When it comes to best practices for BYOD environments, a question tech managers often ponder is LAN or VLAN. One deciding factor is how IT departments wish to manage their budgets.
Because VLAN enables you to share some of your existing infrastructure, you can significantly reduce costs related to switching hardware and physical connections. The trade-off? “The risk is that someone with a malicious piece of code might attempt to take advantage of that by performing some kind of bridge into the LAN,” says Chris Fitzsimmons, product manager at Biamp. At the same time, that doesn’t mean VLANs are insecure, provided you configure them properly.
“However, if you have a completely separate infrastructure—a separate LAN—then there’s less risk, but then obviously you need two or three times as much cabling and switching hardware,” Fitzsimmons explained. "So there are checks and balances between cost and absolute security.”
Carolyn Heinze is a regular contributor to AV Technology magazine.
