When Is It Time for a Refresh?
Network equipment doesn't last forever. End-of-life announcements, performance degradation, security vulnerabilities, and changing business requirements all signal that it's time to plan a refresh.
Step 1: Assessment
Before buying any equipment, thoroughly assess your current environment:
Inventory — Document all existing hardware, software versions, and configurations
Performance — Baseline current performance metrics
Gaps — Identify where the current network fails to meet business needs
Dependencies — Map application dependencies on network services
Step 2: Requirements Gathering
Work with stakeholders across the business to understand:
What's not working on the current network, and what you want to improve
Planned business changes (new locations, acquisitions, cloud migration)
Budget constraints and timelines
Compliance and security requirements
Step 3: Design
With a clear understanding of requirements, design the new network:
Architecture — Choose the overall architecture (spine-leaf, hub-spoke, mesh)
Vendor Selection — Evaluate vendors based on features, support, and total cost of ownership
Redundancy — Design for the availability level your business requires
Growth — Plan for 3-5 years of anticipated growth
Step 4: Migration Planning
This is where many projects succeed or fail:
Phased Approach — Don't try to change everything at once
Rollback Plans — Every change should have a documented rollback procedure
Testing — Validate in a lab environment before production deployment
Communication — Keep stakeholders informed of timelines and potential impacts
Step 5: Execution
With thorough planning in place, execution becomes much smoother:
Follow the migration plan strictly
Document any deviations and their reasons
Conduct post-change verification testing
Update all documentation in real-time
Step 6: Handover
Don't forget the critical handover phase:
Train operations team on new systems
Create or update runbooks and procedures
Establish monitoring and alerting
Define the support model going forward
Planning a Refresh? Let's Talk
We've helped plenty of teams through network refreshes — sometimes the whole project, sometimes just the stages they're short-handed on. If you've got one coming up, get in touch and we'll work out where we fit.
Written by Ewan Macpherson
Founder & Lead Network Consultant
Ewan has spent over 15 years designing, building, and operating enterprise networks across Australia. More about the team.
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