Information Technology 
No Comments Virtual LAN (vLAN) and Why it’s better for small businesses
If you are in business, chances are that you are wired to the Internet. And chances are that you have either ADSL or Cable. That’s fine with a single location, but what if you have multiple locations and need to exchange data among them? That’s when things get complicated.
In typical multi-site situation, you’ll need to setup VPN (Virtual Private Network) which encrypts data out of each location and decrypts it at the destination. To ensure all locations communicates fast and securely, you (or IT people you hired) need to setup VPN end points at each site. Let’s say you have 4 sites, you’ll need to setup 12 point-to-point connections (4×3). This is called a full mesh setup. Not only it’s complex, it adds up to 30% more load to your network and will slow down your network.
The better solution is to find an ISP (Internet Service Provider) that provides transparent vLAN solution. This can mean two things:
- The ISP setup and manage the VPN for you.
- The ISP routes all your traffic between site internally on its network and only allow connection to Internet when necessary.
Method 2 is a better because all internal traffic stays “on net” without going onto the Internet. The ISP manages firewall that separate your network to the outside world. It does not extra load to network traffic because no encryption is used.
In essence, vLAN allows each machine to communicate directly. This enables your business to share files, printers and software seamlessly across all locations.
Telus and Shaw provides this type of service under its enterprise business departments and you can expect to pay more than $500+ per site for this service. I’ve used two smaller ISP’s that would provide better service for under $200 a month:
- Skyway West - only charges $30 more on top of its $109 business 6Mbps ADSL. The support team is very responsive and knowledgeable. Highly recommended.
- Stargate Connections – charges $50 more for vLAN. It uses Cisco routers to establish the Corporate Private Network (CPN).
What’s more impressive is that both of these ISP can bond two Internet connections such as ADSL and Cable to deliver added bandwidth and loss-less fail-over. Finally, private network traffic from site to site are provided at no charge.
If you are a business that has internal software that must be shared to all branch offices. One of these two ISP’s will make your life a lot easier. A solid technology infrastructure is just a good foundation for any growing business!