Trends in ‘Small Business Networking’

One of the first needs in computing infrastructure for an SMB is the ‘network’.  Networks enable employees to collaborate and deliver work on computers and smart devices. We analyse on-the-ground situation in terms of how the SMB network is undergoing what can be referred to as ‘micro-shifts’.

Small and medium businesses employ close to 40% of the work force in India and generate 17% of the GDP.   Small businesses are existential, because some of them grow out of the league. The new trend is that there are new technology startups especially leveraging urban technology.

For the purpose of this analysis we are considering an SMB as a company that needs up to 100 network nodes (laptops, computers, mobile devices and printers).

Most SMBs focus on the core business and computing infrastructure, which includes networking becomes a ‘given essential’.  There was a time when SMB’s would struggle to purchase networking equipment, cables and computers in shoestring budgets.  With technology evolving and flexible pricing models coming in, SMB’s are realizing the benefit of – flexible opex and pay per use models.  These models have enabled SMB’s to adapt to cloud.   L Ashok, CEO of FutureNet, a leading system integrator based in Chennai, says that this flexibility is a boon for companies with shoe string budgets.  Companies can afford to get ‘off the blocks’ immediately, and move on with their business.

This means companies can leverage infrastructure hosted elsewhere – in a cloud- which is taken care in terms of redundancy, security and backup. This eliminates the headache of providing space, creating redundancy, managing the infrastructure completely.   Cloud has become the ‘go to’ decision.   Most SMB’s have therefore eliminated the ‘micro data center’ in their offices.   This is a significant revenue dip for channels and service providers in that segment.   So what is the way?

A typical office today, has a gateway. This gateway is the key device that connects the SMB’s office to the cloud.  Ashok says that these gateways need to be secure.  For example, his company installed a network with complete open source security – like open source firewalls and VPN’s in the same gateway device.  This means that the gateway device becomes the ‘wide area network device’ which therefore eliminates the router. The router is a device that connects the Local Area Network and the wide area network (WAN).  Since the gateway devices have taken over, the router for an SMB’s network is redundant.

The gateway devices therefore, becoming important, have built in redundancy (inactive-active) and active-passive configurations.   The gateway device has a router, firewall and VPN device in built.  Very akin to the early day Unified Threat Management (UTM) devices, there are many gateway solutions from the likes of Fortinet, Symantec, Juniper and Cisco, among other players.  Every manufacturer comes in the range of 15000 to 30000 Rs.

The network inside an SMB office looks the same – it has not changed over the years, says Ashok.  Commenting on the switches that interchange packets between the devices (like laptops, desktops of mobile devices), he says that hubs have become a dinosaur.  With Level 2 switches maturing into manageable devices, SMB’s can actually get into the switch management console through an IP (default) and configure the switch as per their needs.  HP and Dlink are some of the major players. Cisco has a wide range of Level 2 switches for the SMB’s to choose.

Beyond the Level 2 switches, are Level 3 switches.  Level 3 switches allow creation of Virtual LANs within slightly large offices and help to create pockets of network which separate individual functions or teams.  What is the benefit – network performance is contained at the individual VLAN and only interfunctional traffic is allowed between the VLANs. Moreover, one can allocated bandwidth even within the LAN through quality of service.   This helps to prioritize the application with respect to bandwidth.  Entry level, Level 3 switches are available for medium enterprises.  The same brand of manufacturers offer L3 switches for the SMB segment as well.

Ashok points out that unlike the popular notion that Wireless or Wi-Fi hot spots are ubiquitous businesses still rely on wired network.  Wired networks give higher, dedicated performance to the workstation or the laptop.   And small businesses, like technology startups that have heavy traffic to the workstation or manufacturing offices still go the wired network way.   In most enterprises, according to Ashok, both wireless and wired networks co-exist.  Wireless network gives mobility and flexibility, but when the number of users goes beyond 20, the wireless network performance starts to deteriorate.

Most manufacturing offices or ready-to-occupy offices in cities have both telecom as well as networking outlets.  The de facto cabling standard, Ashok says, is CAT 6E, for all enterprises.   What is now also ubiquitous is the vertical backbone (inter-floor connectivity) and the main Ethernet backbone is of fibre.  Also, building to building connectivity is now based on fibre, as fibre technology offers a high speed backbone – which now 10G (10 Gigabytes).  With the cost of fibre becoming affordable, more and more SMB’s are adapting to fibre at the core. That allows copper CAT 6 cable easily deliver 1G at the end point.

While wireless has been in vogue for many years, now managed wireless what SMB’s are adopting it.   It is easy to manage wireless access points through a single management console.  One need not have to deal with different (SSID’s – secret identifiers) for access point management.  A single laptop with the Unify (one of the wireless management software) can manage up to 4 access points, Ashok says.

An emerging, but an inevitable trend is what is called as ‘office in a box’.  Technology providers like Cisco have started increasingly pushing this device in the SMB space.  An ‘office in box’ typically contains a router, EPABX, firewall, WAN accelerator, DHCP server and remote access.

With such minute ground shifts in terms of technology and devices, customers have to keep three things in mind.  A clear choice has to be made between cost optimization and technology choice.  Choice of Level 2 or 3 switches, cabling technology choices will have an impact on the performance and experience of business users.  Ashok points out that the cabling portion is normally done by Architects or contractors who deploy electricians. Normally, these semi-skilled technicians do not know the intricacies of networking technology.  It is important to choice the right service provider.  Ashok brings to notice the fact about ‘lifetime warranty’ offered by switching and cabling manufacturers – some brands offer ‘brand level warranty’ while others ‘product level warranty’.

It is important for the channels also to keep in touch with the micro-shifts in technology and share them with SMB’s.  SMB’s may not have dedicated IT personnel and more often than not rely on service providers.  Network maintenance, albeit a small source of revenue can be key for customer stickiness.

The SMB network is undergoing micro-shift in terms of technology and adoption. Small and medium businesses have moved from worrying about investing through shoe-string budgets to leveraging the choices that technology and service models have to offer, and that is indeed a good sign.