Why Is Cisco Equipment a Smart Investment for Small Businesses?
Sunday, June-28-2009
Having worked at IT consulting on a part time basis since 1986 and full-time for the past seven years I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of small to mid-sized organizations varying in size from the one person home office to entities with revenues in the mid-eight figure range and just under 100 employees.
At first blush there would seem to be vast differences in the networking needs of each but in fact I would argue there’s not. At least not in my opinion. Fact is I recommend Cisco equipment for the smallest home office and up and the reasoning is simple. In today’s world a solid IT infrastructure is a given for essentially every organization and there’s a whole lot of reasons to standardize on Cisco equipment and the related software. Let’s take a look at those reasons and see if you agree.
Out of the gate it’s hard to argue that Cisco isn’t one of the leading names in the world of networking hardware being a first rate manufacturer of routers, switches and related networking gear. In fact Cisco is in many ways a De Facto standard by which competitors are measured.
Moreover the Cisco certifications for networking expertise such as the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate), CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional, and the “Doctorate” of networking, the CCIE (Cisco Certified Internet Expert) are well respected designations with corresponding levels of increasing difficulty to obtain. Designations that go a good way towards guaranteeing that the IT technician thus certified has the corresponding level of knowledge to perform the configuration and maintenance of Cisco networks the organization requires.
No other manufacturer of networking equipment for the small to medium business can compare in the range of equipment offered and the related programs to certify the support personnel. From my point of view there’s a lot of value in that fact alone and the reasoning is simple and centers primarily on one concept; TOC or Total Cost of Ownership.
Total Cost of Ownership
TOC was all the rage a few years back and perhaps is considered “old-hat” these days. Not-with-standing that Total Cost of Ownership isn’t the latest shiny toy in the world of IT marketing circles it’s a valid and highly useful concept for considering the real long-term cost of any business investment.
Total Cost of Ownership, as the name implies takes into consideration not only the initial investment but the less than obvious costs such as those to have the initial configuration done in setting up the network and the cost of ongoing maintenance and modifications as networks grow and change. TOC helps us guard against being penny-wise and pound-foolish! Let’s consider the real long-term costs of your networking investment.
Costs of Building the Network
When building a new network the most obvious issue is the initial investment to purchase the equipment but the somewhat hidden cost is that for creating a workable network that meets the present and near-future needs of the organization. The assumption I often see, understandably, is that a router is a router is a….. not so! Real routers and switches can do things, important things, that the $50 dollar deal calling itself a router or switch at the local hardware retailer couldn’t dream of doing. Things that matter now and probably even more so as the entity grows.
When one measures the cost of the installation and configuration at rates typical of professional IT consultants it becomes readily apparent that a significant up front cost factor is for the latter and in fact less expensive, low-end equipment is often harder to install and configure correctly due to it’s limited capacity leading to even higher installation costs. In short the small savings for low-end equipment is quickly lost in the lack of configurability and the increased cost for IT support services.
Long-term Benefits
Let’s consider a short list of the long-term benefits of using an industry standard like Cisco.
1. Standardization: Cisco equipment runs on their proprietary software known as IOS (Internet Operating System). While new versions are developed on a regular basis to build in additional features the core commands for routing and switching remain largely unchanged. There’s no new interface or base command set to learn if you upgrade a router or switch. The existing configurations can be largely or completely moved to the new equipment and all will work as expected.
2. Configuration Options: The IOS offers a range of configuration options not found in low end equipment that is typically marketed to the small to medium business sector. Features such as ACLs (access control lists), VLans (virtual LANs) and QOS (quality of service) that allow the equipment to be configured for faster, more efficient, and in to days threat environment, more secure operations.
3. Modular Interface Configuration: Cisco’s line of modular routers such as the 1700, 1800, 2600 and 3600 series allow simple and efficient modification of what modules and networking interfaces are present. Modular configuration allows creating, and in the future recreating, the features and interfaces to meet your organization’s needs. Interface modules/cards include serial, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, ATM, BRI-ISDN, PRI, T-1 and Voice options to meet the present and changing network traffic type demands.
4. Simplified Security and Accounting: Software packages such as the Security Device Manager and Access Control Server make the three A’s, Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting, even easier to setup and maintain giving organizations of alls sizes the features necessary for basic to advanced security for those who need to meet compliance requirements.
While each of the above topics could be discussed in depth, and will in future articles, we hope the preceding has prompted you to consider your current and future networking investments in a broader light and to consider Cisco equipment as the right choice. As an IT professional I can vouch there’s a lot more cost to a network then the purchase price and those bargain basement routers and switches are in fact a very expensive choice!
This article is part 1 of a 2 part series: Part 2 is at Cisco for Small Businesses-An Example Network Case Study
Posted by mike.shafer on 06-28-2009 at 04:06 pm
Posted in All:Recent, Cisco, IT for SMB
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