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Network Assessment & Recommendations Service

Part-1: Network Assessment and Findings

The focus of the network assessment part-1 effort is to identify key areas contributing to the current network availability, capacity, performance and security issues experienced by  your  Enterprise LAN, WAN and VOICE Networks. The report targets immediate issues that should be addressed in the short or near term as well as architectural changes in the network services layer that should be considered in the future phase design effort. The assessment work activities will includes  the ITILv3 (IT Information Library)  best practices and IMS’s years of global experience in the management of global networks and network technologies.

Part-2: Network Strategy, Architecture and End-to-end Network Monitoring Tool

The part-2 network design strategies and architectural recommendation effort  will  describes the network architecture, security model, and infrastructure design for the LAN, WAN and VOICE infrastructure and  Corporate Data Centres.  It addresses the key business objectives, requirements, and issues to resolve during the future design process.  The overall scope, approach, and design goals for creating the new underlying architecture are also will be developed. The re-design recommendation includes technical guidance on how the various components ranging from networking devices to application servers to storage devices need to be networked through the defined security zones.

Phase-2 activity will also recommends  technologies and tools that the proposed your enterprise network  infrastructure requires  for  end-to-end monitoring, alerting, and administration of the your network infrastructure and provides a basis to manage change and growth.

Background

The scale and complexity of this project requires a experience team that can consistently deliver on all aspects of the project.  We have professionals that are experienced in process and network technology assessment, design and implementation, project and program management.  We have successfully delivered using our integrated and standard based approach on multiple engagements for many international clients over 20 years.

Part 1 activities provides  Network Assessment  & Findings with the  focus on the technology assessment covering network infrastructure technologies  including LAN, WAN and VOICE Networks.

Part 2 activities provides Network  Recommendation and end-to-end Monitoring System Recommendation  with the focus in the  Network Strategy, Architecture and Network service management aspects including operation processes, monitoring/ management systems  and expert skills / experience   involved in the monitoring and management of the end-to-end networks.

 

Work Breakdown (Scope of Work)

Work breakdown  provides  with a complete picture of the activities performed during the project and how they map together to create the required set of deliverables. The assessment & recommendations will be based on ITILv3 best practices framework  and IMS years of  experience.

Part 1- Network Assessment  Activities with foucs in LAN, WAN and VOICE Networks.

Current Network Infrastucture Product Assessment

Routers, Voice PBXes, Gateways, LAN switches, load balancers, firewall, IPS/IDS, DHCP, DNS, RADIUS Centralized security servers, etc.

a) End Of Life

b) End Of Sale

c) Vendor support – Local & global support capability and vendor escalation process

Availability, Capacity & DEMAND Assessment

a)    Facility  Assessment: Assessment includes the physical and topological aspects of the  Data Centre’s, LAN and  WAN Networks and various office network types & sizes.  Study of existing topology to  develop physical and topological baseline  of  existing network.

b)    Study of Existing Topology : A thorough study of the existing topology is done in order to understand the current environment.  This step documents the current computing architecture as well as maps the current wide area network in terms of an access and backbone network.

i.        A thorough study of the existing WAN  topology is done in order to understand the current traffic flow across corporate network. Identify gaps  at access, aggregation and backbone nodes and WAN links.

ii.        Identify and Documents the current physical topology for profile of various  LAN  networks of different sites.

iii.        Data Centre visits and  facility management study and review of cabling standards, racks and power requirements.

c) Logical Configuration Assessment

i.        All active network elements ( LAN and WAN Nodes) are assessed for  best practices logical configurations. The configuration is validated for   the following  key requirements:

i.    Meeting business requirements

ii.    Consistency

iii.    Simplicity

iv.    Effectiveness

ii.        The logical configuration provides in-depth knowledge of existing  user traffic flows and management controls.  It also provides  visibility into the current network resiliency.

Network Demand (Performance) Assessment

i.        Define and Document current applications bandwidth demand on WAN network

ii.        Gather and Document new applications  to supported by Network

iii.        Define  and Document  projected bandwidth  demand for upcoming years

iv.        Gather and Document users and office sites growth.

