For today’s enterprises, the network architecture underpinning operations has become mission critical. As companies embrace digital transformation, they rely on the network to enable cloud, mobility, IoT, and advanced applications. Without robust connectivity and capacity, productivity and competitiveness suffer. That is why proactive network planning is essential.
Network planning is a systematic process for designing, implementing, and evolving the network to align with business priorities. It involves forecasting bandwidth needs, documenting requirements, assessing readiness, selecting technologies, and creating a multi-year strategic roadmap. For optimal success, organizations are wise to partner with specialized IT planning firms like Ashburn Consulting.
The Strategic Planning Process
Ashburn Consulting approaches each network plan based on clients’ unique objectives, challenges, and capabilities. They begin by thoroughly documenting business drivers and goals, auditing current infrastructure, analyzing existing workloads and applications, and forecasting bandwidth requirements.
With a solid understanding of the as-is environment, Ashburn models multiple what-if scenarios for the future state network. Their experts evaluate solutions from leading vendors across areas like LAN/WAN, wireless, security, cloud, and more. They design blueprints optimized for the organization’s needs and budget.
The culminating plan provides technology recommendations with associated timelines based on priority. It establishes network design standards and policies for consistency. Guidance for security, monitoring, and management ensures the foundation for scalability. Ashburn’s objective advice and vendor-agnostic approach deliver network plans fully aligned with clients’ best interests.
Implementation and Beyond
Ashburn Consulting can support clients from strategy through execution. Their engineers assist with proof-of-concept pilots to validate selected technologies pre-deployment. For solution rollouts, Ashburn provides experienced project management and engineering resources as needed.
Post-implementation, Ashburn continues advising clients on network evolution as needs change. They conduct periodic assessments to confirm the architecture still maps to business objectives. Network planning is not a one-time project but rather an ongoing partnership.
Benefits of Proactive Network Planning
With Ashburn Consulting’s help, companies realize many benefits from proactive network planning, including:
- Maximizing network performance and minimizing costly downtime
- Building a robust, secure, and scalable infrastructure
- Aligning technology with business priorities and budget
- Smoother integration of new systems and applications
- Optimizing resources with purpose-built network design
- Avoiding premature obsolescence of network assets
- Enabling innovation and growth through strategic foundations
For today’s success and future agility, investing in network planning pays dividends. Ashburn gives clients expert guidance to design modern networks that deliver competitive advantage. Discover how network planning can transform your capabilities through long-term partnerships. Contact Ashburn Consulting today to get started.