Do I need a managed switch for a growing small business network

[varevalo814]

The current set up has 12 computers, 8 Voip phones and 3 tablets working on unmanaged. We are moving to a large warehouse and will be growing to have maybe 15- 20 computers, 15 voip, 5 ubiquiti APs, 8-10 tablets, a NAS, and an NVR security system that will have 32 or more cameras. I'm not sure if its best to get the managed switch now to future proof and make sure the Voip phones get priority as well as a few computers that control CNC machines.

If I get a 48 port managed switch that connects the wall ethernet outlets do the small 5 port switches that go in some of the offices need to be managed as well in order for it to be properly managed?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[kanewolf]

I would put the video system on its own switch. The same could be true for the VOIP, you probably want POE for the phones to avoid the power bricks. Having three managed switches is better than one, because if one fails only part of the network is down. Purchase switches that have dual hot-swap power supplies. Get a UPS for the network hardware.

 

[bill001g]

The key reason you would need managed switches is if you need vlans. Managed switches also have some security feature if you need those. Managed switches do not run faster or better. Even very cheap switches can run all port 1gbit up and 1gbit down at the same time. So a 8 port switch could pass 16gbits of traffic, not that any realistic configuration would even need that.

You should never need a feature that prioritizes one type of traffic over another because of how fast the ports are. If you do you have a improper design. Traffic is never delayed unless you would for some reason be transferring more than 1gbit of traffic over a shared port.

Now you may end up with managed switches even if you don't technically need them because of your cameras and VoIP phones. Most those devices are powered by PoE and most switches that have PoE abilities are manged.

 

[failboat]

pfsense and unifi is easy to do trunking and VLAN on using the GUI.
1POE and 1 not POE.
Both of the 48s have 10Gbs SPF+ ports for stacking.
Building a pfsense box and adding 1 or 2 SPF+ NIC wouldn't be too bad.
supermicro C246 board + new xeon or i3 8100, ECC unbuffered memory, mirror hdd.