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Networking

Network Design Home Office & VPN Wireless Networks Telephony and Convergence

Network Design

Keeping up with ever-changing technology is hard enough. Choosing the best way forward for your business can be a real headache whether you are planning a new network or enhancing your established infrastructure. Then there's the added pressure to 'do more with less.' Arwise's consultants are able to assist with the analysis of current and future organisational needs and the subsequent effects to your network infrastructure. A solution can then be designed to meet both your business and budgetary requirements and enable you to efficiently build, expand and integrate your business through best practice processes and technologies. Benefits if choosing Arwise:

Knowledge and resource of experienced and qualified network consultants.
Analysis of infrastructure changes highlighting technical impacts, as well as impacts on business processes and the user base.
Tried and tested best practice processes and technologies minimising project risk and accelerating the time to project delivery.
Consideration of present and future commercial and technical objectives ensuring resilience and scalability.
Thorough planning and analysis optimising return on investment and controlling future expenditure.

Home Office and VPN

Traditionally organisations were required to invest in dedicated remote access servers in order to manage access for staff working away from the office. However dedicated dial-up or fixed-line connections made this an expensive and inflexible solution. A virtual private network (VPN) is a more flexible, and often cheaper, alternative.

A Virtual Private Network uses the public telecommunications network, such as the Internet, rather than leased lines to transport encrypted traffic. A remote-access VPN provides a connection for employees from various remote locations. Remote workers can then dial-in and use the VPN client software to access the network.

Benefits:

Cost savings. The initial hardware investment may be slightly higher than that of a traditional wired network however, the overall installation and operating costs are significantly lower. So in the long term the cost benefits outweigh the initial investment. Organisations can also save money by using home workers and contractors therefore reducing training, infrastructure and hardware maintenance costs.
Improved communications and productivity. Remote staff, field workers, clients and suppliers can be given access to networked information providing a more effective flow of information between employees and related organisations.
Improved scalability. Internal and external users can be added to the network quickly and cost-effectively as can new offices and temporary office or exhibition locations. Therefore the organisation is able to extend it's geographical networking opportunities and connectivity.
Enhanced security. Advanced encryption and authentication protocols provide a high level of security against unauthorised access.

Wireless Networks

Mobility is no longer a barrier to productivity and efficiency but now provides a true competitive advantage. Accessing real-time data whilst at a customer site, whilst travelling or whilst working outside of normal office hours now allows a more flexible and efficient approach to business processes.

Wireless networking technology, fuelled by the emergence of cross-vendor industry standards such as IEEE 802.11, has produced a number of affordable solutions that are fast becoming a realistic business benefit for all types of industries where the installation of network cabling is not practical.

Benefits for the organisation:

Reduction in total cost of ownership as costs such as cabling and office space can be radically reduced.
Business processes can be improved and the organisation becomes more efficient as productivity rises.
Customer meetings are more informed and therefore more productive.
Improving data availability, decision making and account management processes will improve customer satisfaction.
Geographical and time restrictions are lifted, providing another competitive advantage.

Telephony and Convergence

Converged solutions are changing the entire communications infrastructure. The convergence between telecommunications and IT has made it possible for both voice and data traffic to be carried through the same cable networks.

VoIP uses IP Protocol to transmit voice packets over the Internet. In other words, VoIP can send voice, fax and other information in discrete packets over the Internet, rather than through the regular telephone network (PSTN). Each IP Telephone has its own IP number and memory and is easy to move, therefore making it easier to add and remove users and physically move handsets.

Benefits:

Sending voice communications over the Internet avoids the call charges normally applied by telecoms providers. For example, when sending an e-mail it will cost the same to contact a client next door as it would to contact a client in another country. This also applies to VoIP as the voice traffic is being sent as data across the Internet, just like an e-mail, and the only cost of contact is that of connecting to the Internet.
A single cable point providing both voice and data services, so therefore reducing cabling requirements.
A single management system controls the entire voice and data infrastructure, rather than having to troubleshoot and manage services through two applications.
Only one maintenance contract is required as opposed to separate contracts with data and telephony suppliers.
Productivity is increased via unified messaging, video conferencing and the provision of flexible communications to support remote workers.
Hybrid solution allows for costs to be kept down and investments protected by reusing existing PBX components and the existing knowledge and training of personnel.