Design of the Logical Network

After you have finished the design for your practice's network, you are ready to decide on the logical design; that is, the functioning and infrastructure of the network. Below you will discover some tips on making a network that is efficient and flexible, a contribution to overall operations.

Basic Network - After you've begun a draft of the organizational network, it's a good time to select the services that you will be adding to it. A smoothly functioning environment needs email, Internet access, and file storage, in particular. Network file storage allows network drives to be created for individual users, allowing them to save the data to the network as opposed to the local machine. This allows for protection and backup of the data. Storing the data on a single server lets you perform a nightly backup and control access to the information. In addition, your users can get the information they want from any machine on the network, even at home. Setting up all the user accounts with narrow access scope lets the user share documents throughout the department easily, whether it is an employee manual, vacation schedule or list of new policies. The drive for the department can be set to share information with the specific department only, allowing for fluid collaboration in the department. Every user account has a home directory that is accessible only by the individual user. This allows for a safe are for documentation that shouldn't be accessed by others. This is also backed-up nightly, on schedule.

Internet and E-Mail - These are excellent services to include on the network. When setting up email, however, be sure to run a quality anti-virus software tool on the mail server for scanning of all in and out-going messages. As e-mail is the number one method that viruses spread with, setting up the mail server properly at the beginning is the most effective way to minimize your risk. A server solution tool such as Microsoft Exchange is a great way to introduce email or an online calendar system. Internet access is simply a must in order to communicate between multiple locations. Most software companies also prefer that a practice keep a broadband connection to send updates and support through. Broadband pricing varies by area, but the need for adequate security is a constant. All your file assets should be kept behind a good firewall, a wall between the outside world and your network. Most vendors have versions of their products that are designed for both consumer and business clients; the business versions are typically designed for deployment across a network and contain added tools to help you manage your anti-virus products.

Flexibility - Group by function as well as by geographic region when creating a design for the office network. This sort of strategy helps establish flexible an functional network infrastructure. If your business works from a series of geographic locations, it can be a good idea to form logic units, for example, Front Desk. Then, from Front Desk, you can make a logic unit for all the locations and places each user account is allocated to. The primary benefit of this strategy is that you can apply a network policy to the logistical unit. Perhaps all Front Desk accounts are set for their screen to automatically lock after ten minutes of inactivity. Simply add this feature to the Front Desk unit to apply to all Front Desk accounts.