IT infrastructure design
Considering how little an average person knows about the foundations of our everyday conveniences, one can humorously say that a good infrastructure is the one you do not notice. Few people think about the importance of road network before they see a road covered in snow, or about water supply before the tap runs dry. The same applies to IT infrastructure: it must function flawlessly any time. At the same time, the demands of users – who are accustomed to the rapid development of technology – for IT infrastructure are constantly increasing, and that is why it is necessary to focus on the needs of the organisation, when designing the infrastructure, and at the same time, be aware of the development trends of technology, in order to make forward-looking decisions which would last longer than the current fiscal year.
The characteristics of a well-designed infrastructure are:
- access to both local network and the services of an external partner
- smooth work 24/7
- an environment protected from external attacks
- logical architecture which lasts for many generations of devices.
Only a couple of years ago, the design of an information system required a lot of attention on intranet alone as important information system services were provided directly by the local network. The rapid increase in Internet speed and the computation capacity of central systems has put many companies face to face with the fact that it is no longer necessary to provide services by using the intranet – it is reasonable to outsource all services.
The quality of outsourced services is usually considerably higher than that of internal services. How to integrate these outsourced services with existing services in a way which would make all services seem unified for a user?
We are used to immediate access to the Internet and all information services of a company when we connect the computer to a network. Network device meant for home use can generally also manage the Internet part, but matters become more complicated in the case of the information system of a company. Besides network connection, it is important that a user could have immediate access to application software, document management systems, e-mail and calendar, etc. in the company’s local network when (s)he logs in. In addition, virus protection, central back-up solution and document templates must automatically be installed in the computer.
Net Group provides services ranging from the physical and logical design to the development and servicing of an infrastructure. We are experienced in the development of office network, server-centred network, storage area network and radio network. Every day, we maintain the services of an infrastructure, starting from the basic services of a network, such as DHCP, DNS and WINS, and the basic services of an information system, such as AD, CIFS, NFS, etc. Our specialists can manage firewalls by Cisco, Juniper and others.