3550 switches, the benefit of VLANS?? 1

[geranimo666]

Hello-

This company I am doing project work for has a flat network. I am trying to convey in more "business terms" what the benefits of VLAN's are.. If I sound too technical, I'll lose their interest as this concept may be alittle over their heads..

Things such as -avoiding bridge loops and having the ability to virtualize ports via a vlan for more control and centralized management still doesn't sound like these points of reference really sell the solution.

Anyone have any more reasons why vlans make sense aside from the points I've made above? again, it needs to be sold to management... they have the layer 2/3 switches (3550 Cisco)

thanks for any information
geranimo

 

[burtsbees]

Well, you can say it is a way to separate networks without having to buy more equipment---one network would need explicit permission to access other networks (vlans), by the admin adding acl's or routes. It is good for security.
Also, users can easily be moved to different vlans, just by a few entries in the switch, and so you can bring up the ease of management side of things.
Each department can have their own vlan, and it is only limited by the number of ports.
Ease of management, security, and savings.

Burt

 

[geranimo666]

Very very well said Burt..

I'll let you know how things turn out


geranimo

 

[sluggo140]

Definitely hit the security aspect of it. Don't speak tech though. Use the internal threat, that alot of the attacks we see come from disgruntled employees and that vlans are a way of securing different network segments that contain critical business functions from both inside and outside attacks. Don't make them too paranoid, just paranoid enough to go along with it.

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