Is your Network Optimized for Growth?

Are you having occasional problems with your network? Does connectivity just seem to stop and then go again before you have a chance to find out why? It is difficult to identify the true root of the problem and cost to fix it when your staff and sales people are offering many different answers. Please take a moment to read a few of the scenarios below to get a feel for how Newfound Networks Inc. could help your business:

Common Network Problems

Scenario #1 – You have a WAN circuit (T1 line for example), between Halifax and Moncton, and from time to time the circuit gets congested resulting in poor network performance. How do you fix this?

Solution #1 - Use Newfound Networks to help you shop around and buy more bandwidth.

Strengths (Positive Benefit)

More bandwidth can always be used, and will likely be needed later down the road.
Everyone will get ‘maximum’ performance.
The shopping around service will ensure you get the best service and pricing available in the market.

Weaknesses (Negative Benefit)

Increases your monthly WAN costs, and in many cases will result in an inefficient waste of capacity, and money.

Solution #2 - Use Newfound Networks to help you deploy Quality of Service technology.

Strengths

Possible to obtain very efficient use of existing bandwidth.
Can avoid that ‘circuit upgrade’ for a longer period of time.
Can be used to reduce the amount of time and bandwidth wasted by employees, because now non-business related activity can be made to down load very slowly.
Certain data streams can be compressed which will reduce the amount of bandwidth consumed.
Many of the routers/switches from major vendors already deployed (Cisco 2600 series or 3Com 3000 series for example) support QoS. All that may be needed is a software upgrade, or the features may be there just waiting to be turned on.

Weaknesses

Detailed knowledge of how applications use the network must be established first.
QoS is an end-to-end architecture. This means ‘accidental changes’ on one router at one end of the network, can affect users at numerous other locations.
Requires a detailed and thorough understanding of QoS, routing, switching, LAN, and WAN networking technologies and how they Internetwork with each other. (Newfound Networks has this capacity.)

Scenario #2 - You have WAN circuits and routers all over the place, and yet when a data line goes down, some staff end up with no access to other network locations and/or the Internet. How do you fix this?

Solution #1 - Use Newfound Networks to redesign the WAN topology so that there are redundant WAN circuits that inter-connect the network.

Strengths

A properly designed WAN will result fast re-routing of data traffic around a broken device or circuit.
Traffic can be aggregated onto common backbone circuits thus increasing items such as network efficiency, resource and planning manageability, etc.
May reduce the number of routes in the IP routing table, resulting in an increase in router performance.
Failures will be easy and quicker to trouble shoot due to the ‘compartmentalized’ nature of the network.

Weaknesses

May see the need to have an additional circuit(s) installed thus increasing monthly costs. (It’s been our experience that in many cases, a cost effective system can be designed.)
May require the purchase of additional devices such as IP routers and Ethernet switches.

Scenario #3 - Your old phone system is aging and the contracts are soon to expire. Long distance is getting cheaper all the time, but it seems every other item is getting more expensive, plus you have heard that ‘computer/Internet’ based phone systems are much more powerful. How do you move forward on this?

Solution #1 - Use Newfound Networks to design and implement a VoIP PBX system for you.

Strengths

The most effective way to reduce your monthly costs, and take charge of your own system. You get the required number of multi-line (trunks) and a couple of other options and the rest is in your control. If you choose a product with SIP based VoIP trunking then you will be able to take advantage of ‘Internet dial-tone’ and potentially save even more money.
Options such as internal long distance, voice mail, call forward, call waiting, etc, etc, are now done in-house, and you have direct control over these costs.
Use your staff, instead of paying an external contractor, to add/move/change your telephones. (Want to move a VoIP phone? Unplug it, and plug it back in the jack in the new room….a minute later the phone is ready to use.)
Potentially reduce the number of telephone receptionists you need, and should a receptionist in Halifax call in sick, then the receptionist in St. John’s and Charlottetown can cover for that person with the click of a button.
Can start with a ‘minimum’ system and can add or ‘plug-in’ capacity and features as needed and as budgets allow.
The system is done in house which means you are in control of where you want to go with it.

Weaknesses

There will be significant capital costs to buy a system.

Solution #2 - Use Newfound Networks to help you find a VoIP Centrex provider, and help you ensure your network is ready.

Stengths

A healthy tradeoff between VoIP PBX, and traditional PBX/Centrex.
If properly priced and positioned, VoIP Centrex will be a very effective system for most small and medium sized businesses.
Does not require the significant upfront capital costs.
Use your staff, instead of paying an external contractor, to add/move/change your telephones. (Want to move a VoIP phone? Unplug it, and plug it back in the jack in the new room….a minute later the phone is ready to use.)
You are not ‘stuck’ with technology that often changes rapidly. The VoIP Centrex provider takes care of the upgrades and complexities and you simply make your monthly payments.

Weaknesses

All outgoing/incoming calls will be through your high-speed Internet access line. This is a possible congestion point that could cause audio quality issues, if not properly addressed. (QoS and/or additional higher-speed bandwidth could correct this.)
Could result in higher monthly costs than a pure VoIP PBX system.

Scenario #4 - When ever your IT department has to work on the network, it seems like they always have to take the entire network down, and sometimes what seems like a simple thing like changing out a router results in all kinds of activity, moving this, swapping that, “doing that over there, so we can do this over here”, and so forth. How do you fix this?

