Client Overview:
Cloud Made Simple is A UK and Australian based IT Managed Services provider, they reached out o Sydco Networks to assist them with a network uplift for one of their clients in the construction industry. With an expanding team and an increasing number of clients, their client needed an upgrade to improve network performance, scalability, and reliability.
The Challenge:
Cloud Made Simple’s client faced several challenges with their existing network design and hardware:
- Aging Network Hardware: Their current switches were outdated, lacked advanced features, and couldn’t support the increased bandwidth demands of modern applications and cloud services.
- Limited Scalability: As their clients operations grew, the network was becoming increasingly strained. The existing infrastructure wasn’t scalable enough to meet future demands, causing potential bottlenecks and performance issues.
- Network Reliability and Redundancy: The old switches lacked redundancy features, resulting in occasional downtime and degraded network performance during high-traffic periods.
The Solution:
Sydco Networks proposed a comprehensive solution to address Cloud Made Simple’s clients challenges, including switching design, a hardware uplift, and vendor selection:
- Network Assessment and Requirements Gathering: A detailed assessment of Cloud Made Simple’s clients current network was conducted, identifying key pain points, scalability needs, and performance goals. This allowed Sydco Networks to design a switching architecture that would support both current and future network demands.
- Switching Design for Scalability and Redundancy:
- Sydco Networks recommended a hierarchical switching design with core, distribution, and access layers to ensure optimal performance, redundancy, and ease of management.
- Hardware Uplift with Modern Switches: Sydco Networks selected enterprise-grade cisco switches based on the clients requirements for performance, security, and scalability.
- Redundancy and High Availability:
- The new design incorporated stacked switches and link aggregation to ensure high availability and eliminate single points of failure.
- Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and Multi-chassis Link Aggregation (MLAG) were implemented to create loop-free, resilient network topologies with automatic failover in case of hardware failures.
- Vendor Selection Process: Sydco Networks assisted Cloud Made Simple in selecting the right network hardware vendors, taking out the administrative burden of the tender process.
Results:
The new switching design and hardware uplift led to several improvements for Cloud Made Simple’s client:
- Improved Network Performance: The new switches supported higher speeds and lower latency, enhancing application performance and overall user experience.
- Scalable Infrastructure: The new design allowed the client to scale easily by adding new devices and office locations without requiring major network redesigns.
- Increased Network Resilience: With redundancy and high-availability features, the network was more resilient to failures, ensuring uptime and minimizing service disruptions.
- Future-Proofing: The upgraded hardware and modern design positioned the client to handle future technologies.
- Increased Supportability: Moving to an established hardware vendor made it easier for the client to get support for their new networking hardware.
- Cost Savings: Through a strategic vendor selection process, their client was able to achieve a balance between high-quality hardware and cost-effective solutions, optimizing both performance and budget.
Conclusion:
The switching design and hardware uplift project successfully addressed Cloud Made Simple’s clients network challenges, enabling improved performance, scalability, and resilience. With the help of a strategic vendor selection process and modern network design, they now had a robust, flexible network that can grow with their business and meet future demands.
