What is the right bandwidth management methodology?
Most bandwidth management solutions can mange bandwidth based on IP, MAC address, protocols, subnets, URLs and even the particular application. There is no shortage of criteria for "shaping traffic" and easing congestion. Knowing how a company wants to manage its bandwidth is important. Most companies have a preconceived notion of how a solution ought to work -- they believe that bandwidth management will automate the throttling of unnecessary traffic and allocate more traffic to what is important. This is true to an extent, as many bandwidth management products offer built-in traffic shapers for protocols such as P2P applications. However, configuration may be necessary to ensure that applications such as email, databases and mission-critical applications are receiving optimal bandwidth.
 |
| About the author |
| Ron Barrett is the founder of RARE-TECH, an IT training and consulting company. Ron is a specialist in network, security and IT management infrastructure. Be sure to catch Ron's daily blog, "A Better Windows World," on Network World's Microsoft subnet. |
|
|
|
|
Return to the bandwidth management FAQ guide and read the rest of Ron's expert responses.