Configuration & Change  Management Assessment

a) Network element for configuration management (process and control)

b) Naming scheme

c) IP Scheme (IP address allocation, subnet designs, etc.)

d) VLAN Scheme (VLAN allocation, Spanning Tree design, etc.)

Network Security Assessment

Assessment will study the  Network security requirements and current network security capabilities in that include authentication, access control, accounting, encryption etc.

a) Security policy review

b) ACL and firewall rules

i.        Match security policy to ACL and Firewall rules.

ii.        Security rules operational maintenance.

c) Security exposure

i.        Network design & implementation limitation that result in security exposures.

d) Security bypass or backdoor

i.        Wrong physical or logical connectivity that bypass security rules.

Event/Incident reporting  Assessment

a) Identify & document incident reporting  and escalation processes

 

Part 2- Network  Recommendation and end-to-end Monitoring System Recommendation  with the focus in the  development of Network Stratgey, Architecture & Network service management

NETWORK STRATEGY development & recommendations

Review and Document  Network Services assessment related   ICT processes for  establishment, effectiveness and efficiency and to identify existing gaps:

a) Network Strategy Assessment and Recommendations

i.    Conduct business stakeholders interviews

ii.    Gather and document current network strategies & business requirements

iii.    Identify gaps in current network strategies to meet current and future business requirements

iv.    Recommend required network strategies

1) Outline the use-cases and environment that represents the future vision

2) Quantify the potential business benefits associated with each use-case and High Level ROI Analysis

3) Provide business/technology alignment recommendations

4) Document “quick win” plan

b) Network services Financial Management Assessment & Strategy recommendations

1. Document current cost model for the  existing financial arrangements with telecom providers, support service providers and network equipment suppliers.
2. Review and document key  capital, operational and maintenance costing for offered network services.
3. Provide costing for adding  new  users or services into existing network

 

c) Network Services Portfolio Assessment & Recommendations

i.    Document currently offered  network services and service levels.

ii.    Identify gaps in service offerings  and service levels.

iii.    Recommend  new services and/or service level improvements to meet the current and new  business requirements.

Network Architecture development &  Recommendations

a) Architecture/Design Development & Recommendations

i.        Network Baseline Assessment

1)    After a study of the existing topology, we provide a short assessment in terms of the pros and cons of the current system.  This typically includes interim steps to improve the current processes or technology which could be implemented easily in a non-disruptive.

2)    Key considerations will be given to identify & locate various “data sources”   in the your  enterprise ICT environment. “Data Sources”  provides  visibilities into current and future  traffic flow. It also provides “input” for future data centre consolidation or server centralization activities.

ii. Future Networked Computing Architecture Strategies: This step allows IMS to gain an in-depth understanding of the applications, processors driving the network.  This step is key in identifying types of communication interfaces required to build the new network.

1)    Identifies short and long-term goals for the network design

2)    Identify key business objectives/capabilities the network design needs to support

3)    Establish design decision criteria and rationale

4)    Define key issues to resolve in design process

iii. The assessment will also study the LAN, WAN and VOICE network architecture  establishment and consistency across current enterprise implementation and growth flexibility to:

1)    Add new devices

2)    Add, change, move, delete users or services

3)    Network segmentation (collision and broadcast isolation)

4)    Adding new network services (VoIP and Video)

5)    Validate Product and model  consistency

Network Service Transition Assessment & Recommendations

a) Release & Deployment Management

i. Validate Network  Major and minor Operating System upgrade process & deployments.

b) Asset  Management & Knowledge Database

i. Identify network assets  databases

ii. Validate enterprise level  network element database attributes accuracy. Verify key information are collected and retained in centralized system.

iii. Identify Validate knowledge  database

c) Proof of Concept (PoC) Lab and testing

i. Test and validate new services deployment and upgrades

Network Service Operation Assessment & Recommendations

a) Request Fulfillment Assessment & Recommendations

i.    Provisioning capability  for new sites, new LAN connection and  new phone sets.

ii.    Move/change/remove  functions to related to LAN connectivity and phone services.

