#smart managed switch

Ethernet network switch marks the backbone of your enterprise network, with which you can connect multiple core devices like routers, printers, PCs and other hardware. There exist a dazzling array of network switches with various feature sets and functions. With regard to management options, there are primary three categories of switches: unmanaged switch, smart switch and managed switch. Among which smart switch has ranked as a moderate choice for better regulating business network – as a perfect mix of essential functions and affordability. If you’ve outstripped your unmanaged switch but don’t expect for a more advanced managed switch, it’s the right time to consider a smart managed switch.

What Is A Smart Switch?

Smart switch, or smart managed switch, fills the middle ground between the unmanaged switch and managed switch – it offers certain levels of management, basic quality-of-service (QoS) and limited security features with limited numbers of ACLs (access control lists) . Smart switch generally has a browser-based interface for management and it also enable segmentation of the network by creating VLANs, which makes it quite a versatile solution. Smart switch fits best at the edge of a large network (with managed switches as core switch). Here we make a further comparison between smart managed switch vs unmanaged switch, and smart switch vs managed switch.

Smart Switch vs Unmanaged switch

Unmanaged switch presents the most cost-friendly plug-and-play solution for deployment that require only basic layer 2 switching and connectivity. It cannot be modified/managed and requires no configuration at all. Primarily targeted for home and SOHO, unmanaged switch is generally used to small network with only a few components, or to add temporary workgroups to larger networks. Compared to “dumb” unmanaged switch, smart managed switch opens the door to manage, monitor and configure the network, but only with very limited capability.

Smart Switch

vs Managed Switch

Fully managed switch is designed to deliver the most comprehensive set of features to provide the highest level of security, the most precise control and management and the greatest scalability. Managed switch can be deployed as aggregation/access switches in very large professionally networks or as core switches in relatively smaller networks, allowing organizations to manage and troubleshoot network remotely and securely, and to expand with flexibility.

Smart switch can be seen as a “lighter” managed switch – less capable and scalable than the managed switches, with lighter management capabilities and less VLAN groups and nodes (mac address). As such, smart switch offers a less expensive alternative to managed switches. Additionally, managed switch generally allows for full configuration by command line interface (CLI) via a console port and telnet and or SSH session, and often a web GUI. While a smart switch often lacks any console port, have less configuration flexibility via a web-based interface. Seen as an entry-level managed switch.

Should I Choose Smart Switch Over the Other Two?

The choice typically depends on two factors: budget and application. If you just want to setup a home network and keep things simple, an unmanaged and smart managed switches are good enough. But if you want to manage a LAN and need configuration options like VALN and QoS, or to deal with mission-critical applications that demands massive data traffic, it is better to use at least a smart managed switch or the more powerful managed switch.

As unmanaged switch is targeted for home and SOHO while fully managed switch for data centers, enterprises and relatively professional networks, smart switch, therefore, is mostly for small to medium sized business (SMB) users who may need some or certain configuration and management. They offer access to switch management features such as port monitoring, link aggregation, and VPN through a simple Web interface.

Conclusion

We have gone through the basics of three primary categories of network switch – unmanaged switch, smart switch and fully managed switch, as well as deployment scenarios of each. Smart managed switch can make an excellent transition solution when unmanaged switch is never adequate and the cost for a managed switch cannot be justified. Organizations and enterprises nowadays have reap significant benefits from using smart managed switch, which proves that it is a journey worthwhile to take, especially for SMB networks.

As the total expenditure decreases of 10GbE network and the increasing data traffic in modern business, the specific demands for 10GbE switches have been put forward. As we know, there are 8-port 10GbE switch, 12-port 10GbE switch, 24-port 10GbE switch and 48-port 10GbE switch in the market. With so many types to choose from, many users have troubles in making a decision. In this tutorial, several kinds of 12-port 10GbE switch will be introduced, aiming to offer a reference for users’ selection of 12-port 10GbE switches.

Overview of Popular 12-Port 10GbE Switches in Market

As we can search on many forums and communities, Cisco 10GbE switches are the hottest topic. However, not every user, especially some SMB (small and mid-sized business) network builders will hesitate to choose Cisco switches due to its high price. Considering this point, here are some 10GbE switches that much cheaper.

D-link DXS-1210-12SC

D-link DXS-1210-12SC is a 12-port 10GbE SFP+ switch that features with extensive management, layer 2 features, QoS and bandwidth control. Designed with 12 SFP+ ports and 2 10GBASE-T/SFP+ combo ports, this smart managed switch supports 10GbE copper and fiber connections for a wide range of network needs.

