Network Design help

[chris06]

Hi Guys,

Looking for some help/opinions on a network design I’ve been asked to help on. I guess the main issue I’m having is I’m used to networks that are much larger, and I’m struggling to “scale down” to fit with the requirements.

Background info – Start-up Company, looking to provide fully integrated outsourced solutions ranging from contact centre services (inbound, outbound, email, social media etc) fulfillment/warehousing etc.

On day 1, there will be approx. 20 users (some business already secured) with user count expected to scale to approx. 50/60 within months. On top of the users there will be a number of networked printers/scanners etc. After this, they will be looking to expand to another office or move to a bigger office as this is the max the first office can support.

With this in mind, I’m looking to take some space in a colo facility to house the core infrastructure (Ad, dns, file servers, web servers, sql, av etc) rather than locally as its uncertain if they will stay in this office. Also, it doesn't really have the infrastructure to house any servers securely etc.

For telephony, they are looking for a Hosted PBX and contact centre. Office 365 for email. Most of the apps the user will need will be internet based so internet connectivity needs to reliable. I've been asked to make sure there are as few single points of failure as possible.

Main questions/concerns I’m looking for advice on-

1. Connectivity – Thinking internet breakout from colo and mpls to connect the office(s) – Am I going overboard here or do you think this is the best idea? Hosted PBX may be from the MPLS provider so could tie in nicely. Or for a network this size, do you think it would be best keeping internet access at the office with VPN to colo? Would mean additional cost for firewalls at the office(s)

2. Network Equipment - office – As said previously, used to working on larger networks with core,dist and access layers. With max 60/70 devices in mid, what’s best practice for this size? Few Stacked 2960s switches? 1921 as CE router and the gateway for local devices?

Thanks in advance for any input/advice

 

[chorcen]

You pretty much know what you doing.

1. Connectivity - if we look to feature-proof solution, break out at DC centre make sense, if we assess business financial strength and its unlikely they to grow to the sizes you mention in the next 2-3 years than more simplistic/cost effective approach maybe better.

2. Network equipment in the office - it doesn't sound your intend to house servers or virtual infrastructure in the office, so your choices are fine.

 

[Deleted member 138126]

Definitely sounds like you know what you're doing. Have you any experience with Meraki? Without knowing the prices, it sounds like the perfect solution -- distributed and managed from the cloud (so you could easily manage it from anywhere).

 

[anything I don't mind]

Ill probably look at installing bt fiber business line until the move and then get a proper fiber line installed. You could then purchase an adsl backup line as well. some isps will sell a managed firewall solution. May want to look in to that, if you want to set up the firewall then get a juniper or checkpoint or even pfsense. Once they have moved ill probably get a 25mbit fiber line on 100mbit bearer.

Ill get some hp gigabit (this guy i know recently tried some avaya switches and said they were excellent) switches, some stacked 2960 maybe ott and not full gigabit. But depends on how much they are willing to spend. If they all have laptops it may be better to consider a high quality wireless network and only have a small amount of wired ports depending if the building is pre wired up, as cabling costs would have to be consider.

 

[DRZ]

For the MPLS connection to be suffient to run all of everything remotely, you're going to need a reasonably sized connection. On top that you're going to need QoS. I'd take a look at the 1921 to see if it is indeed sized appropriately for the sort of bandwidth you are talking about. All of the layers of QoS can be reasonably CPU intensive and you don't want that to be a problem.

FWIW we run 2951s as CE MPLS devices on circuits greater than 30mbit up to around 100mbit, but that's definitely belt and braces. Not that you're planning on doing it, but a 2951 runs out of puff at around 100mbit when you start layering on services like NAT, QoS etc.

2960S switches are good switches but they have their limitations. Single integrated power supply (unless you buy the RPS...) and a small maximum stack size spring to mind. Be careful with the model selection against the phone handsets you plan to deploy, the L only caters for around 7W per port and the F is 15w. Depending on the business, you might be comfortable with the amount of downtime a failed switch can cause you but for a contact centre I'd be considering the 3750X, the new 3850 or (most likely) the 3650 for this deployment. Hot-swappable PSUs are going to drastically reduce the impact of a failure and you can dual-home the switch across UPSes etc etc.