NETGEAR FS524S Release Note

4500 Great America Parkway • Santa Clara, CA 95054
Small Business Stackable Switch White Paper January 16, 2001
Today's fast-paced global business arena, spurred by the Internet and
World Wide Web (WWW), has changed the ground rules for small offices,
requiring them to work faster, be more responsive to customers, and
outpace a worldwide range of competitors. At the same time, the Internet
and WWW have also provided new ways for small offices to not only
survive but thrive in these market conditions.
To take advantage of today's unprecedented opportunities, small offices
are deploying larger networks, higher-performance personal computers
(PCs) and servers, and resource-hungry client/server applications that
consume large amounts of bandwidth to support Internet- and/or intranet-
based customer transactions or other business activities. At the same
time, small offices are facing the growing challenge of providing users
with sufficient bandwidth to perform day-to-day activities such as:
• Accessing e-mail, the Internet, and the company intranet
• Fetching image-enhanced documents
• Accessing graphics-intensive files
• Conducting unified voice/data messaging and Internet telephony
activities
Stackable switch technology offers a solution for improving network
performance, relieving bandwidth bottlenecks, while allowing small
offices to preserve their investment in their current network
infrastructure. Stackable switch technology also offers advantages in
performance and provides the framework for utilizing evolving
technologies, such as Gigabit Ethernet, as they become available.
This White Paper explains stackable switching technology, its origins,
and its advantages. This Paper also identifies the features to look for
in a stackable switch.
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