At first glance, buying cheap network switches feels like a smart financial decision. They connect devices, pass traffic, and cost less so what could go wrong? A lot.

In modern offices where productivity depends on cloud apps, VoIP calls, video meetings, file servers, and real-time collaboration, cheap switches silently become a performance bottleneck. The result? Slow applications, dropped calls, frustrated employees, and an IT team constantly fighting fires.

In this article, we explain why low-quality switches hurt business performance and what smart organizations do instead.

A network switch is the heart of your internal network. Every email, file transfer, video call, and cloud request pass through it.

Enterprise-grade switches are designed to:

Cheap switches?
They simply pass traffic until they can’t.

Cheap, unmanaged switches treat all traffic equally.
That means:

Enterprise switches use Quality of Service (QoS) to prioritize what matters most. Without it, productivity collapses during busy periods.

Cheap switches often have:

As your team grows or uses more cloud services, the switch becomes overloaded causing:

Employees wait. Work stops. Time is wasted.

When something goes wrong on a cheap switch:

IT teams end up guessing instead of fixing.

Enterprise managed switches provide real-time monitoring, logs, alerts, and diagnostics, turning problems into quick fixes instead of long outages.

Cheap switches are built with:

They overheat, hang, or fail completely often without warning.

Downtime costs:

Enterprise switches are designed for continuous operation, with stability as a priority.

As soon as you need:

Cheap switches hit a hard wall.

Organizations end up replacing them early paying twice instead of once.

Let’s be honest:
If 30 employees lose just 10 minutes per day due to slow network performance:

High-performing organizations invest in:

The result?

You can compromise on office chairs.
You can delay wall paint.
You can reuse desks.

But your network switch touches every employee, every minute, every day.
Cutting corners here directly cuts productivity.

Cheap network switches may work in small, low-usage environments but in modern offices, they become silent productivity killers. Slow networks don’t just frustrate users; they slow growth, damage efficiency, and increase operational costs.

If your business relies on digital tools (and today, every business does), enterprise-grade switching is not optional it’s essential.

Kenera International Trading PLC is a trusted ICT systems integrator with over 17 years of experience delivering enterprise network infrastructure solutions across Ethiopia. Kenera specializes in designing, supplying, and implementing enterprise-grade switching solutions for offices, campuses, government institutions, banks, and large commercial buildings.

Kenera provides:

If slow networks are holding your team back, Kenera delivers the right technology and expertise to restore speed, stability, and productivity.