Should You Migrate Your Token Ring Network to Ethernet ?

Token Ring network managers are faced with the difficult decision of staying with Token Ring or migrating to Ethernet. Making matters worse is that analysts, consultants, and vendors do not always agree on the answer. Some recommend abandonment of Token Ring as soon as possible and move to Ethernet. Others suggest that Token Ring is strategic and one should stay with it forever. Ultimately, one has to decide what to do. This article examines the technical and business factors that will help determine the future direction of the network. First of all, take a look at a few of the more obvious facts about the Local Area Networking market. Regardless of how it is fmeasured, the Ethernet market is much larger than the Token Ring market. This has resulted in increasing choices, decreasing prices, and rapid advancement of technology for the Ethernet user. Unfortunately, Token Ring technology has not advanced as quickly and prices remain much higher than for Ethernet technology. Also, fewer vendors are offering Token Ring solutions, as many view this to be a declining market. Recently, there has been much press about new high-speed alternatives for Token Ring. Some argue that Token Ring customers have not needed higher speeds until recently, therefore these new technologies are arriving just in time. This is extolled as a revival of the Token Ring market P A Y O F F I D E A