[Lesson learned] Share facilities to minimize costs. We worked with a company in which data was handled by the IT group and phones by the facilities group. Separate lines were provisioned and managed by each. Some remote sites actually procured their own lines locally. By combining the lines and renegotiating a single large contract, the company saved more than $1.5 million the first year in communications costs alone--all without changing the technologies. Simply sharing the channels more efficiently on the T1 lines and managing them from a single point provided huge cost savings.
[Lesson learned] Creative solutions can span technology hurdles and political camps. A company needed X.25 communications to deal with remote sites in technology-challenged areas. The network group had two factions: One favored more progressive IP-based systems, while the other insisted on tried-and-true X.25 systems. Arguments broke out. The creative and simple solution was to tunnel IP through the X.25 network where necessary to provide reliable transport and simplify transition to IP-based systems.
Long-haul communications services are one of the major components--and costs--of tying in remote sites. Without these services, there would be no communications, system access or real-time operations, so contingency planning in this area is crucial.
We've heard many newcomers to the networking profession claim that a VPN is all you need to connect remote sites. Wrong. Although a VPN may seem cost-efficient, without the proper business analysis and service-level agreement, you're operating on the lunatic fringe. Responsibility and accountability go hand in hand--your company's business (and your job) should not depend on a network for which no one is directly responsible. What levels of service can you commit to for Internet-based systems?
There's no way around it: IT managers supporting remote sites must do their homework on WAN connectivity. Address the potential impacts of design selections. Analyze traffic to identify current network-traffic flows and potential bottlenecks. Examine migration paths to newer technologies and VoIP convergence and factored them into the equation. Communications pipe sizing could lead you to a different technology. Mesh, hub-spoke and hub-hub-spoke models are all valid and driven by business requirements and the traffic flows they generate. Traffic analysis will also provide an opportunity for you to tighten the belt and ensure there's no unnecessary traffic traversing the WAN.
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