General Network Architecture Question

[Robert Shaw]

Hi Folks,

Looking for some advice.  We have a sister company at work where everything in the past has been kept separate.  Our own IT Departments, our own Networks and Infrastructure etc.  We're now starting a huge transformation in putting the IT Departments together to support the Group company as a whole.  I don't know too much about the other side of the network at the moment so you will have to bear with me.  It will also be good to get some pointers as to what I need to know and understand before we make any big decisions.  This isn't something I've been exposed to before, so would be good to get an insight as to what's involved.

Our network and infrastructure is quite up to date.  Cat9300 Switches / Meraki in some newer locations, a SilverPeak SDWAN, Call Manager 12.5 with a Central SIP setup in two locations and ISE 2.8 which we use for Wired and Wireless dot1x.  Alongside the SDWAN we also run a small DMVPN Network for our smaller locations and home workers.  We're already using EIGRP and OSPF over this network as well as BGP at the SDWAN level.  On the other side, we know we have some work to be done to bring them up to date.  However the main question is what's the best method of joining the two networks together?  If we join them together we could potentially share other network resources, like Call Manager, etc.

We have shared offices in some locations so physical access to network equipment from both sides will not be a problem.  Is it just a simple case of connecting a couple of switch stacks together and putting some basic routing in a couple of the sites?  From what I understand their internal subnetting is completely different to ours, which is fortunate.  We would need some redundancy and have three large offices we both occupy.  I'm sure it will also depend on the capability of equipment on their side, from what I remember a lot of their switches are 2960's and maybe a few 3750's.  All part of the roadmap to improve that with Meraki.

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Rob

[balaji.bandi · Accepted solution]

You looking to do it your self, its lot of ground work need to be done, do you have enough time to this and have expertise all domains.

then start with small diagram, and other joining diagrram (network) to understand how they are connected.,

then define :

1. what is the goal?

2. what is improvements?

3. what is the challenges with old network.

4. do you have enough capacity if they join to your network

Like many questions to be asked and user experience is also important.

Rather - easily to get consultants and partners who can help and build and transfer for you.

[Robert Shaw]

Thanks for your feedback.  Of course, we will likely engage with partners to build out the new network.  It was mainly for my own understanding if there were any best practices available that I could do some research around.

[balaji.bandi]

i would suggest to look Cisco CVD ( Cisco Valid Designs to get some knowledge).