12-12-2020 03:00 PM
Good day, to whoever is reading this. Also, if I submitted this subject on the incorrect location please let me know
I'm currently a network specialist for educational institution and it is expanding very fast. I'm pretty sure that one of these days I'll be tasked with working on expanding the existing network to new branch office. At the moment I have little experience with this subject, so I'll post the steps that I believe need to take place. Please let me know if I missed a procedure or if a step is incorrect.
Scenario: Setting up a branch office from with an existing infrastructure.
12-12-2020 03:18 PM
First question should always be "what is the budget".
This is immediately followed by "what is the timeline".
All other dot points are, sadly, irrelevant if questions 1 & 2 cannot be established first.
12-12-2020 03:29 PM
Sounds good, I'll add it to the procedures. Anything else that I should consider?
12-12-2020 03:48 PM
@JoseGarcia96642 wrote:
If it doesn’t a closet room will have to be selected and used for that purpose
This one will not make sense because the lack of "guidelines" to determine what specifications are needed to make a communications room and what cabling standards will be rolled out.
@JoseGarcia96642 wrote:
Is the client satisfied with the current infrastructure or do they require any changes
Funny
12-12-2020 03:52 PM
Ok, I'll remove that one from the list.
May I ask, why do you consider the second one funny?
12-12-2020 05:40 PM - edited 12-12-2020 06:44 PM
@JoseGarcia96642 wrote:
May I ask, why do you consider the second one funny?
If you are a surgeon, would you ask your patient HOW they wanted to be operated?
Even if this was a school assignment, it would NOT make sense. How could/would a client know how "satisfied" with the current infrastructure? Because I can guarantee you, if the objective is to answer this question, the client will always vote for getting something done for free.
If the objective is to make the dot points longer, then I have several I can throw in:
12-12-2020 06:59 PM
Interesting analogy and you make valid points. As I mentioned before, I'm fairly new to this and when the time comes and I want to be ready for an assignment like this.
Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it.
12-12-2020 09:22 PM
I appreciate your desire to be prepared for a task like adding a branch office. Depending on size of organization and of branch this could become quite complex. I think you have a good start and would add a few suggestions:
- you mention having router and firewall which gets into layer 3 issues. That is a good start but I think you should flesh this out a bit.
* I think that there should be some steps in your plan about analyzing the existing network organization, such as how many existing subnets/networks.
* Is there any reason to change/enhance the existing subnet/network architecture?
* What is the need for additional subnets/networks?
* What is the existing routing logic for the existing network?
* Is there any reason to change/enhance the routing logic for the existing network?
* If you will be adding subnets/networks how does that impact the routing logic for the branch?
* Does this new branch have existing connectivity to the Internet? If so how is this set up? Will the new branch continue to use this Internet access or would a new connection/new ISP be beneficial?
- There are multiple ways for a branch office to connect to the main office. You should analyze the possible approaches and choose the most attractive approach:
* Branch office operates fairly independently having its own Internet access with its own ISP and communicates via Internet with the main office.
* Branch office continues to use its ISP and uses a site to site VPN to communicate with the main office.
* Branch office uses some type of leased line/Metro Ethernet or other private network infrastructure to become an extension of the main network without using Internet facilities to communicate with the main office.
* Branch office communication with the main office set up using an MPLS service from an ISP.
- There should be some analysis of the existing branch network relative to security policy. Is there an existing security policy? How does the existing security policy relate to any security policy of the main office? What kind of changes should be made in security policy to become compliant with the policy of main office?
12-13-2020 05:48 PM
Thank you so much for the feedback and help. I want to make sure that I'm ready when the time comes and this information is very helpful
"- you mention having router and firewall which gets into layer 3 issues."
It does? How so? How can I flesh it out? Would it be fine just with a router/multilayer switch?
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