Hi Folks. There's a practice question floating around out there about advantages of using VLANS and one possible answer is that VLANS reduce the total number of switches required in a network. The common wisdom seems to be no, that's not a correct choice.

I would think yes. If I were to set up a separate physical lan for three departments that need the security of being segregated, I would need three switches at each access point. By using VLANS, I can just divvy up a single switch.

I haven't been able to find any reference to this on cisco's web site, so I'll assume the cisco answer is no. Still, I can't help but have a nagging feeling that I should select that answer if confronted with that question.

What do you guys think? Anybody taken any official cisco courses or have official cisco curriculum where this is mentioned?

I concur.

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It's an interesting question.
You are correct, but cisco believes or wants you to have each user connected to a switch port so because VLANs don't decrease the number of the users , there is no reason for decreasing number of switch-ports and so number of switches. If look at the question from this point of view.
I did my CCNA last year, after i finnished the official course and i can tell you, that there are some of "these questions" in this exam.
So you can just shoot in the dark or try to think in the "cisco-way"

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You're right, one can really over-think these types of questions. That's why I'm hoping to find some mention of it from the horses mouth. You make a good point about switchports, but if I can replace three 3512's with a 3548, then I've reduced my switches by two thirds, and increased my available switchports at the same time.

Thanks for the feedback. If I ever find a definitive answer I'll post it here first!

yes, but they both support VLAN
Of course you can take even one from the 4500 series, and you won't have problems for a long time (240 ports), but everything is just question of money

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