A lot of new office buildings are popping up in growing cities featuring the hookups to facilities popular network services in the area. When you move your office to a new building, office networking design is an important consideration to ensure a smooth transition. If your current office computer system requires updates, this is the time to upgrade to newer equipment.
You don’t want to find yourself unable to function normally in your new office because you failed to consider the office layout, requirements for connectivity and growth. Ideally, you’d like your new office to be fitted with the necessary wiring and cabling to support your employee size and equipment needs before the equipment arrives.
These are the important considerations for your IT team to work out with your movers:
- Servers – all data should be backed up prior to a move to ensure nothing is lost. Servers endure a lot of stress during transfer and must be carefully packed and padded to protect them from shifting. If your server is full, this is the time to think about moving data to equipment with a larger capacity.
- Speed – if your business uploads and downloads large amounts of data, having a redundant system to facilitate data speed helps you offer better customer service and improves productivity. This would be the time to consider if a VoIP service for your phone and internet would be a good fit.
- LAN – the local area network should be configured to suit the hierarchy of the network.
- Wireless system – today, many offices use wireless equipment and save information to the cloud. This allows the information to be accessed from anywhere and preserves data in the even of a blackout or climate emergency.
But beyond the technical considerations for servers, wires, cables, routers, and hardware, you must also plan for the needs of your staff both now and in the future. If you are planning to grow, your system should be able to handle additional equipment. If your current equipment is at capacity now, you might want to buy new equipment for the new location and spare yourself the cost and worry of moving old stuff.
Having a floor plan of the new location is helpful in determining how to layout equipment and configure wiring. Most of the wiring and cabling will happen in the ceiling, delivering service from a wire closet to individual desks where laptops, pcs, and telephones connect to outlets. Everything will be tested once equipment is in place and any missing or faulty items will be ordered or replaced.
Following installation, your systems should be maintained either by an internal IT person or a service that will monitor it regularly. Staying on top of issues as they arise will ensure business continuity, so you have connectivity around the clock. Businesses are facing enough challenges these days without worrying about data access. An efficient network setup can avert many unnecessary problems so you can stay focused on the things that matter most.