- profits are also using cloud-based applications, particularly e-mail. And although the IT department might shrink, it will continue to be needed to manage the switches on the Ethernet LAN. The LAN is critical for accessing and transmit- ting data on cloud-based applications. The non-profit uses Cisco's WebEx, which is a web-based audio and video conferencing service that it accesses from user desktops and camera-equipped laptops. Because it is Internet-based, remote staff members can easily access it. However, the IT director would like WebEx to be easier to use and plans to integrate it with the organization's Microsoft Office applications on users' desk- tops. The WebEx service is also used for collaboration and conferencing, where participants are able to write comments on a "whiteboard." This is part of its concept of an office without walls, wherein people easily work with staff members in other locations. As part of this concept, more employees, such as new mothers, now work from home and access their files remotely. LAN Traffic The volume of LAN traffic has grown exponentially due to powerful computers that are able to handle multimedia traffic. This traffic has a longer duration and shorter pauses between packets for other devices to transmit. This is true whether applications are on desktops, centralized in data centers, or in the cloud, because at some point, data is still transmitted over the LAN to the user. The following are examples. Large graphics file attachments such as PowerPoint files. Daily backups to databases of entire corporate files. Web downloads of long, continuous streams of images, audio, and video files. Growth of audio and video conferencing conducted over LANs. Voicemail, call center, and voice traffic. Backbone and Individual Local Area Network Structures Access by remote and local employees to applications and personal files on centralized servers and storage devices. Web access, during which users typically have four or more pages open concurrently. Each open web page is a sess