Networks, servers and cloud

What it includes

• Network design and administration: routers, switches, firewalls, VLANs, Wi-Fi, VPNs between sites
• Server administration on Linux, Windows and macOS, physical, virtual and cloud
• Virtualisation and containers, so services are isolated, portable and quick to rebuild
• Cloud environments on the major platforms: architecture, migration, cost control, identity and access
• Private servers for hosting applications and services, hardened from the first hour
• Web front doors, encrypted connections that renew themselves, domains and DNS
• Backup strategies with tested restores, and disaster recovery that has actually been rehearsed
• Monitoring and alerting so an outage is known within minutes, not when a client calls
• Structured cabling, server rooms, power protection and the physical side of a network
• Capacity planning and performance tuning as the organisation grows

How it is approached

• Everything is written down: the network diagram, the addresses, the passwords in a vault, the procedures. An infrastructure only one head understands is a risk.
• The smallest secure design that meets the need, then room to grow, rather than the biggest design that impresses.
• Automation over heroics: updates, backups, certificates and checks run on their own.
• Every change is tested for the way back before it is made.

What you get

• A network and servers that are fast, available and documented
• Fewer surprises, because the failures that can happen have been planned for
• Cloud spending that is understood and controlled
• The confidence that a lost server or a lost office does not mean lost work