Solution #1 - Use Newfound Networks to design and implement a LAN/WAN with appropriate use of network hierarchy, route diversity, redundant equipment, etc.

Strengths

It is possible to have a network in which a device can be taken offline (either manually by a person, or via a failure) and the network will continue to work fine, with little impact to the end users.
Network maintenance can be done during normal business hours, instead of having to wait for users to log off.
Staff will not have to ‘drop what it was doing because of a failure’ because the network will have re-routed around the failure. Instead staff can deal with it later.
A device can be upgraded and re-introduced to the network at a later time, without the stress and urgency of taking down the whole network.
With proper product selection, equipment can be moved and reused throughout the network longer, instead of buying another router to replace the router you bought last year. Keep your equipment longer.

Weaknesses

Getting the right system might take a little longer.
Getting the system might cost a little more upfront.
May see the need to have an additional circuit(s) installed thus increasing monthly costs. (It’s been our experience that in many cases, a costs effective system can be designed.)
May require the purchase of additional devices such as IP routers and Ethernet switches.

Scenario #5 - You are going over the monthly bills, and you wonder do you really need all those voice, data, and video lines? You know you need all three services, yet you also suspect that none are utilized 100% of the time. How do you get what you need but with less costly line charges?

Solution #1 - Use Newfound Networks to help you deploy a converged IP network running Quality of Service, and migrate all systems (telephone, computers, and video conferencing) onto this network.

Strengths

ISDN lines that are used for video conferencing, that often sit unused and idle are no longer needed.
Reduce the number of telephone lines and trunks you have connecting to the telephone company.
Use your staff, instead of paying an external contractor, to add/move/change your telephones.
Reduce the amount of cabling you need by approximately 50%.
Some of the money saved can be used to increase the WAN bandwidth, only if WAN congestion if real bad.
If you plan to add 20 or 50 or 200 more telephones to your system you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a telephone system line card upgrade. Instead, use that Ethernet switch that you are buying for the computers and deploy VoIP phones.
Eliminating single points of failure is also a possibility. If your single ISDN line between your two offices goes down, or if the single PBX in your office goes down, your dead in the water for a while. With a well designed converged network, traffic and services can be quickly re-routed to available resources at another office.

Weaknesses

Higher upfront costs associated with design, and implementation.
The network appears more confusing to those without the required skills, yet in actuality its complexity is what makes it simple.
Requires skills and knowledge in the areas of advanced Internetworking (routing & switching), QoS, and VoIP.

Scenario #6 - You have a router with two connections each going to a different ISP for redundancy. Yet when either of the two circuits are taken off-line, some or all of your Internet access doesn’t work. You can ping the ‘active’ ISP, and they can ping you, yet, you have little or no Internet access. How do you fix this?

Solution #1 - Use Newfound Networks to help you deploy a very specific routing protocol that is very complex. No other routing protocol will work. Plus we will help you set up some specific administrative requests with certain Internet authorities.

Strengths

Once working, you will have very good diversity on the Internet. If one of your ISPs were to have a catastrophic failure, you would still be ‘online’.

Weaknesses

The routing protocol required is very complex, and cannot simply be ‘turned on.’
Usually companies with large networks are allowed to do this. The small networks often found in Atlantic Canadian companies will likely not qualify.
A company could upgrade to a larger network space, and pay the higher costs.

Solution #2 - Use Newfound Networks to help you submit a request to both your ISPs to advertise your routing information in all their routers.

Strengths

Could be set up in a few hours.
Requires little work on your part.

Weaknesses

Some ISPs simply will not do this.
Would likely reduce most of the outage problems, but likely not all. Computers and users on other Internet backbones in the USA, Europe, etc would still have problems sending data, email, web pages, etc your way.

Solution #3 - Use Newfound Networks to help you have both WAN circuits terminate to different POPs with the same ISP, set up your network as a ‘separate autonomous system’ from theirs, and if required set up ‘route-redistribution’.

Strengths

Once your ISP and you agree on doing this, how to configure it, and the circuits have been set up, you can be set up in a few hours.
You will have very good route redundancy that will accommodate all but the worst case scenarios.
If your ISP has a small isolated failure, and their network is well designed, then you will not be ‘disconnected’ from the Internet.

Weaknesses

If your ISP has a catastrophic failure you will likely be ‘disconnected’ from the Internet.
Many ISPs will not do route-redistribution, and for good reason. Static routes pointing to key routers will work, but if your network is poorly designed, this could take some creative time-consuming configuration.

Summary

The bottom line is to ask yourself “If my network or telephone system were to go down right now what would that mean to my business?" How about for one hour? The whole morning? The whole day? Two days? Also ask yourself “Do I want it done right the first time? Or do I want to have someone fooling with it more than necessary?” Do I want to wait until ‘the straw breaks the camels back’, or do I want to be prepared?

There is also a common theme in our message…how much network do you really need, and how much risk is acceptable? Since our business model is not driven by equipment sales we will help you determine exactly what you need, how to get it, and what products to use to make that system come true. If you need resources to implement that system, we can help you with that as well. We specialize in Internetworking (routing, switching, LAN, WAN), Quality of Service, and VoIP.

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