Enterprise router purchasing: Start by reviewing border routers

In the past, routers had only one purpose - to route packets between networks. Therefore, the choice of route depended solely on the type of connection and the expected throughput. As modern environments are more complex, it is best to conduct a thorough review of border routers before purchasing.

We categorize routers by where they are deployed and the services they report. In recent years, it is amazing how many services have been added to routers - the biggest difference from special-purpose routers. A complete evaluation of a router should address routing functions, connection types, data transfer requirements, redundancy, and scalability.

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In most enterprises, routers are located at the LAN boundary in the traditional campus network environment. The most common network boundaries are the Internet boundary and the WAN boundary. The boundary router is the first barrier between enterprise data and untrusted networks within the campus LAN. Most importantly, at some point the boundary router is responsible for controlling the transmission of data between different networks, thereby ensuring certain security requirements.

The latest developments in router deployment and management technology have made purchasing decisions more complicated. Routers that traditionally existed as hardware appliances can now be deployed as virtual machines. This can increase the flexibility and scalability of the network. Software-defined networking (SDN) is also a growth point. Support for SDN supports segmented data and control planes. This means that all routers in an enterprise network can be centrally managed. Administrators no longer need to manage each router individually or create routing policies on a hop-by-hop basis.

Selecting the correct router for a particular application is a major decision, and enterprise IT team leaders should carefully study the manufacturer's manual before completing their own review of the border router.