Sooner or later, most IT pros land on the pointy end of a switch upgrade. But if you simply re-up with your existing vendor—especially if that's the market leader—you could miss a prime opportunity to enhance your network via cutting-edge technology at a price that beats the competition.

Of course, whiz-bang can't come at the expense of dependability: When we asked network admins why they're upgrading their switch architectures, 56% named reliability as the main driver, followed by more bandwidth at the core and access layer. This need for speed is reflected in a recent Infonetics report that predicts sales increases of 10% in Gigabit Ethernet ports and a doubling of 10 Gigabit Ethernet port sales. That doesn't surprise us: The 36% premium for a Gigabit Ethernet port over a 10/100 port, roughly $63, is chump change when you consider the extra bandwidth and network future-proofing.

The Latest Videos

In our Chalk Talk with Avocent CTO Ben Grimes, we get a first-hand look at some of the challenges with managing power, including a look at some of the tools Avocent offers to help with this.

While Cisco is the undisputed market leader in terms of units shipped, that doesn't mean it has a lock on new technologies, service and support, reliability, or cost. Switches from rival vendors, such as Alcatel-Lucent, Extreme Networks, Foundry Networks, Hewlett-Packard ProCurve and 3Com, compete feature for feature. HP's policy of free firmware upgrades for the ProCurve switch line, for example, is a huge benefit if you let your support contact lapse or purchase used equipment.

To examine what vendors are offering for switching gear, we created an RFI for a wholesale switch infrastructure upgrade. We based the request on our fictional fast-food purveyor, TacDoh, which debuted back in 2003 when it went in search of outsourced network management.

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.

RELATED LINKS Does Cisco's Switch To Linux Make IOS More Open? When Cisco and Juniper first said they were opening their router OSes, I thought that they'd be about as open as the iPhone. With Cisco's launch of IOS XE, I realize I was wrong: The iPhone is much more open. Report: Dawn Of The App Aware Network Switch vendors want to sideline servers by making their devices smarter. Now IT must decide if this is a brave new world ... or a nightmare of lock-in and higher costs.