Reg: Inputs on M&A( Merger and Acqusitions)

[ved89]

Hi I would like to know what are all to be factored during merger and acquisitions. Currently am playing role where Company "A" acquiring Company B.

Company "A" has 100-120 locations spread across the globe connected on hybrid( MPLS + Internet), few area's Non-Cisco SDWAN solutions are implemented. Applications are hosted on DC & few on cloud. List of applications yet to be shared. 

They have DDI devices and Load Balancers. Company "B" planning to use the existing DC , in a year or two this can be moved to their existing DC/new DC can be built.

I required on inputs on three area's

1. LAN & WLAN
2. WAN
3. DC-LAN

On all above three  what are all  we have to focus during this M&A.  High level have few inputs like VLAN, IP Subnetting on LAN side, SSID on WLAN , WAN side Office to DC termination, DC-LAN side what are all applications are inter connected . 

I would like to hear from community more on low level and how to capture it, design and deliver it. 

Thanks in advance..:) 

[Flavio Miranda]

Hi

 I think merging is  challenging on the IP addressing. If you are allowed to start everything new, which probably will not, then you can re-organize things properly, but, usually you need to work around with what is in place and this can be a mess.  In this same situation I saw people doing  NAT in order to allow both sides coexist cause they could not change IP addressing. 

 Routing table also gets really difficult to manage.

For WLAN, if they use different vendors can be complicate but if they use the same and if they use Cisco and ISE for authentication, you can integrade the ISE with the two domain (if that the case) and things can be quite easy for Enterprise SSIDs.

[ved89]

Flavio ,

Thanks for the swift response. I've few queries as you said NAT, what's the steps to carry out and also since company A uses existing DC how it changes the routing? 

Also i would like to know what other areas in DC need to be concentrated which am clueless.. Like anything on DNS, DHCP & IPAM how that need to be addressed what are all the points we should work on..

Can you please clarify .

[Flavio Miranda]

"Thanks for the swift response. I've few queries as you said NAT, what's the steps to carry out and also since company A uses existing DC how it changes the routing? "

First of all, and probably you are doing that already, is to inventory everything for IP addressing. Identify overlaps network is crutial to move forward. 

 If you guys already have BGP in place, I think that it can be easier but if you have more then one dynamic routing protocol and had to redistribute between then and/or using too many static routing, this can increase the complexty.  

"Also i would like to know what other areas in DC need to be concentrated which am clueless.. Like anything on DNS, DHCP & IPAM how that need to be addressed what are all the points we should work on.."

Service in the Data Center I dont see as too much challenging but laborious. For example, you are going to need to add tons of DHCP scope or DNS entry (depending on the network size) if you want to unify those services (better do). 

But, once done, on the site side, you just need to point to the right place. You mentioned Load Balance, this can easy your pain as it allows you one single point to target your service. LB also helps a lot in service migration as you can keep your VIP and change things behind. From the site perspective nothing change but inside, you can add or replace services. 

[ved89]

Hi Flavio

Thanks for the response.

Am sorry still i couldn't able to visualize/understand it below point

First of all, and probably you are doing that already, is to inventory everything for IP addressing. Identify overlaps network is crutial to move forward. 

Understood, we need to have IPAM (IP Address management) to understand the overlapping IP address between company A and B. If my understanding is right, then what's the solution to overcome this issue?

" If you guys already have BGP in place, I think that it can be easier but if you have more then one dynamic routing protocol and had to redistribute between then and/or using too many static routing, this can increase the complexty."

I'm not clear on this, let me put my question in better way to make easier for you to clarify.

Company A has SDWAN provided by an ISP across all their locations and they have hybrid connectivity type across all locations( MPLS+Internet). So users/branches reaches the DC through MPLS/Internet in SDWAN platform. Now in this scenario what we need to understand on WAN side as these are all the challenges during M& A and this will be the solution for those challenges during M&A's.

With my minimal understanding, router will do the intelligence at it's end for the path selection between branches and DC, am i right?

In such case what is the need of understanding it is routed through BGP or OSPf etc... By knowing this routing policy how it will helps to make a decision ?

My concern is customer is firm , if we are framing generic questions they are avoiding so have to be to the point, so please help me to understand in detail. 

[Leo Laohoo]

IF someone wants this to be done right, get a reputable systems integrator rather than rely on our suggestions based on a few worded sentences.