Network Communications News (NCN) September 2016 | Page 18

Q&A

Tris Simmons of Netgear

What can organisations
do to improve network
resilience and eliminate the
threat of downtime?
More SMBs are viewing their networks
as mission critical, including schools.
It’s interesting to see that many adopt
data back up strategies but don’t have
resiliency or redundancy built into the
switched network. As a result, all the
data is protected, but if the switched
network was to experience disruption,
that very important, much needed
data can’t be reached. In turn, this
makes the switched network a weak
link in delivering maximum uptime for
service continuity.
If parts of the network require zero
interruption, then a fully managed
stackable platform like our M4300
series is the best fit. If a few minutes’
outage is acceptable while the network
recovers, then Smart Stackables offer
an affordable alternative, such as our
S3300 series. It’s also important to note
resiliency and redundancy are two
different things; the former is how quick
the network can recover, the latter is
whether an alternative route for traffic is
in place or not.

consumption. Prices have also fallen
by greater than 70 per cent resulting
in adoption that is set to double over
the next two years. Interestingly, the
number one reason SMBs are adopting
10 Gigbait is to address bottlenecks and
performance issues. So we have seen
10 Gigabit move out of the data centre
into the heart of SMB networks, which is
driving the growth.

What effect is the 802.11ac
standard having on the
wireless sector and what
does it mean for the future
of wireless connectivity?
Multi-Gigabit switching will be the
next wave of new investment going
into 2017 and beyond to support next
generation wave 2 11 ac access points
that will be capable of speeds faster
than 3.2Gbps. Although wireless is
a shared medium, the more capable
spe