How Gigabit Ethernet Can Benefit Your Business

By Mike Verdugo,
Director & Worldwide Segment Business Manager

Networking used to be seen as simply connectivity – or “plumbing.” However, the increased use of network resources has turned it into a critical business asset for today’s companies. Why? A network can make or break a company’s ability to maximize the value of computing resources and overall return on IT investment.

This is true for the largest enterprises to small businesses and everything in between. Depending on business needs and application requirements, the use of higher-performance networking technologies such as Gigabit Ethernet can have a significant positive impact for many customers.

Many small- and mid-sized business customers experience a common problem as their business grows and they attempt to run more data-intensive applications on their networks. Their employees become frustrated with a “slow network” that reduces productivity. This often happens with bandwidth-hungry applications that require processing and transmission of large and complex data files. Whether your business is struggling with this issue today or you believe future business needs might require a higher-performance network, HP ProCurve Gigabit network switches provide the perfect solution.

Gigabit Ethernet network technology operates at 1000 Mbps (megabits-per-second), which is 10 times the speed of 100 Mbps “Fast Ethernet” – most commonly used for client and device connectivity on many SMB networks today. So what benefits can your business realize by moving to Gigabit Ethernet network technology? Consider the following benefits for your employees:

• Reduced transfer times of large data files from minutes to seconds.
• Faster access to business-critical information and resources on the network.
• Increased performance of bandwidth-intensive applications such as video-streaming, computer-aided design (CAD), complex graphics, animation, high-resolution imaging, and data storage.
• Improved ability to rapidly multitask within multiple applications. For example, an employee might simultaneously use video conferencing software to watch a CEO telecast, check e-mail, surf the internet, and update a CAD file over the same network.

For the business owner and IT manager, Gigabit Ethernet provides the following benefits:

• Higher employee productivity with greater network availability and application performance. Employees no longer get frustrated waiting for the network to respond, but rather can focus on meeting customer needs and growing business.
• Seamless addition of Gigabit Ethernet to 10/100 Mbps networks. Standards-based Gigabit Ethernet is backward-compatible with older networking standards, letting you leverage existing investments in network infrastructure.
• Investment protection. A network that can handle future application requirements will surely mean more data on the network.

In the past, Gigabit Ethernet switching came with a significant cost premium and increased complexity -- for large enterprises with dedicated network administration staff. Those days are gone. HP ProCurve offers a broad range of standards-based Gigabit switching solutions that are perfect for SMB customers, offering affordable plug-and-play Gigabit connectivity and the same legendary HP quality and reliability our customers have come to expect.

The new HP ProCurve 2510G Series switches offer high-quality and reliable Layer 2 Gigabit performance with full SNMP network management capabilities for companies requiring greater network monitoring and control over unmanaged switching solutions. These switches are offered at a very attractive price point for companies looking to deploy reliable managed Gigabit Ethernet networking but are unwilling to pay the price premium normally required for larger enterprise switching solutions.

HP ProCurve offers a complete line of Gigabit switches -- including unmanaged, web managed, and fully managed models for varied needs. All of these products are engineered to meet HP quality standards and are backed by the ProCurve Lifetime Warranty♦.

See the video, "Maximum network performance for growing businesses".

As a vendor you can trust, HP ProCurve offers small- and mid-sized businesses the same advanced technology demanded by the world's largest enterprises – with the reliability and ease of use you need to succeed in today’s demanding and competitive marketplace.

Mike Verdugo is Director and Worldwide Segment Business Manager for HP ProCurve.