Whitehelm Network HealthCheck

Network Infrastructure Health Check (NIHC)

Whitehelm Network Security Ltd. help organisations to make sure that they are getting the best out of their network and ensure that it is fully optimised. Having established a close relationship early on with key vendors such as Cisco Systems we are now very proud of our status as a leading security partner.

Service Features:

Network Infrastructure Health Check

The main objectives for an Whitehelm Network Health Check are:-

Gather data on existing Network Infrastructure
Assess existing network performance
Provide documentation on existing infrastructure
Highlight areas of concern
Provide a report and recommendations for future work

As this service is intended as an initial "Health Infrastructure Check" does not include an complete in depth network analysis but provides a high-level overview sufficient to identify those areas that justify further work.

Service Offering Phases

The Network Infrastructure Health Check/ Audit consists of 3 main phases :

Data Gathering
Network Analysis
Report & Recommendations

Data Gathering

This involves the collection of information relating to the network infrastructure and applications in use. This includes such items as network addresses and application protocols in use which are required for relating the network analysis to the actual business processes. In order to understand how the applications fit into the business process it is useful to be able to talk to some key users within the client organization.

Network Topology Analysis

This involves the gathering of adjacency data from the switches in order to determine the overall physical & logical network topology.

Items identified include the location and configuration of inter-switch links including any resiliency options and the connections to key servers and external network links.

Network Traffic Scan/Analysis

This involves the use of a Network Protocol Probe/Analyser to perform an overall scan of the existing internal network and examines the traffic at some key points in the network. This allows the identification of the bandwidth utilisation by the various applications and identifies the critical data flows.

A more detailed analysis of a few critical data flows, such as SAP/ERP client/server traffic, is then carried out to identify any current or potential bottlenecks.

This requires access to key points in the network (e.g. server/WAN connections), in order to connect the analyser, so may be constrained by the ability to do this without disrupting business applications, depending on how the clients existing infrastructure is connected and the availability of spare switch ports etc.

If read access can be obtained to any routers serving the Internet or any other external connections then this is often helpful in providing additional network traffic information.

Network Testing

This utilises some Network Probes to generate some test traffic to measure certain network parameters such as response times across WAN links etc. It also includes testing of specific items of network cabling etc.

Application Analysis

This requires access to the various servers to examine the actual applications in use and their interaction with the network switches.

Report & Recommendations

This involves the preparation of a report giving the results of the onsite investigation and analysis. This report identifies any current problems found and indicates their likely causes and provides recommendations for the future work required to investigate/correct these issues.

It will also highlight areas that although are likely to cause a problem in future(e.g. with future growth of the organization or with greater use of the Internet etc.)so that they can be addressed before the problem occurs.

As well as identifying actual problems it would also cover the overall resiliency of the network and recommend any changes that could be made to increase network reliability. The report would also provide documentation of the current infrastructure.

Network Documentation

This provides documentation of the existing network infrastructure and includes the following items:-

Network Diagram
This provides a diagram of the existing network showing the main infrastructure components and the external links.

Network System Details
This provides summary details of the key computer systems on the network, such as names and network addresses. This is primarily concerned with server rather than client systems.

Network Analysis Summary Report

This contains a summary of the analysis results and relates the observed network performance to the business processes. It identifies those aspects of network performance that have the greatest impact on the actual performance of business applications such as SAP thus ensuring that any network improvements are targeted where they will have greatest business benefit.

Recommendations

This provides a clearly defined roadmap/outline plan of work required to remedy any existing issues. It would also identify those areas that will require work to avoid future problems.

The recommendations would be based on the results of the data gathering and analysis to ensure that they deliver maximum benefit for the key business applications in a cost-effective manner.

Why Choose Whitehelm?

Proven Processes — Professionally conducted, with highly skilled techniques, no inadvertent down time.
Technical Superiority — In depth knowledge of protocols and application/data flows in relation to the business process or application in use.
Knowledge Transfer — The highest quality possible of reporting, and our excellence in communicating our findings to the client organisation.

Please call 0870 421 4023 to find out how your company can benefit from our network infrastructure health check service, or e-mail sales@whitehelm.com requesting more information.