Do You Really Need A Super-Fast Network?

Building fast networks is easy. Building effective networks is hard. Too often, though, network architects confuse speed with efficiency, and the result is a money pit and a network that needs serious help.

That's one of the main findings in a Networking Pipeline article, Why You Shouldn't Implement Gigabit Networking.

The truth is, few applications really require the gigabit speeds of today's cutting-edge networks. Mostly what travels across networks is data, not video, and not voice, and email and workgroup software simply don't need all that bandwidth. Build a network with a massive capacity, and you're wasting money on unneeded bandwidth.

Building a fast network also means that you ignore basic bottlenecks that bedevil your network, and just adding more capacity won't solve the problem.

What to do? Slow down. Analyze your real bandwidth needs. Solve today's nagging problems. Only after you've done that should you look at upgrading to a truly high-speed network.