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Theoretical 200+ employee business network:

Tags:
  • LAN
  • Office
  • Network Management
  • Business Computing
  • Servers
  • Project
  • Network Computing
  • Network Configuration
Last response: in Business Computing
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July 21, 2014 11:48:11 PM

Okay - so I'm working on a project in which we are tasked with designing a business network for 200 employees (soon to be 350 employees - so must be scaleable) in an accounting firm on three floors of an office building.

[I'm thinking: a DHCP/DNS/NAT&PAT/Print/Routing/Remote Access Server (VPN?) etc. (perhaps virtual on a single server?), a firewall/IPS device, NAS, UPS, Router/s,. with wiring to each office from the MDF terminating to a patch panel & switches, with multiple VLANs to separate broadcast domains and for security.]

Honestly, I just don't know what kind of server I would need/how powerful it should be. I've bee "shopping" around on HP/Dell/Intel/IBM and there are SO many options, without a more specific idea about bandwidth/server requirements per the average user/price range how would anyone recommend a suitable solution?

Does anyone have any ideas about how they would implement a very basic network in terms of the server structure/processing power? I just need some scale.

Here are the details:

1. The network must have the capacity to:
i. Connect all users to company resources (e.g, printers, scanners, and other items).
ii. Provide file sharing options.
iii. Manage these resources in a central location.

2. Basic security has always been in place and now the company would like you to make this a secure facility to protect against internal and external security threats.
i. Social engineering/internal threats.
ii. Firewalls/switches.
iii. VPN’s.
iv. Authentication.
v. Security protocols.
vi. Vulnerability assessment.



More about : theoretical 200 employee business network

July 23, 2014 3:07:51 PM

For availability, and expansion I would look at getting a few low to mid performance servers. Some of the servers with minimal RAM (16GB) and some with significant RAM (128GB). Many things can be virtualized on a VMWare cluster. But there are things that are good to have on bare metal use the small RAM boxes for bare metal installs and big RAM for virtualization. The master windows domain controller is usually recommended to be on bare metal. That means a windows server install. Then create a cluster with VMWare to host all the other functions required.

A 10GE managed Layer 2 switch should be enough to tie everything together. That would be your "data center" switch. If you really require high availability you want a pair of switches with all servers dual connected with bonded interfaces to allow failover. You would then feed the end users via 10GE or 1GE (fiber if needed for distance) to access switches or WIFI access points near the desks.

You have so many areas in your post that you might want to break up your request into multiple tailored questions.
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July 27, 2014 12:21:41 PM

i recommend you call dell / hp / ibm , they will tailor you a solution.
you forgot : backup , nac , dlp and bio access restriction.
maybe security cams too

:pt1cable: 
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