Survivor's Guide to 2005: Infrastructure: Page 3 of 6

Furthermore, before you blame the network for slow connections, pinpoint the source of your bottlenecks. Start by looking at your servers and desktops. An inexpensive analyzer--WildPackets and Network Instruments sell tools for less than $1,000--can do the trick. Windows XP users can even try the built-in tools under Task Manager's "Networking" tab. The open-source MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher) can give you this information, too. Without getting to the root of the problem, it's too easy to point the finger at the network infrastructure and buy desktop bandwidth you don't need.

Server and backbone connections are a different story, as the higher-speed connections often are useful there. Monitoring network backbone connections is a little trickier than monitoring desktops, but not much, since midsize and large networking equipment typically comes with network-management software that tracks utilization. Use it. And don't buy into the myth that Ethernet can't be used to its maximum bandwidth. Believe it or not, some switch salespeople still try to perpetuate this falsehood, even though it was proven wrong in the 1980s.

Real Needs for Speed

There are, of course, good reasons to consider upgrading switches at the edge. You may be running niche applications, such as CAD, or you may be editing huge video files. You may be considering the QoS or PoE (Power over Ethernet) features that make VoIP possible. If that's the case, 100-Mbps or Gigabit desktop speeds may make sense at the edge. Get quotes for 100 Mbps and Gigabit from your vendor, and you may decide to jump right to Gigabit if the price differential isn't that great. Prices vary by manufacturer, but as an example, Hewlett-Packard's ProCurve 3400-48G, a 48-port Gigabit switch, costs $6,899, while the 48-port HP ProCurve 5348x1, a 100-Mbps unit, is $4,759.