Current wired andwireless networks will be inadequateas traffic is forecast to triple over next five years as per Cisco VNI. Business Internet video traffic is expected to grow at 39%, mobile data traffic at 59% & Internet of Things M2M traffic at 113% per year through 2017-2018. Even when users are not actively using the apps on their mobile devices, the mobile devices create up to 1GB of background traffic (OS, App updates & backups) per month per device. With BYOD, there are 3x more devices per user according to a Cisco IBSG study of 600 IT & business leaders. Internet of Things (IoT) connects sensors, cameras and plenty of other previously unconnected devices to the network.

This trend in combination with growth in traffic from each device results in an explosion of traffic.   

Higher connectivity speed is adding fuel to the fire. Wi-Fi is now the de facto primary network access in workplace. Wi-Fi standards have continuously provided more radio bandwidth to the users.  802.11ac (also called the Gigabit wireless) standard enables a network that is 3 times faster due to its 1.3 Gbps capacity.  802.11ac wave 2 is capable of up to 6 Gbps.  The latent unmet demand from wireless devices will take full advantage of 802.11ac.

Therefore, the choke point in the network has moved up from wireless AP to the access and access uplinks. The access switch ports are moving to 1G. The access switch uplinks and backbone switch ports will need to move to 10G.

The economics is making this transition easier. 802.11ac access points are already priced at the same price as the previous generation 802.11n APs. 2 x 1G connections are more expensive than 10G when the costs of port, optics and cables are combined. 10G deployment can use existing fiber cables; so no new cabling costs for 10G deployment.

Cisco is offering 10G product bundles that include access switches, 10G uplinks and 10G backbone switches that are priced at most10% premiumover a similar 1G configuration.  All these make it attractive to upgrade to 10G.

Take advantage of the compelling technological and economic reasons to upgrade your network to 10G and prepare for future growth: more apps, more devices, new cloud models.