Network Restructuring (Network Design and Equipment)

May 16, 2006 5 Replies
H

Network Restructuring (Network Design and Equipment)


This is the real commercial problem face by my company. Well, the reason I ask this problem is I salute and respect all of



you as I believe all of you are as good as network solution company out there, or even better!!



Lets me rephrase the entire problem again.



Company expand so fast that the IT infrastructure is not fast enough to cater high volume of traffic; the initial design is



not scalable. The number of new branch offices setup caused the company pay a high price in the leased line communication. Salesman and management staffs dial into company networks via 56K modem to access the database server and update the sale



order. All the branch offices access the internet via HQ and download email via the external POP3 email server. Plan to revamp their IT infrastructure and reduce the leased line access cost. Here are some of the feedbacks consolidated



from the various country managers and local salesman.



1) The email downloading and sending is very slow. They receive a lot of spam email this caused their individual mailbox

quota use up very fast.



2) The sales and marketing departments need to access the internet to search for latest news and market trends. But the

internet speed is very slow. These people are irritated by spywares and popup often.



3) The File transfer and Database access is very slow even in the local area networks.

I decided to put the real network cum equipment diagram of my current company as I believe this will at least give INSIGHT in



solving the problem.



Please visit the website

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the diagrams which are network diagram and equipment diagram.



Now I plan to improve the IT infrastructure to cater for future expansion up to 10 countries. SAP will be implement to



automate the overall company operation. Also expect 3rd party to access their server to submit and view sale order.



I also plan to redesign the network so that it is high available, scalable and secure.



Any suggestion and opinion? What is your comment after looking at my network and its insfrastructure (from the diagrams on



formatting link
) Any improving needed?



My email is snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com Of course you can reply here, preferable :>



Thanks again for your opinion!! Thank You!!



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From the diagram you link to, it appears that you have dedicated 56K ISDN links from your 7 branch offices (6@20 users and 1@30 users) to your HQ in Stockholm (160 users). I'd expect performance on the order of DSL (>= 10x existing capacity). Some kind of point-to-point VPN box for each branch office (and HQ) should be added, eventually replacing the existing dedicated (ISDN?) links. I would start with your nearest branch office (Blekinge?) and get that working first. These VPN boxes (or additional VPN boxes) should also accept inbound VPN sessions from your mobile staff.

You need to have a better spam filter in front of your email server(s). There are software solutions and black-box solutions, depending on your budget and expertise, but you do need something.

Consider allowing branch office routers to direct general internet traffic directly through their DSL/local internet connections. This helps scalability and availability, but consider the policies you have for internet traffic. Some kind of firewall capability is expected for the number of users you will have. Look for this when you shop for your VPN solution.

The recommendations shown above should help your situation. Another possibility is to make your file/database/email servers dual-homed so your local corpnet is separate from the server network that your VPNs and ISP connections are attached to.

Allowing inbound VPN connections at your HQ can satisfy the 3rd-party access requirement, but you may want to limit the servers that these people have access to.

Distributed file servers and replicated databases would come later. Consider Service-Level Agreements from your ISP venders.

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I think you need an SSL VPN solution that does not require any leased lines. You will only need an internet connection for each of your remote offices.

Check this company out, they provide managed SSL service.

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aka MegaPath > Network Restructuring (Network Design and Equipment)

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I think you need an SSL VPN solution that does not require any leased lines. You will only need an internet connection for each of your remote offices.

Check this company out, they provide managed SSL service.

formatting link
aka MegaPath > Network Restructuring (Network Design and Equipment)

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Anyway just wanna say THANK YOU for sharing ur opinion on VPN. So the satellite office no longer access through the router in HQ?

Can you roughly sketch out what is in your mind ( which include network design diagram and Equipment Diagram) as A PICTURE WORTH A THOUSAND WORD!

Thanks again for sharing!! Thanks!!

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Hello Hunkgym

I cant really create one right now. But I bet you if you try to contact those folks at Netifice / Megapath, they will be able to provide the answers you would need. I can only tell you that a handful of the global

500 uses their service. It wouldnt hurt to get a demo from them.

hunkgym wrote:

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