Technology refresh

[BHX90]

Hi,

I'm looking to improve the speed and resilience of a 250+ user network with 10 servers connected with 8 3Com 4400 series switches.

I would like to place a gigabit switch or two on the network for the servers and current or new switches to connect to.

Could anyone offer some suggestions for a suitable bit of Cisco kit to do the job and whether to ditch the 3com switches for something like the 2960s. I also want the solution to be suitable for future applications such as VOIP etc and be as resilient as possible (multiple connections to the servers and switches.

Any help would be welcome.

Cheers

 

[KiscoKid]

If you plan to deploy VOIP, you may need to consider something other than the 2960 as these units don't support POE (Power Over Ethernet) for your IP Phones. It depends to what extent you will be deploying VOIP in your network. If you plan to retain your existing phones and PBX, the 2960's are a good choice for the users. If you plan to go with a Full IP Telephony solution (IP Phones, CallManager's etc), then consider something else for user connections than the 2960.

For a full IP Telephony solution, I tend to prefer the 3560 or 3750 switch to connect your users. These switches support POE for IP Phones and they support Layer 2, 3 or 4 QoS classification and marking for your voice traffic (I prefer AutoQoS to simplify QoS confgiuration for voice deployment - they both support this feature also). For your server connections, I like the 3750 as they allow cross-stack Etherchannel connections for your servers for improved resilience and performance.

I presume your servers are likely centralised or will be centralised so you may need something in the core of your network to aggregate your user and server connections. You might consider a pair of 4500 or 3750G switches for this purpose. They support more than enough Gig Ethernet connections to terminate all your user and server switch uplinks.