Network Design Best Practices
Building a secure and scalable network infrastructure requires that organizations follow robust network design best practices. By adhering to best practices, they can ensure their networks are protected by strong security measures, resilient to failures, and capable of supporting growth. Well-designed networks improve performance, minimize downtime, and enhance efficiency by optimizing resource utilization and prioritizing critical applications.
Top 10 Network Design Best Practices
Investing time and resources into network design best practices yields long-term benefits, ensuring the network infrastructure remains reliable, secure, and adaptable to changing business requirements and technological advances. The table below lists the top 10 network design best practices.
| Top 10 Network Design Best Practices | |
|---|---|
| 1.) Scalability | Organizations can ensure that a network can scale easily as a company grows by using modular designs, virtualization, and cloud services. |
| 2.) Security | Integrate all network layers with security measures, including firewalls, encryption, intrusion detection/prevention systems, and access controls. |
| 3.) Redundancy | Implement redundancy at critical network points to minimize downtime from failures or network issues. Employ mesh topologies, cellular failover, and other redundancy measures. |
| 4.) Standardization | Maintain consistency and interoperability by following industry standards and best practices. For example, it is essential to standardize hardware models, IP addresses, hostnames, and security policies. |
| 5.) Performance Optimization | Use load balancing, caching, and wide area network (WAN) optimization to improve network performance. Make traffic engineering and routing optimization a priority. |
| 6.) Segmentation | Improve security and performance by segmenting the network into logical zones. Use virtual local area networks (VLANs), subnets, and access control lists (ACLs) to enforce segmentation. |
| 7.) Quality of Service | Prioritize network traffic to ensure critical applications have the necessary bandwidth and low latency. Implement quality of service policies for traffic shaping and prioritization. |
| 8.) Monitoring and Management | Deploy robust monitoring and management tools to identify and resolve network issues proactively. Leverage SNMP (simple network management protocol), syslog, and network management systems to monitor and manage networks. |
| 9.) Documentation | Document the network design, configurations, and policies in detail. |
| 10.) Compliance | Ensure the network design complies with industry standards and regulatory requirements, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Assess (HIPAA) compliance regularly. |
Network Design: Step-By-Step
Designing a corporate network involves several steps to ensure the network meets the organization's performance, security, scalability, and reliability requirements. Here's an overview of the typical steps involved in designing and implementing a network:
Planning
- Determine the organization’s goals and requirements.
- Analyze existing network infrastructure, including hardware, software, and configurations.
- Identify the scope of the network project by conducting a comprehensive needs analysis.
- Establish project objectives, budgets, timelines, and resources.
Network Design
- Develop a network architecture based on the initial planning phase.
- Establish the topology of the network, including the physical and logical layouts.
- Plan IP addressing schemes, subnetting, VLANs, and security policies.
- Choose appropriate hardware and software based on requirements and budget.
- Create a detailed network design document outlining the proposed network solution.
Implementation
- Obtain all necessary hardware, software, and licensing.
- Configure routers, switches, firewalls, and access points.
- Install servers, workstations, and other network components.
- Implement network services such as dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP), Domain Name System (DNS), and VLANs.
- Test the network infrastructure to ensure that it is functional and performing well.
By following these steps, organizations can effectively plan, design, and implement their network infrastructure to meet current and future business needs while ensuring optimal performance, reliability, and security.
WAV Can Help With Your Network Design
WAV and RUCKUS can help with your network design using industry-leading tools and support. WAV has one of the largest and most consistent stocking positions in the networking market, and your dedicated sales representative takes a proactive, responsive, and communicative approach to your business. This enables you to access many supply chain, finance, engineering, and logistical resources.
Contact the networking experts at WAV for more help selecting the right enterprise networking vendors for your organization’s unique design and deployment challenges.
