What Does a Network Switch Actually Do?

Welcome to Give IT To Me Straight

Shane Naugher: Welcome to Give IT To Me Straight, the podcast from Dazzee IT. Each week, we break down technology, cyber security, AI, and business IT into practical insights you can actually use. Now, here's your host, Shane Naugher.

What Is a Network Switch and Why Does It Matter?

Shane Naugher: Hey guys, and welcome back to another edition of Give IT To Me Straight, where we walk through common questions and topics that we hear from our clients, as well as prospects, when it comes to technology initiatives. Today's going to be a little bit of a hot take. I'm going to be covering a subject that I've talked about before, but it keeps coming up in some conversations, especially given the economic climate that we're in today. So what we're going to be covering is the topic of network level switching. Most people, when we talk about network switching, have really limited information about what we're really talking about. When it comes to network switches, they are typically a box that sits in a closet that people rarely ever see or understand is even there. So it's understandable why there's confusion about what they do and what the importance of them really are in terms of overall performance and throughput. But they're one of the most critical items in your overall technology stack. Because people are not familiar with what the purpose is, a lot of times they think of them almost like a power strip that you plug into for your electrical connection. You plug the power strip into the wall, and it has eight ports on it that you can plug eight different electrical devices into. And for the most part, a power strip is a power strip, but there are also different variations of that. You can have a power strip with different surge protection, with different connectors available. I don't want to insinuate that even power strips are simplistic in nature, but let's just go to the base layer, a bottom level power strip, not even a surge protector. Most people think of a network switch in that same way because they really don't understand what it does or how it does it. They may even have one sitting under their desk, a little mini switch, because it was something they could pick up from Best Buy, very cheap, and add more outlets to plug into. So I want to talk through what a network switch actually does, why it's so critical, and why when you start looking at how much you should spend on these and what types of switches you should put in your network, it is so very important.

What Does a Network Switch Actually Do at Its Core?

Shane Naugher: At the very core, a network switch is what allows communication from one device on your network to another. It identifies the devices on each end of those connections and provides some control in terms of the amount of data it can process at a time, security around the data, and making sure that proper network segmentation is in place. Over the last 20 years, running your telephones, voice network, and video over your network has become commonplace. When I got started in this industry a little over 30 years ago, you didn't see that type of communication over switching. Really, switching wasn't even involved at that point. It was hubs. So now that we've got more advanced network traffic flowing, when it comes to voice and video, when you're running a phone call, a Zoom call, a Microsoft Teams meeting, those types of traffic need to be treated differently than, say, your email traffic. A switch is going to take all of this traffic and input that's provided from the devices, whether that's a computer, a laptop, or a wireless device. A lot of times people confuse Wi-Fi as a standalone entity, but in reality, Wi-Fi connects at the back end to a switch. So at the core, everything flows through your network switch infrastructure.

Why Does Traffic Prioritization Matter on Your Network?

Shane Naugher: As we go back to the types of traffic and the importance of those, when you get into voice and video, or any type of financial transactions, you prioritize that traffic over general email and web browsing, because it can disrupt that communication and cause errors. I'm sure you've probably been on a video call, whether that's Zoom, Teams, FaceTime, whatever, and the call gets pixelated, the sound cuts in and out. When it comes to those types of communication, having what's called quality of service, which guarantees that type of traffic priority over the other types, is so critically important. The network switch handles that. Without the proper switching in place, you cannot provide that type of quality of service. More importantly, as more and more devices are connecting, congestion becomes more of an issue. Now, if you've got a network that has multiple switches in it, where you've got one in the main office, one upstairs, and one in a warehouse, and they're all connected together, those multiple switches have to communicate together and understand what each one of them is doing. That's when it becomes even more critical when it comes to network switching.

Why Is Network Switching the Most Important Part of Your Network Architecture?

Shane Naugher: So we've gone from what most people think of when it comes to a network switch, just a splitter or a power strip that you can plug in and get more ports out of, to understanding that it's really the central processing of the entire network. This is a hill I will die on. Network switching is the most important factor in your entire network architecture. If you mess this up, everything else in your network is going to have problems. I've proven it time and time again that people who have cut corners when it comes to network switching are going to pay the price somewhere else. So when we look at wireless networks, again, a lot of people think that wireless is just, well, it's wireless.

Shane Naugher: It floats through the air and we magically connect. Each wireless access point that you connect to has an Ethernet cable that plugs into it, with the exception of what's called mesh radios, where they connect to another wireless access point. But even when you do that, at some point one of those wireless access points is going to have an Ethernet cable that plugs into the back of it that then goes to a switch. So even when you're using wireless, your network throughput is dependent upon that core network switch infrastructure. And going back to the wireless, even when you're using a mesh wireless that connects to another wireless without Ethernet, you in most cases are going to cut your throughput in half just in the way that it has to communicate between wireless to wireless. So network switching is kind of that backbone that everything flows through. All of your servers, all of your PCs, all of your printers, every device on your network is communicating and depending on this one device to handle that.

How Much Should You Invest in a Network Switch?

