year plan. First, we specified migrating to VoIP from existing Centrex service, mandating a robust, scalable network. We also want power over Ethernet and to take advantage of newer monitoring technology, like flow-based analysis. Finally, we're investigating network access control and other security features to mitigate the damage caused by worm outbreaks, rogue access points and DHCP servers, and other malicious activity. Of course, the ability to scale capacity to meet new demands and ensure resiliency is crucial.
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Today's switches have features that enhance everything from port configuration to traffic control. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a pure Layer 2 switch—Layer 3 routing replete with multiple protocols like RIP, OSPF and BGP is the norm. We would certainly consider replacing our core router, but we don't need routing at the distribution and access layers.
VLANs are an effective way to segment the network based on where employees are, however, statically assigning ports to a VLAN is only slightly less cumbersome than moving patch cables. We want to gain the efficiency inherent in a single switch architecture that can be managed via a central console, simplifying adds, moves and changes, not to mention deployment and backup configuration.
As part of our efficiency push, automation features like Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) and LLDP-Media Endpoint Discovery (LLDP-MED) will ease the transition to VoIP phones. Rather than having to manually map phone locations and configure switch ports as phones move to different locations on the network, LLDP-MED can discover endpoints, determine configuration parameters like VLAN assignment and power requirements, and gather the location information that is used to locate a phone in case of emergency.
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