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Network Engineering

Overview

Our network engineering services include Network Architecture, Design & Planning, Internet Access, Wireless, Remote Access, Server right-sizing and Equipment room designs. Since we serve both small, medium and large customer we have endeavored to mention a fairly extensive range of capabilities on this page. Although your site may not need many of these items our experienced network design team will work with you to determine your needs and requirements. We will then design a "right-size" solution to meet these requirements.

Network & Systems Architecture

L4 Networks offer comprehensive architectural review services for existing infrastructures and architectural planning assistance for new deployments. If you are planning a new installation, a good place to start, after solidifying requirements, is the development of an architectural framework which will not only support those requirements but allow for an easy growth migration path without costly obsolesce. If you already have an infrastructure in place, as is normally the case, we can assess the efficacy of this architecture in terms of your business goals and objectives. 

What is architecture? There is no lack of disagreement as to what this concept means. Click here for a brief discussion on this subject. 

Design & Planning 

Design and planning are the next steps in building a modern IT infrastructure. In conjunction with our project management services, we can assist your organization in all activities relating to the design and planning of a new infrastructure or the expansion of an existing one. Whether you simply wish to upgrade your LAN, establish inter or intra facility wireless links or establish a virtual private network, we have the know-how and skill to get it done correctly the first time. We are adept at all phases from the cable plant to the wide area network interfaces.

Internet Access

We can also assist you in providing site wide Internet access. This can be as simple as modem sharing for small sites, to sharing a DSL line, or establishing a dedicated high capacity link to an ISP. As part of the planning process we can engage our security experts to review your firewall and security policies and procedures to ensure that you minimize your risk of external attacks.

Wireless 

Thinking of wireless? L4 Networks can design and build 802.11x wireless networks, private point to point spread spectrum shots and other wireless technologies. If you want to build a hotspot, our engineering team can guide you from planning to implementation and network management.

Remote Access

Increasingly, both small and large organizations are enabling users to access their desktop workstations remotely via existing internet connections. Many cost effective and secure alternatives are available to allow you to work from home or other remote location, but connect easily to your primary office system. 

Other organizations prefer to establish virtual private networks (VPN) using existing links to the Internet thereby avoiding the cost of private leased lines. Often these employ secure tunneling, advanced encryption and  and other methods to enable high security.   As with Internet access, we can engage our security experts to review your firewall and security policies and procedures to ensure that you minimize your risk by keeping your remote access system or VPN secure.  Click here to go to our VPN page.

Server Right Sizing

Server right-sizing,  which is part of capacity or resource management & planning,  is nothing more than assisting you in getting the most bang for your money. Many medical software system vendors, for example, will try to get you to buy a dedicated server that is all too often overly outsized than is warranted and therefore more costly. In our experience, many enterprises have ample idle capacity on existing servers or can purchase smaller systems and achieve the same performance. In today's budget constrained IT departments, we have even assisted some our customers in the procurement of 'nearly new servers' at a fraction of the cost to that of new ones.

Our advice is to save your precious IT dollars and only purchase what you need. Rarely will the software vendors have this goal at the top of their list.

The Equipment Room

It used to be called the computer room and came complete with raised floors, halon fire suppression, huge air conditioning systems, banks of batteries and generators and a large price tag. Nowadays, most systems operate in what is termed a standard office environment. This does not mean that you can cram 10 servers, monitors, switches, routers, etc. into a small wiring closet and not have an overheating problem. Certainly not. But a carefully planned equipment room can be both efficient in operation and not break the budget. In designing such rooms, we consider power demands and emergency power options, HVAC calculations, voice and data cabling egress, equipment racks, voice & data equipment placements, common user interface stations which can access all systems using a single monitor, keyboard and pointing device to name slightly more than few. 

We have designed and supervised the building of numerous rooms of various sizes and can assist you in new design or revamping a current one.

Network & Systems at-a-glance

Brief Discussion on Architecture

What is IT Architecture? In short, it is a conceptual technical framework which examines the major components that make up a modern enterprise's overall IT infrastructure and how these components are suppose to fit and inter-operate together. Such components include software, hardware, standards, protocols, security, routing, addressing, storage, backup, database, remote access, encryption, to name a few. Realistically, most sites develop like most cities - constantly renewing streets, highways, rails, and adding on subdivisions. As with IT infrastructures, it is rare that the entire infrastructure is bulldozed and a new one built from ground up. Consider the following adapted loosely from RFC1958:Architectural Principles of the Internet.

In most operating environments there are numerous heterogeneous systems which must be supported by design. There are multiple types of hardware, data transmission speeds, and hosts ranging from small single processor workstations to large multiprocessor servers. There are multiple types of application protocols running which range from the simplest such as remote login up to the most complex such as clustered and distributed databases.

Without a comprehensive architecture, an organization will face a higher rate of system performance problems and failure as well as suffer from a more rapid obsolescence cycle than that which is necessary. One goal of a well thought out architecture is to ensure that all pieces inter-operate together in manageable manner and that system expansions can be achieved without undue component obsolescence. Back to top.