Shane Naugher: When it comes to how much you should invest in this equipment, imagine you're in a delivery service business and your core business is being able to deliver product from your warehouse to your customer. That is the main throughput that allows you to generate revenue and income. Would you ever consider in that type of business saying, "You know what? I'm going to go out and buy the cheapest vehicle I can buy, or I don't care whether it actually has a box on the back of the truck that we can fit more stuff in." You would never do that, because you understand the value of having the proper equipment that handles that core throughput for you. I want you to think of your network switching in that exact same manner. If you cut corners on your network switching, it's going to reduce something, whether that is your throughput, whether that is your security, whether that is your management capabilities or interoperability between other switches. When you cut corners on switching, you are going to give up one of those functions. And I know there's a lot of marketing out there that says everything's the same. It's not. I can tell you again from 30 years of experience. I've been through almost every certification Cisco had on network switching, all the way up to the CCIE written exam, to basically say I've done this year after year for decades and I know how critical this is. So when I tell you this, it's not me trying to push an agenda. It's because I care about the performance of your network.

Shane Naugher: When we get questions about, "Hey, I can go down to Best Buy and buy a switch there for a few hundred dollars, and we're getting quotes for business grade switches that are thousands of dollars, why wouldn't I just go spend $200 instead of thousands?" It's because you are cutting corners in throughput, in security, and in interoperability. Those things are going to impact your network extensively. Now, unless you're running a small office with, say, five to ten computers, that may be the only exception. Anything above that, and I would make the argument that even below that it's still critical, but I'll give the benefit of the doubt for those very small networks. Anything above that, you really need to make sure you understand what you're putting in place.

Can You Mix and Match Switch Brands?

Shane Naugher: We've had questions around, "Hey, we have five network switches in place today and we're going to replace some. Can we replace those with cheaper models or different brands?" Which brings up a whole other topic of discussion, because we've established that the network switch is the hub for all of your data to flow through. It has standards that it uses to make that happen, especially when you have multiple switches in the mix. So if you were to put a switch from one manufacturer into a different manufacturer's core network infrastructure, will it actually connect? Probably. But will it give you the same functionality, or can it possibly interfere with functionality? The latter is what we typically find, because each switch manufacturer has different standards. There are industry standards that most will try to follow, but they all apply those a little differently.

Shane Naugher: We see this all the time. Someone goes and buys a cheaper switch, plugs it into their network, their computer connects, and they think, "No big deal." A week later, they start having issues where all of a sudden their video calls have problems, they're losing connectivity, and the network in general is slow. I actually did a podcast on this a couple of months ago. Literally that same week we were called in because the entire network started having problems. Computers were losing connection, printers were unable to print, and it all just happened in one afternoon. I said from the very beginning, "What has been plugged in? There has to have been a switch plugged in that someone didn't know about, plan on, or communicate with us." Sure enough, after about three hours, we were able to trace down a device that had been plugged in in the warehouse from a cheap unmanaged switch manufacturer. And yes, it allowed connectivity, but what it spawned from that point forward is what's called a broadcast storm. Most business grade switches have the ability to detect that type of storm and limit it. This device was marketed as having that type of control, but it didn't follow the standard that the rest of the network did. So in effect, it had zero control.

Shane Naugher: My point there being, when it comes to mixing and matching equipment, can you do it? Yes, we see it done all the time. But it's like having an air conditioning unit in your house where you use a Trane on the outside unit and you say, "Well, you know what,

Why Shouldn't You Cut Corners on Network Switching?

Shane Naugher: If I've got to replace a blower motor on the inside unit and I'm just going to go buy a generic one and put it in, will it blow and force air through the air conditioner? Maybe. Does it work the way it's supposed to with the existing unit? Most likely not. And you're going to end up spending more money at some point down the road. Same analogy when it comes to air conditioning. You can go to Lowe's and buy a window unit air conditioner and it will cool the air around you. It will plug into the outlet on the wall. Fairly easy to install. But would you do that in your corporate office, where you had a window unit trying to cool your entire office? Is it an air conditioner? Does it blow cold air? Checks all those boxes, but it's not the unit that's appropriate for your environment. And so when you start thinking about network switching, I urge you, I strongly urge you, please do not make decisions on network switching infrastructure based upon cost alone. Please do not make decisions on network switch infrastructure that mix and match equipment together without thoroughly discussing what is the true impact of that. Now, I'm not saying that you can't have multiple brands of switching in your technology infrastructure. I'm simply saying that when you do that, every time you do that, it introduces risk. And at the end of the day, if this is the core infrastructure that enables your network to communicate, why would you take chances on that? I would rather see you cut costs and buy lower-end computers or even refurb PCs before I would say, "Hey, cut corners on your network switching." There are better ways to save money when it comes to technology. There are better ways to leverage technology. You can probably consolidate some of the overall layout of the network, and you can do that through the proper use of the right equipment.

What Does Cutting Corners on Switching Actually Cost You?

Shane Naugher: I speak passionately about this because I spent so long with this as my primary area of focus when I was doing the hands-on networking component in my early days. I've seen what this can do to a network. I've seen the fallout to businesses and I've seen what happens when people make snap decisions, like, "This one is half the price of what we're being quoted for the solution we've been using, so we're just going to go with the cheaper one." It ends up costing you every single time. And I'm trying to avoid that for you. A lot of times it masks itself as a problem that just can't be identified. People forget that they spent half the cost trying to save money on a switch. They forget all that because a month later they're in normal operations, but they just can't figure out why their server is so slow to respond or why they're having so many issues with a wireless access point that's dropping connections. It always comes back to: did we cut corners on the most important aspect of your network infrastructure?

How Can Dazzee IT Help?

Shane Naugher: If you want to have further discussions around this, I would love to have that conversation and walk you through the specifics. I can show you in detail how this impacts your environment. If you have any concerns or questions about what you're buying, certainly reach out to us. We'll be happy to help you in that decision-making process. As always, thank you for tuning in. Hopefully this provides value to you, and we'll see you on the next edition of Give IT To Me Straight.