Project XYZ Office design
As a senior IT technician, you have been asked to design the IT network and server infrastructure for a mid-sized Corporate office with 5 separate departments: Accounting (5 people), Technical (10 people), HR (3 people), Management (5 people) and Sales (15 people). What is important and needs to be considered for this office solution is the following:
- A solid, well-structured network architecture design is required. Diagrams to help explain your solution are welcome.
- Network and infrastructure need to be resilient from the impact of Load Shedding
- Need built in resilience from network and any ISP failures.
- Network design is important for security, performance, and resilience.
- The Sales and Technical departments are on the 1st floor while the other departments are on the ground floor. This network needs to work across the floors and where performance and resilience are very important – so build this into the solution.
- Only one server acts as dhcp/dns for the network for all departments.
- Propose a suitable server solution that ensures minimal downtime during any technical issues. A solid backup solution for company data is crucial.
- Need a company AD security domain set up with integration to cloud services along with resilience against any failures.
- The office has an extensive camera and access control set up. However, these should not interfere with the staff operational capabilities.
- Each department will have access to their own dedicated Application server with the following requirements: Management can access all servers in all departments while the other departments only can access their own application servers. How would you do this?
- They need a suitable voip solution – propose a solution and explain how it would be integrated into the network and why this solution. Also note that reliable voice calls are important on this network even during high network utilisation - how would you ensure this is achieved?
- Need a “High end” wireless solution. What would you propose and why? Note that this company’s location has a Cell C mobile tower on top of it.
- Need a built-in advanced Network and Endpoint protection for the servers and user machines.
- They need a world class email solution with as much protection from spam/spoofing as is possible.
- Staff need to be able to work from home.
Please propose a solution to the above company project elaborating on all decisions made and why. Note there is no wrong or right answers. We are looking at your ability to reason, think, problem solve, as well as show your experience when working with a company’s IT infrastructure. So, feel free to be as creative as you wish to be to prove you are the person we are looking for. Also feel free to make and elaborate on any assumptions about your answer to help us understand your thinking.
