Fat Pipes

Some CIOs are already grappling with the question of whether or not tomigrate to Gigabit Ethernet (1 Gbps) network infrastructure- and if so,when? Our experts suggest it should be a less pressing concern formost, although there are exceptions.

Vendors will attempt to force the issue and create demand, Fabbi says,by first introducing network interface cards that offer 10-, 100- and1000-Mbps functionality in one product, and then introducing switcheswith 10-, 100- and 1000-Mbps capabilities. Most CIOs should resistthese inducements, he warns. Increased bandwidth in switching andinterface equipment will generate demand spikes that will createlatency problems for IP voice and put pressure on backboneinfrastructure. And the next level of 10 Gbps backbone infrastructureis still far too expensive, he says.

"If you're in seismic research or medical imaging, or you're a videoproduction house, Gigabit Ethernet may make sense," he says. "Anytimeyou routinely have to move files of 100 MB to 1 GB - wherever time savesmoney or lives. But that represents maybe 10 or 15 per cent of theuser population; the rest of us don't need Gigabit."

Fox adds one more type of candidate to the list: companiescentralizing data storage on a large scale might also need GigabitEthernet in local and wide area networks to support the increasedtraffic that results.