What are your main reasons to upgrade your network infrastructure?

[Net-Ctrl]

Morning all,

 

I have been asked by one of our partners, Brocade, for the top 3 reasons why schools look to make changes to their current network infrastructure.

 

Rather than fumble some response together, I thought i'd come to the source, and seek some advice from the EduGeek community

 

So I ask you, what makes you looks to make changes to your network?

 

Is it perhaps to upgrade your edge to 1gb, or perhaps your core to 10gb (even 40gb?), better support for current devices, better network visibility using network management tools?

 

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Josh

[sonofsanta]

Of the two network infrastructure updates I've done so far:

 

* 2012: wanted a redundant core. We were only running a single 3COM 5500 switch, so a straight out single point of failure. Looked at the HP redundancy chassis models (5406zl, iirc) but went with a stacked pair of HP A5800 as they were cheaper and allowed us to re-use our 3COM SFPs. Did it then because the Bursar came down and told me she had £15,000 she needed to spend in the next two weeks, could I help? Yes I could

 

* 2016: move to 10GbE. Future proofing, because in five years the number of devices had grown by 50%, we were allowing BYOD, our file server capacity was up five fold, web page size had doubled, we'd added VoIP, CCTV... did it now because (a) 10GbE was finally getting to reasonable prices after years of keeping an eye on it (b) this was the year for server refresh, which only costs about half of the usual desktop refresh, so it was now or 2021. And who knows what paltry state school funding will be in by 2021...

 

tl;dr: reliability; performance & future proofing.

[GuyJD]

Reliability and speed would be the reasons I'd look at changing things.

[aleach2]

The reason I have updated our network infrastructure is due to the following:

 

1) Redundancy: Making sure the core and other critical points of the network have redundancy (of both trucked connections and power).

 

2) Future Proofing: Making sure the network will last into the future. Making sure (as much as budget will allow) that the core and edge cabling and switching have the ability to provide an adequate service to users.

 

3) Other Technologies: In recent years virtualisation, more advanced WIFI & VOIP. This made us make massive changes to our network, upgrade our switches, install a dedicated back end iSCSI network and to upgrade our core for replication & backup. We have to have PoE+ to provide power to access points, QoS setup for VOIP. All of these new and emerging technologies drive change to our network infrastructure.

 

Hope this helps.

[sparkeh]

1) Reliability: building in redundancy, replacing old kit etc

 

2) Speed: Upgrading fibre runs, faster switches etc

 

3) Supporting new tech

[Net-Ctrl]

Thank you all for the replies so far, it really is appreciated!

[FN-GM]

1. Replacing for new reliable kit
   
2. New software / hardware features - May it be quicker speeds or maybe some new software function.
   
3. Possible change in circumstance and the previous kit may no longer be suitable. - Eg you need to replace a non POE switch with POE or maybe convert to stack-able switches etc
   

Edited September 30, 2016 by FN-GM

[hardtailstar]

At my last job we replaced only when things stopped working.

 

But when we expanded the network we would future proof it.