Library & Articles
Network Design, Development and Support

Library & Articles

Network Design, Development and Support

Networking your company used to be an option. Now it's just part of doing business.

Most companies just put something in place in the beginning to get things working and then add as they go. Over time, the network becomes an assortment of hardware that has been strung together to make it work.

The problem with this is that most companies don't rethink and reorganize their network as it grows. For one reason or another they just try to maintain what they have, whether it makes sense or not.

When the network reaches a certain size most companies will undoubtedly determine that they need someone there full time to deal with machine and networking problems and hire a system or network administrator.

Now many network administrators know a little about a lot of things, such as how to build a machine, and how to get it on the network and share the necessary files. Fewer still can actually debug networking problems, and modify the firewall configuration, assuming they even have one.

Often what happens is the network administrator looks it all over, says — hey we should buy a firewall, and change this piece of hardware here. The bids are obtained but since the price is generally quite high for good equipment, it is simply not purchased or the purchase is put off.

Meanwhile the company continues to grow, system and network demands increase with problems that keep the system admin quite busy. The whole business is slowed down while the problems are handled.

This really defeats the purpose of having a network. The network and the computers are tools that are supposed to be used to increase your and your companies productivity, and give you more time to do other things. All too often businesses find they have become a slave to their own technology.

The solution is to have a professional network designer analyze the company's actual networking needs and design the network to fill those needs.

Professional network designers have to be trained for years, and have a lot going on in the back of their heads that they won't tell you or bore you to death with. But the main things that they are concerned with are:

1. SCALABILITY:
   How scalable is the network? Is it easy to add machines if we need to? What about Internet access? What if we take on the space next door?

2. SECURITY:
   Is the network secure? Can one of the employees see the executive's personal e-mails or documents? What happens if one of them is a hacker and tries to delete our company database? Or worse decides to corrupt it with false data?

3. AVAILABILITY:
   Does the network go up and down? Is it reliable, and all resources like printers and shared drives available when we need them?

4. PERFORMANCE:
   Is it as slow as a dog? What is causing it to be slow? Is your machine slow? Or is the network slow? It can be hard to tell sometimes.

5. REQUIREMENTS:
   Is there anything special that your business needs such as a database server, or mail server? Where is the best place to put it, and should different departments have their own servers for both performance and security?

6. COST:
   Is the cost of building the best network for the company cost prohibitive? Should we buy a cheap firewall or just take our chances? Or can we afford a nice firewall that we can use for years? What about hubs vs. switches? Can we find some that give better performance but are not much more expensive that hubs?

7. REDUNDANCY:
   Can this network be down without the world stopping? Does it handle live bank transactions that cost the company money every hour that it is down? What about Internet redundancy? Is it cost effective? Do we need two T1 lines or can we use an inexpensive ISDN line for redundancy and have it automatically dial out when our main Internet connection fails?

In addition to these questions, a professional network designer will talk with management and key personnel and ask questions such as:

• How fast is the company growing?
• What they have in place now?
• What problems are they having now, if any?
• Do they need something they don't have now?
• Is the server room secure or really hot?
• Are there any special problems associated with the business itself?

Now to design a network correctly you have to know what hardware is available and what each product does. You also have to know how to configure and integrate it into your system.

Usually it's more cost effective to just hire a professional network designer to come as a consultant to set up the network and then leave the less expensive system administrator to handle the day to day stuff. After that you can just call the consultant in for an hour or two when the system administrator gets in over their head .

A properly designed network can give your system administrator back their time if they are spending it trying to maintain an outdated or under-performing network. Plus company executives will not have the headache of trying to deal with the many problems that inevitably result from a poorly designed or outdated network system.

The bottom line is that most networks have to be customized for each individual company. As major changes take place in the company, (such as putting people in another building) the design may need to be completely changed. Over time, the network needs to be re-evaluated to ensure that it continues to be efficient and cost-effective.

What is your network plan? Does it meet the current and future needs of your company? Do your executives have problems understanding what your system administrators are even talking about? Does it seem like the network is more trouble than its worth? Has your company outgrown its current network system?

Whether you are just starting out with a small network or you are dealing with the day-to-day problems of administering your network, we can provide you with expert design, development and support services.