A local area network (LAN) is a system that links computers, printers and other electronic equipment in a network within an office or building. A virtual local area network (VLAN) is a system that links two or more computer networks in separate offices using the Openface data center as a data hub.
What we do
Openface connects the computer networks of your various offices to our secure data center. This allows your computer networks to connect to one another through us. Your employees can access all the computer networks of your company
Help me decide
In the past, the only way to connect office networks securely was with a virtual private network (VPN). However, a VPN connection is sometimes not possible in every area for technical reasons. In those cases, Openface offers VLAN. The end result is the same: various offices can share data across many computer networks in a secure way.
The main differences between VLAN and VPN is (1) the route the data travels from office to office, (2) the hardware required (VLAN does not require encrypted hardware, software or firewalls that can decrease line speed) and (3) the total cost of ownership (VLAN is less costly).
VLAN increases performance, improves manageability, simplifies network tuning and software configurations, delivers physical topology independence and provides increased security options.
VLAN Benefits
To summarize, VLAN architecture benefits include:
- Increased performance
- Improved manageability
- Network tuning and simplification of software configurations
- Physical topology independence
- Increased security options
Increased performance
Switched networks by nature will increase performance over shared media devices in use today, primarily by reducing the size of collision domains. Grouping users into logical networks will also increase performance by limiting broadcast traffic to users performing similar functions or within individual workgroups. Additionally, less traffic will need to be routed, and the latency added by routers will be reduced.
Improved manageability
VLANs provide an easy, flexible, less costly way to modify logical groups in changing environments. VLANs make large networks more manageable by allowing centralized configuration of devices located in physically diverse locations.
Network tuning and simplification of software configurations
VLANs will allow LAN administrators to "fine tune" their networks by logically grouping users. Software configurations can be made uniform across machines with the consolidation of a department’s resources into a single subnet.IP addresses, subnet masks and local network protocols will be more consistent across the entire VLAN. Fewer implementations of local server resources such as bootP and DHCPwill be needed in this environment. These services can be more effectively deployed when they can span buildings within a VLAN.
Physical topology independence
VLANs provide independence from the physical topology of the network by allowing physically diverse workgroups to be logically connected within a single broadcast domain. If the physical infrastructure is already in place, it now becomes a simple matter to add ports in new locations to existing VLANs if a department expands or relocates. These assignments can take place in advance of the move, and it is then a simple matter to move devices with their existing configurations from one location to another. The old ports can then be "decommissioned" for future use, or reused by the department for new users on the VLAN.
Increased security options
VLANs have the ability to provide additional security not available in a shared media network environment. By nature, a switched network delivers frames only to the intended recipients, and broadcast frames only to other members of the VLAN. This allows the network administrator to segment users requiring access to sensitive information into separate VLANs from the rest of the general user community regardless of physical location. In addition, monitoring of a port with a traffic analyzer will only view the traffic associated with that particular port, making discreet monitoring of network traffic more difficult.
It should be noted that the enhanced security that is mentioned above is not to be considered an absolute safeguard against security infringements. What this provides is additional safeguards against "casual" but unwelcome attempts to view network traffic.
Technical details
Switched networks increase performance over shared media devices by reducing the size of collision domains. Also, grouping users into logical networks increases performance because broadcast traffic is limited to users performing similar functions or those within individual workgroups. Less traffic is routed and the latency added by routers will be reduced. VLAN acts like an ordinary LAN, but connected devices do not need to be physically connected to the same segment.
What makes us reliable
Our multi-vendor approach allows us to offer VLAN service to our clients. Openface works with various suppliers, which gives our clients more technology options.
Our clients
Openface has been providing VLAN services since 1996 for clients such as these.
