10 Ways to Know Your Network Design Needs an Update

A business network design can remain operational for years without being well-designed for the business it serves today. Although many longtime Chicago establishments are living in the Jurassic age technologically. Quite naturally, these business owners have the slightest insight into their network health.

Rather, these businesses and organizations need to be attuned to the warning signs that appear gradually: employees complaining that applications are slow, wireless coverage becomes unreliable, new devices are difficult to add, remote locations struggle to communicate, or the IT team keeps adding temporary fixes to an infrastructure that was never designed for its current workload.

The problem is that these symptoms are often treated individually and eventually, the network becomes a collection of patches rather than a deliberately engineered system. In reality slow applications, weak Wi-Fi signals, and constant buffering actually form part of a deeply interconnected issue.

Especially, for organizations that depend on cloud applications, VoIP, wireless connectivity, cybersecurity tools, video surveillance, remote access, and real-time communication, network design is foundational infrastructure. When the underlying architecture is outdated, every technology layered on top of it can become harder to manage and less reliable.

Here are 10 signs that your organization’s network design may be due for an update.

1. Your Network Has Become a Collection of Add-Ons

One of the clearest signs of an aging network design is that nobody can easily explain how everything connects. Over time, every businesses naturally add technology, which isn’t the issue; the problem occurs when each addition is made independently without considering the overall architecture.

A network designed for 20 employees may technically continue functioning with 100 employees, but that does not mean the original architecture is appropriate for the organization’s current requirement. After a while technicians connect switches arbitrarily wherever a port was available, wireless access points installed wherever users complained about coverage, unmanaged devices sharing network segments, and firewall rules accumulated over years. This is a common occurrence for Chicagoland businesses after a couple decades in operation.

Ask your IT team:

• Do we have an up-to-date network diagram?
• Do we know exactly where every major network device connects?
• Do we know which systems share the same network segments?
• Are switches and firewalls configured according to a documented architecture?
• Can we easily identify a device’s location and network path?
• Were major infrastructure decisions based on a documented design?

If the answers are unclear, your organization outgrew its original network architecture and needs to invest in an update.

2. Exponential Employee Onboarding

Businesses rarely remain the same size, and they should expand. However, when employees are added and departments expand the demand on the network grows exponentially. A single employee might simultaneously use a laptop, smartphone, VoIP phone, cloud applications, video conferencing, wireless peripherals, and multiple SaaS platforms. Multiply that across an organization and the departments individually onboarding new employees on a quarterly basis makes Chicago business networks grow, often, faster than anticipated.

One of the most crucial elements to note is that capacity is more than internet speed. While upgrading your internet connection can help, the bandwidth is only one component of network performance. Your internal infrastructure also has to handle traffic efficiently.

That means evaluating:

• Switching capacity
• Uplink speeds
• Wireless capacity
• Firewall throughput
• Routing
• Network segmentation
• WAN connectivity
• Internet redundancy
• Device density
• Application traffic
• Quality of Service

Infinity Technologies is happy to provide a robust network design assessment that determines the successful execution of these categories in easily digestible terms.

3. Employees Regularly Experience Slow or Unpredictable Performance

Intermittent network problems can be more revealing than a complete outage. When a network completely fails, the problem is obvious, but when performance fluctuates, organizations often develop workarounds we mentioned in point one.

If users regularly experience:

• Slow file access
• Lagging cloud applications
• Dropped VoIP calls
• Video conferencing problems
• Slow login times
• Delayed application responses
• Unreliable wireless connections
• Network performance that changes throughout the day

Especially if these disruptions occur over a consistent period of time the problem is architectural rather than isolated. A trusted IT partner like Infinity Technologies is needed to modernize the network design.

4. Your Wireless Network Was Built Around Coverage Instead of Capacity

Simply placing an access point in an area where users need a signal does not necessarily create a well-designed wireless network. Furthermore, modern businesses in Chicago and Northwest Indiana often have extremely high device densities in a singular room. For example, in a conference room there may be a number of laptops, smartphones, tablets, presentation systems, video conferencing equipment and more all trying to compete for the same signal set up. Then multiply that reality for warehouses, healthcare environments, schools, and manufacturing facilities.

A reliable network must support the number of devices using the network, the applications they are running, and the amount of traffic they generate.

Warning signs include:

• Wi-Fi works well in some areas but poorly in others.
• Employees frequently have to reconnect to Wi-Fi.
• Devices remain connected to distant access points.
• Conference rooms experience poor performance when full.
• Wireless performance declines during busy periods.
• Certain areas require additional access points every time the business expands.
• Employees use personal hotspots because they don’t trust the corporate Wi-Fi.

5. Everything is on the Same Network

This is one of the most important network-design warning signs from a cybersecurity perspective. If employee computers, guest devices, printers, security cameras, VoIP phones, servers, and IoT devices all communicate across the same flat network, the organization has a significant network architectural risk. Infinity Technologies ensure that our clientele employs segmentation to separate different types of traffic and systems according to business and security requirements.

Segmentation can help limit unnecessary communication between systems and reduce the potential impact of a compromised device. Imagine an employee unknowingly opens a malicious attachment. If the compromised computer has unrestricted access to large portions of the network, an attacker may have significantly more opportunities to move laterally.

If one device on our network were compromised today, how much of our environment could that device potentially reach?

If nobody can answer that question confidently, it is definately time to review the network architecture.

