Site networks, documented and watched
Designing, documenting and running the network a working site depends on, with a drawing that matches the building.
- Survey
- