Product Management | Progressive Office Cabling

Planning – Network Design Requirements

5 Aug 2018

Office Cabling ,Network Cabling After receiving the requirements for a network, it is common for designers to prioritize their implementation and integrate them into the format of the design. Occasionally, they initially rely on best practices, instead of focusing on planning. This is unfortunate because the planning process often leads to discovering multiple viable design solutions.

Designers should first make business-centric decisions determining either the solution or design that supports the company’s objectives or strategy. Although it is advisable to follow best practices for network design, reliance on them is more typical on occasions when a network is being designed from the ground up, which is usually not the case for large service providers and enterprises.

Let’s consider optimizing office buildings as a comparison. The standard procedure for civil engineers and architects is to perform an evaluation of a building by identifying existing problems, understanding the organization’s goals, and gathering business requirements. Afterwards, they begin optimizing the office building’s existing features. As examples, this may involve replacing the elevators or expanding the lobby.

The above is similar to the procedure for revamping network design. There will always be faulty designs that were poorly planned. Sometimes they are unable to scale, or adopt emerging technologies, or adapt to changing business conditions. Thus, designers must first make a comprehensive study of the existing business problems, IT requirements, and network design. Next, they should develop solutions that will optimize the present architecture. This may entail redesigning several components of the network. It can also require the addition of a new data center.

In order to choose the correct design choices and technologies, network designers must gather the necessary information that will allow them to make a sound analysis during the planning stage. This also lets them correctly determine the new requirements that will support the company’s business goals. At this point, network designers typically utilize the decision tree and the decision matrix for easing and simplifying the process.

Progressive Office Cabling

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The Principles of Network Design – Part 4

29 Mar 2018

Stu Kushner

Office Cabling Network Cabling As discussed in Part 3, a company’s network design should help the organization meet its Business Requirements, give it Business Continuity capability, and provide the adequate Elasticity to allow it to cope with business developments. Part 4 will cover How IT Enables Business Innovation.

How IT Enables Business Innovation

Modern businesses use IT technology to innovate and improve their customer service. When an emerging technology can enable a company to be more competitive in the marketplace and raise customer satisfaction, it will be typically acquired by the business, and its features will be integrated into its network.

A great example of the above is the rapid growth of cloud-based data centers, which are allowing new companies to drastically decrease their capital expenditure and allowing their scaling at will. However, they will still require a high performing data center that has the qualities of flexibility and reliability.

Requirements

A company’s industry and how it began will help a network designer to quickly grasp its underlying requirements. It is obvious banking will certainly need information security. Thus, the network design for banking has to provide the required security capabilities to be adopted by the industry. Moreover, a designer must keep in mind the industry’s standards that are applicable to IT infrastructure and services.

Priorities

Every organization makes priorities that revolve around its business objectives. They should be factored in an IT network infrastructure’s planning and design. Keeping in mind a company’s priorities will help produce a network that successfully supports its business activities.

Suppose an organization’s network for business communication requires (as numbered in importance of priority): 1) collaboration, 2) interactivity, and 3) mobile access. Accordingly, the first two features required must be provided prior to satisfying the third requirement.

In conclusion, a network designer must be cognizant of a company’s business priorities in order to be able to successfully create a network that serves its needs.