6. Your Security Cameras and Other Systems Are Competing with Business Traffic

Businesses in Chicago increasingly depend on network-connected physical security systems. Security cameras are an essential to protect assets but simultaneously generate substantial amounts of network traffic. High-resolution IP cameras, 4K cameras, PTZ cameras, license plate recognition, AI video analytics, continuous recording and multiple simultaneous camera streams all heavily contribute to the network load.

Then consider other systems operating across the same infrastructure. Your network may simultaneously carry:

• Voice traffic
• Video conferencing
• Cloud applications
• Business applications
• Access control
• File transfers
• Backup traffic
• Wireless devices

Without thoughtful network architecture, these systems can interfere with one another. Your company runs the risk of losing valuable data, critical footage, and productivity. This is why Infinity Technologies approaches network design in account for the entire technology ecosystem rather than treating each technology as an isolated installation. We uniquely manage all of these services so Chicago organizations can enjoy one seamless and unified system under one reliable network design.

7. Adding a New Location is Surprisingly Difficult

A well-designed network will make organizational growth easier. When organizations run into a major infrastructure project when adding a new facility or location that is a red flag that the network design needs attention. At times, your network architecture may not even be designed for multi-site operations.

Multi-location organizations must consider:

• Site-to-site connectivity
• SD-WAN
• VPN architecture
• Internet redundancy
• Centralized security policies
• Cloud connectivity
• Centralized management
• Network segmentation
• Remote monitoring
• Identity and access controls

Furthermore, the objective is not simply connecting building networks but creating a consistent and manageable architecture across locations that embraces the needs of the organization. Rather than designing every location differently, Infinity Technologies empowers companies with standardized network architecture can make deployments more predictable and easier to support.

8. Your Network Has Single Points of Failure

A network can be fast and secure while still being fragile. Hence why one of the most overlooked aspects of network design is resiliency.

Ask what happens if a critical component fails:

• The primary internet connection goes down?
• A core switch fails?
• A firewall fails?
• A critical uplink fails?
• A power supply fails?
• A network closet loses power?
• A wireless controller becomes unavailable?
• A critical connection between buildings fails?

If one of these aforementioned components can bring down an entire business operation, that component represents a potential single point of failure. While not every organization needs redundant everything, after 30 years Infinity Technologies believes that redundancy should be based on the business’s operational requirements and the financial impact of downtime. For example, a manufacturing facility may have very different requirements from a small professional office. An experience partner like Infinity Technologies is key to intentionally identifying the risks and creating a mitigation plan rather than discovering them during an outage.

9. Your Network Security Depends on One Device Doing Everything

A firewall is an important part of network security, but a firewall alone does not constitute a modern network-security architecture. If a firewall is the singular obstacle between your business and a cyberattack, your Chicago business is ill prepared for the modern cybercrime landscape we live in today.

Rather Infinity Technologies recommends that modern network architecture can and should incorporate multiple layers of protection, including:

• Network segmentation
• Access control
• Secure wireless architecture
• VLANs
• Firewall policies
• VPN controls
• Identity-based access
• Endpoint security
• Network monitoring
• Secure remote access
• Traffic inspection
• Least-privilege principles

The goal is to avoid creating a situation where one security control represents the organization’s entire defense. Our clientele knows that network design and cybersecurity increasingly overlap. So, for any networks that was designed before the organization’s current cybersecurity requirements existed definitely needs architectural changes.

10. Nobody Has a Clear Answer About What the Network Will Look Like in Three Years

This may be the biggest sign of all. After 3-5 years, a network naturally should be evaluated to gauge its health, gaps in protection, and its support of business productivity. Then taking a step back to imagine the organization three years from this point encourages businesses to plan their network design for the long-term, saving thousands of dollars with this perspective. Focusing on solving network design issues as they arise are costly, when a trusted IT partner is Infinity Technologies can help you plan for today and tomorrow.

Consider what your business may add over the next several years:

• More employees
• Additional facilities
• More cloud applications
• More wireless devices
• More security cameras
• VoIP or unified communications
• IoT systems
• Remote workers
• Increased cybersecurity requirements
• Higher bandwidth requirements
• Additional servers or cloud infrastructure
• New compliance requirements and paradigm shifting legislation

If the existing network has little room for expansion, every future project becomes more expensive and disruptive. We provide scalable designs that develop room for growth. After 30 years in the game, we know the best network is not necessarily the one with the most expensive equipment. It is the one that is appropriately engineered for the organization today while providing a practical path toward tomorrow.

Build a Network Designed for the Business You Have Today

A strong network is the foundation for any successful Chicago business; networks support communication, cloud applications, cybersecurity, physical security, collaboration, remote access, operations, and the day-to-day technology your organization depends on. Infinity Technologies helps organizations evaluate, design, and modernize network infrastructure based on their operational requirements, security priorities, existing technology, and future growth. We are uniquely positioned to be the only technology vendor for your business as our IT model centralizes control for the entire tech ecosystem.

From network architecture and switching to firewalls, segmentation, wireless networking, structured cabling, SD-WAN, multi-site connectivity, and infrastructure planning, Infinity Technologies often supports business from infancy stages well into multiple decades of success. Our comprehensive and consultative approach to building networks provides our clients throughout Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana a piece of mind that their businesses are secure, reliable, and designed to scale.

If your network has grown through years of additions, upgrades, and workarounds, it may be time to stop patching individual problems and evaluate the architecture as a whole.

Contact Infinity Technologies for a network assessment and determine whether your existing infrastructure is ready for what your organization needs next.