Security: VLANS provide a higher level of security because the administrator is able to separate systems that have sensitive data (like accounting or human resources) from the rest of the network. Employees will be unable to gain access to information they are not authorized to use.
Increased Performance and Cost Reduction: Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) were developed as an alternative solution to using routers to contain broadcast traffic. VLANs create broadcast domains using switches instead of routers. This significantly increases the performance or your network and eliminates the need for expensive routers.
Mobility: One of the biggest advantages of VLANs is the simplification of moving a computer to another location. . Sixty-five percent of network costs are a result of adds, moves, and changes of users in a network. Every time a user is moved in a LAN, recabling, new station addressing, and reconfiguration of hubs and routers becomes necessary. Some of these tasks can be simplified with the use of VLANs. If a user is moved within a VLAN, they can stay on the same VLAN without the need for any hardware reconfiguration. Reconfiguration of routers is unnecessary.
Virtual Work Groups: Time, money and increase in project productivity are just a few of the reasons companies are now taking advantage of Virtual Work Groups using VLAN technology. A group of individuals who work on a common project via technologies such as e-mail, instant messages, shared databases, threaded discussions and calendaring. Virtual workgroups are mandated by company policy and employment requirements.