FS S5800-8TF12S

Similar to D-Link DXS-1210-12SC switch, FS S5800-8TF12S is also a 12-port 10GbE SFP+ switch that offers and 8 ports 1GbE SFP/RJ45 combo and 12 ports 10GbE uplink in a compact 1RU form factor. Offering high performance for traditional or fully virtualized data center and SMb networks, this 10GbE switch also can work with hyper-converged infrastructure. The unique port count of this switch makes the perfect fit for hyper-converged infrastructure, which providing future-proofing assurance for the growth of virtualization, cloud-based services and applications.

Netgear XS712T

Netgear 10GbE switches are popular in SMB networks. The XS712T is a 12-port 10GbE switch that has 12 10G copper ports and 2 SFP+ combo ports for 10GbE fiber links, which is different from FS 12-port 10GbE switch. In addition, this 10GbE smart switch also offers advanced and comprehensive set of layer 2 features for small and medium sized network management.

Mellanox SX1012X

Mellanox SX1012X 12-port 10GbE SFP+ switch is a good switch for ToR solution. It offers 12 1/10GbE ports in a half 1U form factor. This unique design allows side-by-side deployment in racks. In addition, what the users should pay attention to is the 12 1/10GbE ports come with QSFP+ connector, which means if users buy this switch, the corresponding DACs and optical modules have to be bought together.

How to Choose a Suitable 10GbE Switch for Your Network?

Here is a simple chart showing the port of the 12-port 10GbE switches mentioned above.

From the chart, we can conclude that vendors have different definitions for their 12-port 10GbE switches. Therefore, users may have troubles in selecting a suitable network switches. Take these 10GbE switches as examples, the following part intends to talk about some factors that users many confused in purchasing a 10GbE switches.

The first factor is port type. If searching on Google, many questions will be shown about SFP+ port count of a 10GbE switch. For in 10GbE networks, core switches or access switches with SFP+ port are necessary. Take FS S5800-8TF12S 12-port 10GbE SFP+ switch as an example, to meet part of network builders’ need for hyper-converged infrastructure, the 12 SFP+ ports is designed.

The second one is the performance. Some users are fond of Cisco managed switches because of their advanced functions. However, as many network geeks said in forums or communities, most advanced functions will not be used in networking, and it’s no need to pay for some features that will not come in handy.

The last one is the vendor or company. A good and reliable vendor or company can not only provide quality switches, but considerate services which help users solve unnecessary problems and save cost. Popular brands are known to us all like Cisco, Dell and HP. For small business, some vendors who offer cheap but quality products are also popular like FS.COM. Of course, other good vendors and companies are needed to be explored.

Summary

In a word, Ethernet switches are the key part in 10GbE networks. This post recommends some popular 12-port 10GbE switches for users, and some factors about switch selection are also mentioned. Hope it will be helpful for you.

Network switch, a box-shaped device, plays an important role in a network deployment. To achieve high network performance, a suitable switch is required. There are smart managed switch and unmanaged switch on the market. How much do you know about them? Smart managed switch vs. unmanaged switch, which one should you choose for your network deployment? Keep reading, and you will find the answer.

Smart Switch Vs. Managed Switch

If you look through the official website of several vendors, you may find that some offer smart switch, the others provide managed switch. Smart switch vs. managed switch, what’s the different between them? Smart switch has some features that managed switch has, but are more limited. Besides, smart switch is cheaper than managed switch. So, it’s a cost-effective alternative to managed switch. In fact, "smart switch" and "managed switch" are terms invented by vendors. And the exact meaning may vary from vendor to vendor. To some extent, smart switch and managed switch are virtually the same. In the following part, I combine them as smart managed switch for easy reading.

Smart Managed Switch Vs. Unmanaged Switch

As smart managed switch and unmanaged switch have different features, they are used in different applications.

Smarted Managed Switch

Smart managed switch offers features like QoS (Quality of Service), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), command line interface (CLI), Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP), redundancy capability, VLANs, LACP and so on. The greatest advantage of smart managed switch is that you can change the configuration of the switch to satisfy your specific networking needs. Smart managed switch is especially suitable for enterprises that need to manage and troubleshoot their network remotely and securely, allowing network managers to monitor and control the traffic to achieve optimal network performance and reliability. The following figure shows FS S5800-8TF12S managed switch which provides high port density with 8-port 1GbE RJ45 and 8-port 1GbE SFP combo and 12-port 10GbE uplink in a compact 1RU form factor.

FS S5800-8TF12S managed switch

Unmanaged Switch

Unmanaged switch is basic plug-and-play switch with no remote configuration, management, or monitoring options. It allows Ethernet devices to communicate with one another (such as a PC or network printer) by providing a connection to the network and passing on information to where it needs to go. Therefore, unmanaged switch is usually used to extend the number of Ethernet ports. Unmanaged switch can be desktop or rack mounted. It is less expensive than smart managed switch and is suitable for home use, SOHO and small businesses.

Which One to Choose?