Professional services
Network infrastructure design
Networks designed for how your business works now and how it will grow, documented and secured, by the engineers who design and run our own core network.
Who it is for
Businesses in Teesside and the North East whose network has grown piece by piece: a new switch each time the old one ran out of ports, Wi-Fi added room by room, a second site joined with whatever was available, and no drawing of any of it. Also any business fitting out a new building, opening a site, or bringing an acquired business onto its systems.
What you get
A documented network architecture for your sites: the switching, Wi-Fi, cabling, firewalls and the connectivity that joins the sites, designed for what the business runs now and what it will add, with security built in, the bottlenecks and single points of failure removed, and an equipment list you can price. Installed by our own engineers if you want, or handed to your own team with the documentation to do it.
The problem
Networks that grow piece by piece end up slow, fragile and hard to secure, and every new site or system makes it worse.
Nobody designs a bad network. It happens one sensible decision at a time: an unmanaged switch under a desk because the cabinet was full, a consumer Wi-Fi router in the warehouse, a VPN to the branch set up in a hurry, phones and CCTV and card terminals all on the same flat network as the laptops. The result is slow and fragile, and impossible to secure because nothing is separated from anything else.
Thomas Armstrong's estate was like that: fragmented, little documentation, several legacy phone systems, ageing servers. The design came first, then the cabling, Wi-Fi and switching at every site, ethernet connections, a private WAN behind enterprise-grade firewalls, and the applications into Azure, delivered over a year with no unplanned downtime. A new building is the same job in a different order: the design, then the connectivity ordered early because it is the longest item, then the cabling and Wi-Fi before the furniture.
Odyssey designs and runs its own business-only core network, with its own autonomous system and equipment in London and Manchester. The same engineers design yours.
What Odyssey provides
- A survey of your current network, sites, applications and growth plans, with the bottlenecks and risks found
- A documented architecture for switching, Wi-Fi, cabling, firewalls and the connectivity between sites
- Security built into the design, with phones, cameras, guests and office devices separated and the edge protected
- Designs that reduce latency and single points of failure, sized for growth and new sites
- Integration with the systems and equipment you already run, keeping what is sound
- An equipment list and a phased plan, installed by our own engineers if you choose, or handed to your team
What is included
| Included | Detail |
|---|---|
| Survey | Every site walked and the current network, cabling, cabinets, Wi-Fi coverage, connectivity and applications assessed, with the people who use it interviewed |
| Requirements | What the business runs now, what it plans to add, how many people and devices each site must carry, and what cannot be allowed to fail |
| Design | A documented architecture with diagrams, including network segmentation for phones, cameras, guests and devices, firewall and remote access design, and the connectivity between sites |
| Equipment list | Switches, access points, firewalls, cabling and connectivity specified by site, with a cost estimate |
| Phasing | The order of works around your operations and the connectivity lead times, including a new building's fit-out |
| Delivery | Installation by our own engineers if you choose it, priced from the design |
| Handover | Documentation, diagrams and support options, whoever installs it |
Not included, or sold separately
- The equipment and installation
- Quoted separately from the design, so you can take the design to your own team or compare quotes
- The connectivity circuits
- Leased lines, broadband, microwave and private WAN links are ordered as their own services, to the design
- Ongoing management
- Monitoring and support of the installed network is networking and cabling or managed IT, from your retainer
- Building works
- Power and cabinet rooms are specified in the design and carried out by your fit-out contractor; containment is installed by our engineers or specified for your contractor, depending on the job
- Application design
- We design the network the applications run on; how an application is configured is its vendor's
How it is delivered
-
Survey
Every site walked, every cabinet opened, Wi-Fi coverage measured, and the current network documented as it actually is, including the switch under the desk.
-
Agree the requirements
What the business runs and plans to add, how many people and devices per site, what must be separated from what, and what cannot be allowed to fail, written down before anything is drawn.
-
Design and document
The architecture, diagrams, segmentation, security design and connectivity between sites, with an equipment list and cost estimate per site.
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Walk through and phase
The design explained to you in person with the trade-offs, and a phased plan agreed around your operations and the connectivity lead times.
-
Deliver or hand over
Our engineers install it to the design and hand over the documentation, or your team takes the design and the documentation and does it themselves.
Why trust Odyssey with this
-
In-house
All work completed by Odyssey employees, never subcontracted
-
ISO
ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified by NQA
-
3
Calls answered within three rings, and a director is always reachable
- We design and run our own business-only core network
Questions people ask
Do you install what you design?
We can. Our own engineers install and support the network, or you can take the design and the documentation to your own team or another contractor. The design is priced separately so you have the choice.
Can you design for more than one site?
Yes, including the private WAN or connectivity that joins your sites together, the connection each site needs and the order in which sites are brought on.
Our network has grown piece by piece and is slow. Can a redesign help?
Yes. A design removes the bottlenecks and single points of failure that build up when a network grows piecemeal, separates the things that should not share a network, and makes it easier to secure and to extend to new sites.
Will the design work with the equipment and systems we already have?
We design around the technology you already run and integrate with it, keeping what is sound and replacing what is not, so the new network fits the systems your business depends on.
We are fitting out a new building. When should we involve you?
As soon as the date is known. Connectivity to a new building is the longest item on the list, and the cabling and Wi-Fi need to go in before the furniture, so the design should exist before the fit-out contractor starts.
What does the design cover?
Switching, Wi-Fi, structured cabling, firewalls and remote access, network segmentation for phones, cameras, guests and devices, and the connectivity between sites, with diagrams, an equipment list and a phased plan.
Who designs the network?
Odyssey engineers, the same team that designs and runs our own business-only core network. All the work is done by Odyssey employees, never subcontracted.
How much does a design cost?
A fixed price per project, set by the number of sites and the scope, agreed before we start. Equipment and installation are quoted separately from the design, so the design has no reason to specify more than you need.
Challenges this helps with
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