Local Area Network (LAN) Upgrade.
At some point, every company must refresh their LAN infrastructure to meet the demands of their business. There are various business and technological drivers that may mandate a LAN refresh. Recognising when you should undertake a network LAN refresh is fundamental to ensuring the long-term overall performance of your IT network.
Key reasons why you should consider a Refresh of your IT Network;
- Age of network assets or perhaps a lack of support for existing network assets and/or services (internal or external)
- Addition of services or applications
- Significant changes to the network architecture
The complexity of the network infrastructure will to a large extent influence the degree of design and planning needed. Businesses must be prepared to invest a considerable amount of time and resources to ensure that the LAN refresh project is adequately scoped, planned and executed. The successful deployment of an Network LAN refresh is founded on the degree and accurateness of the design together with the planning work that takes place pre-implementation. Planning is imperative to ensuring the maximum value is realised from the updated LAN infrastructure .
Planning of an IT Network LAN refresh
Planning for a LAN refresh will need careful consideration of financial, technological, as well as business implication. A LAN refresh/upgrade is made up of six key stages;
- Requirements gathering
- Discovery of existing network (physical and logical)
- Selection and design
- Implementation
- Operation
- Review and evaluation of outcome
Finding the right partner to design, implement or refresh your network environment is key to realising the full benefits of your network assets.