Just like how a well-planned city thrives with smooth-running roads, your business needs an expertly crafted network design for its digital highways. It’s all about smart planning, building, and looking after networks that join the dots between various devices and systems within your business landscape. Do it right, and you’ll see a world of difference – effective communication, secure data sharing, and seamless digital workflows that enhance productivity and efficiency.
What Is Network Design?
Let’s start at the beginning: what is network design? In simple terms, it’s the process of creating a blueprint for your IT infrastructure. It involves carefully selecting and arranging the hardware, software, and protocols needed to connect devices and systems within your business. A well-designed network should be reliable, secure, scalable, and able to support all your business operations seamlessly. But it does take planning and effective implementation before it can get there.
Why Is Network Design Important?
Network design plays a critical role in the smooth functioning of any modern business. As Waldo, one of Solid Systems’ IT Pros who helps companies with their network management, explains, “Network design excellence is anchored in three fundamental pillars: the ability to scale, robust security, and optimal performance, all contributing significantly to your business’s value.”
Let’s dive a little deeper into each of these pillars:
• Scalability
As your business grows, so should your network. By focusing on network design from the offset, you can ensure that you have scalable infrastructure in place that can accommodate additional users, devices, and systems without any disruption to your business operations.
• Robust Security
When you have multiple devices and systems connected to your network, it’s critical to ensure that data is being transferred between them securely. A well-designed network will incorporate the necessary security protocols and measures to protect your sensitive or personally identifiable information, but it will also help you identify potential issues before they become major problems, put effective Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions in place, manage updates and patches efficiently, and ultimately provide enhanced security across your company.
• Optimal Performance
Effective network design can dramatically enhance the performance of your IT systems, making communication between devices, systems and users far easier. It enables the efficient use of resources, reduces latency, and ensures speedy data transfers. This leads to quicker response times, enhanced collaboration, less downtime, long-term cost savings, and overall better visibility and business productivity.
What Are Some Of The Top Features In Network Design Solutions?
We’ve looked at what network design is and why it’s important, but what are the different types of network design components that you could be incorporating into your design strategy? There are a variety of features that make up a comprehensive network design solution. Some of them include:
• Network Mapping
Network mapping involves creating an accurate visual representation of your entire network, including all devices, systems, and connections. This provides you with a clear overview of the structure and interconnectivity within your network.
• Site Mapping
Site mapping takes things one step further by allowing you to view your network from a geographical perspective. This is especially useful for businesses with multiple locations, or companies that are embracing remote working, since it helps you to see how your network is connected across different physical locations.
• Templates
Templates are pre-configured network design solutions that can be applied to new devices or systems. They can help you to ensure consistency in design and configuration across the board, making it easier and quicker to deploy new devices. This also helps maintain standardisation and reduces the risk of errors or vulnerabilities.
• File Export Tools
File export tools make it easy to share network design information with others, whether it’s new hires, IT service providers, or third-party vendors. This helps to improve collaboration and communication within your organisation and with external partners.
• Discovery
Discovery tools help you identify devices that are connected to your network, even if they are not configured properly. This is especially useful for larger networks, where manual identification can be a time-consuming and challenging process, or businesses that are adopting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies that see their humans working from their own laptops, PCs, phones and tablets.
• Monitoring
Monitoring tools allow you to track the performance of your network in real-time. This helps you identify any potential issues or bottlenecks, allowing you to take proactive measures before they become major problems.
• Flowcharts
Flowcharts are visual representations of your network’s design and structure. They can help you to easily understand and communicate complex networks, making it easier to maintain and troubleshoot them.
• Specialised Topologies
As Waldo explains, “Tailoring network design to meet your specific needs and objectives is key, providing a cost-effective solution that’s not merely about high-priced technology, but about the technology that best suits your requirements.” This is where specialised topologies come in. No two businesses are the same, after all, and a retailer may need different functionality from their network design than a financial services provider would. Because no two businesses are the same, their needs and goals are going to be different as well, making a one-size fits all network solution problematic.
What Are Some Best Practices When It Comes To Network Design?
When it comes to network design, best practices aren’t just recommended actions but essential steps to ensure optimal performance and security. These practices, while varying according to your specific business needs, focus on the core aspects that you will need to consider when putting your network design in place.
• Recognise The Value
Design is more than just aesthetics – it also plays a crucial role in the functionality and efficiency of your network. By recognising the value of design, you can ensure that your network is not only visually appealing but also meets your business needs.
• Security
Security should always be a top priority when it comes to network design. As networks become increasingly complex, so do the potential threats and vulnerabilities that your business faces. By designing your network with security in mind, you can mitigate as many risks as possible and focus on protecting your business, data and users from cyberattacks.
• Resilience
Network resilience is all about being able to handle and recover from unexpected failures. While no one wants to think of the worst-case scenario, focusing on network resilience during the design phase will ensure business continuity, minimising downtime and allowing your company to function with as little interruption as possible, even when disaster strikes. This is also why your network design should form part of your Disaster Recovery planning.
• Scalability
One of the main goals of network design is to ensure scalability. You want your network to be able to grow as your business does, accommodating a larger number of devices as you hire new employees, and increased traffic as your business expands. By designing your network with scalability in mind, you can avoid costly re-designs and ensure that your system can handle growth without causing any disruptions.
• Visibility
In order to effectively manage and maintain your network, you must have visibility into every aspect of it. With comprehensive visibility, you can quickly identify issues, troubleshoot problems and make informed decisions about future upgrades or expansions. By keeping visibility in mind during your network design, you can ensure that every component is easily accessible and able to be monitored.
• Sustainability
In today’s world, sustainability is a key consideration for any business. When it comes to network design, this means implementing solutions that are environmentally friendly and energy-efficient. By choosing sustainable design options such as low-power devices, renewable energy sources, and virtual machines or networks, you can reduce your carbon footprint while also saving money on energy costs.
• Regularly Review Your Network Designs
While network design is a crucial step in creating a functional and efficient system, it’s important to remember that it’s not a one-time process. As your company grows and technology evolves, your network will need to adapt as well. That’s why it’s critical to regularly review and update your network designs. By staying up-to-date with the latest technologies and trends, you can ensure that your network remains secure, resilient, scalable, visible, and sustainable for years to come.
Why Should You Work With Solid Systems?
Now that you have a better understanding of what network design is, why it’s important, some of the functionality you should look for, and the best practices you should keep in mind, you may be ready to take the next step and start designing a network that will meet your business’ unique needs.
But not every company has a full IT team ready to jump on board and start configuring their network. And even if you do have an internal IT team, do they specialise in network design, or can you expect a good deal of trial and error? This is where having expert, experienced, and reliable IT professionals behind your business can make all the difference.
At Solid Systems, we have been helping businesses around the world to implement, configure and structure the right technologies that are going to help them grow and not just meet, but exceed their business goals for more than two decades. “Our process begins at the foundation,” says Waldo. “Our Solid Systems Review sees us conducting a thorough evaluation of your existing infrastructure, business requirements, and anticipated expansion to guarantee that the network design is in harmony with your company’s goals, with a strong emphasis on security as its cornerstone.”
When you work with Solid Systems, you know that you have the skillsets that you need to design a secure, resilient, scalable and sustainable network that helps the humans within your business to collaborate more effectively, boost their productivity, and ultimately save you money.
Are you ready to see the difference that Solid Systems could be making for your business? Schedule your IT consult with our Sales team today, and let’s learn more about who you are, what you do, and how technology is going to help you to grow.
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