Requirements
Capture sites, users, application traffic, availability needs and growth assumptions.
Network Consulting & Design
Network design is the plan for how your sites, users, devices and applications connect: the topology, routing, segmentation, Wi-Fi and security boundaries. Umbrella Tech provides network consulting for Australian organisations that are growing, adding sites or untangling a network that grew by accident. We capture your requirements, design the architecture and give you a staged plan that your team or ours can deliver.
The problem
The challenge we help you address
Many networks expand one purchase at a time. Over the years that leaves capacity bottlenecks, single points of failure, flat networks where every device can reach every other, and configuration only one person understands. Troubleshooting slows down, and each new site or system adds risk.
The outcome
What the engagement should deliver
A documented design that explains the important trade-offs, the equipment and services it needs, and a delivery plan with migration stages and acceptance tests. Whoever implements it has a clear basis for the work, and you know how the finished network should be tested.
How we can help
Architecture
Design switching, routing, Wi-Fi, WAN links and security zones, with an addressing and segmentation plan.
Resilience
Find single points of failure and decide where redundant links, power or equipment are worth the cost.
Delivery plan
Document equipment requirements, dependencies, migration stages and acceptance tests.
Terms used in a network design
- Segmentation: dividing the network into zones, often with virtual LANs (VLANs), so a fault or compromise in one area cannot easily spread to another.
- Switching: the equipment that connects devices within a site. See Switching & Network Infrastructure.
- SD-WAN: software-defined wide area networking, which manages the links between sites from central policy.
- Firewall: the control point that decides which traffic may pass between zones and to the internet.
How we deliver
How a network design engagement runs
01
Discover
Review the current network, diagrams, configuration and the problems people report.
02
Define requirements
Agree performance, availability, security and growth requirements with the people who own them.
03
Design
Produce the architecture, addressing plan and equipment requirements, with the reason for each decision.
04
Plan delivery
Sequence the changes, set rollback points and write the acceptance tests.
Security and governance considerations
Design is the cheapest place to build in security. We plan management access, logging, separation between staff, guest, server and device networks, and firewall policy that follows those zones. Where the network supports a wider security programme, the design connects with our Cybersecurity services.
Frequently asked questions
Can't see your question? Ask us directly →
What is network design?
Network design is the documented plan for how a network is built: its topology, addressing, routing, segmentation, wireless coverage and security controls. A good design also records why each decision was made, so later changes can follow the same logic.
When should a business invest in network design?
Before opening a new site, relocating or replacing a large amount of equipment, or when faults keep recurring. It is also worth doing when nobody can confidently explain how the current network fits together.
What does implementation include?
Staging and configuring equipment, moving services across in agreed windows, testing against the acceptance criteria and updating the documentation. We assess what can be retained, and can deliver the work through Technology Project Delivery, or your team can deliver from the design.
How long does a network design project take?
It depends on the number of sites, the state of existing documentation, how quickly requirements are agreed and whether implementation is included. Scope and timing are confirmed in discovery.
What are the main security or governance considerations?
Who can administer the network and how that access is logged, which zones may talk to each other, and how changes are approved and recorded. These are set in the design so they do not depend on individual habits later.
Plan the next improvement
Tell us about your sites, the problems you are seeing and what the network needs to support next. We will help define a practical starting point.