b) Problem Management  Assessment & Recommendations

i.    Network documentation (Physical and logical topology, data flow, etc.)

ii.     Identify escalation procedures 2dn level, 3^rd level and external support  centers.  Qualify the skill capabilities.

iii.    Identify related support agreements  for problem escalation.

iv.    Identify Lab capability  to simulate problem isolations and resolutions.

c) Access Management Assessment & Recommendations

i. Identify & profile   end-user  access  capability  for LAN/Wireless  connectivity

ii. Identify & profile server access capability in Data centers.

iii. Identify & profile site access capability for WAN connectivity

iv. Identify & profile  security requirements for various different network access  capabilities. 

d) Service Desk/Help Desk  Assessment & Recommendations

i. Document  and identify gaps in service desk function  for management of network operational services.

e) Technical  & Operations Management  Assessment & Recommendations

i. Document and identify for organization structure  for network related technical & operation groups.

ii.    Identify tools/technology capabilities  for end-to-end network elements i.e. sensors,  network analyzers, console access tools, vendor  based element management systems and enterprise  master management systems.

iii. Identify event correlation capability  and effectiveness.

Continual Network Service Improvement Assessment & recommendations

a) Skill Gap Assessment & recommendations

i. Assessment of  technical skills  to operate the current network and future best-in-class network.

b) Reporting

i. Reporting Assessment – Review various management reports (daily, weekly & monthly) to identify the business priorities.

c) Measurement

i.    Review useful system measurements parameters and performance indicators

ii. Identify Management report accuracy & effectiveness

 

Deliverables

Part-1: Enterprise Network ASSESSMENT FINDINGS  (LAN, WAN & VOICE)

Findings & Gap Report

• The assessment results are derived from a detailed analysis of traffic, protocol, and router/switch configuration data, fact-finding interviews, on-site facility inspections, and products/technology  reviews of associated with the current deployment of the LAN, WAN and VOICE networks of  your Enterprise network.
• The findings report identifies key areas contributing to the current capacity, availability, performance and security  issues experienced by  your ICT Network.  The report targets immediate issues that should be addressed in the short or near term as well as architectural changes in the network services layer that should be considered in the phase II design effort.
• Report baseline key findings associated with the assessment of the network infrastructure. The focus of the assessment are the Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN) and  VOICE Network.
• Throughout the assessment process, every effort will be made to remain both factual and objective in our findings.  Specific documents, reports, and artefacts supporting our finding and recommendations are provided as “Exhibits” at the end of the report.  Linked references to these exhibits will be  embedded through out the report as appropriate.

Part-2A: Network Re-Design Approache, STRATEGIES & Architecture RECOMMENDATIONS (LAN, WAN & VOICE)

Network Re-Design  Rational, Approach, Strategy & Architecture

• Provides a brief description of the key findings, identified issues or service improvement areas, and next step actions or recommendations. For each of these identified areas, any recommended actions or mitigation strategies are provided as appropriate.
• Current updated physical and logical network topology

• Business and Technical Requirements for the proposed network

• Recommendation of  Network Strategy and Architecture.

Part-2b: Technology/TOOL RECOMMENDATION FOR end-to-end network monitoring capability.

• Outlines the major components that makes up the framework to provide integrated, end-to-end Network Management for your requirements.  This model would then be used to further define the components required to provide configuration, fault, performance, security and accounting management.
  • Configuration Management: will outline the end-to-end processes required, to build/add software components to the management model
  • Fault Management: will define the process and the components required to provide intelligent problem management for  your network
  • Performance Management: describes the process, as well as identifies tools to analyse past history for input into network planning and evolution.
  • Security Management: develops security solutions at the Physical, Data Link and Network Layers to provide a robust set of security features for  your network.
  • Accounting Management: identifies the components and the billing systems required to implement a cost centre or profit centre based network provisioning strategy
• Recommended Monitoring  Technologies and Tools  for end-to-end network management
• Skill Competencies  and Training recommendations to manage the proposed tools and technologies

For detailed info on our Consulting Services, please email advisory@imsasia.com