What are the benefits of having a Local Area Network 'LAN' in a business?

Benefits of LANs to an Organization

The benefits of LANs are:

• Resource sharing capability allows storage space and network peripherals, such as printers, to be shared by workstations, reducing hardware requirement, expenses and improving productivity.

• Standard PC hardware is used for network workstations and servers, which provide a great deal of design flexibility, easy maintenance and cost efficiency.

• Common applications are network aware, which significantly help in user transition time when relocating to different network environments. Additionally, network licensing is substantially less expensive than that of stand-alone licensing.

• Through file sharing, users can easily transfer files to one another, in order to improve productivity. Shared file access allows multi-user access to user applications.

• With centralized data storage, LANs offer the ability to place shared data on a single server within a central location. Network backups are easier and more reliable because all data resides on one physical location. This reduces the cost incurred by loss of any data during system failure.

• LANs support a number of fault tolerance features, such as disk mirroring, disk-duplexing, disk striping with parity (RAID5) and UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply). This improves reliability and minimizes network downtime.

• LANs offer centralized security, which allows control over access to the network and its resources. Depending on an organization's requirements, this functionality is customizable to help protect sensitive data from loss, destruction, theft, or unauthorized disclosure.

• Communication to other users is also provided through a messaging system. It is the basis for implementing sophisticated systems

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Answer

Local Areas Networks increase efficiency exponentially in an office environment. A LAN system can provide the users with an easy to use central repository of all files - increasing security and making it easier to collaborate on projects. Besides file sharing, a LAN also enables a user to share another computers CDROM, floppy drive or other resource, just as if the original computer had its own CDROM or other resource.