The Ultimate Guide to Routing and Switching

Strategic router and switch acquisition and management practices help ensure long-term network performance.

Joel is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of security, networking and messaging. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @joelsnyder.

Network design is undergoing a quiet revolution as old assumptions give way to new realities.

Virtualization is changing data center performance requirements by concentrating immense power in a small space. Mobility and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives are transforming Wi-Fi from a guest service into a mission-critical one. Cloud computing, along with increased reliance on Internet-based resources, is making network reliability and application control top priorities in all types and sizes of organizations.

At the center of all this are the commonplace network building blocks: routers and switches. Network administrators tasked with building modern networks have no choice but to question old design rules and to rethink how they assemble these critical pieces.

Understanding current trends in enterprise network design, including best practices for building user, data center and wide area networks (WANs); the top protocols currently used for routing and switching; and how to pick the best routers and switches for reliability, flexibility, scalability and manageability will help IT professionals make the most of what they have and, when needed, build for the future.

Below are several stories that will guide IT pros through the basics of modern routing and switching technology.

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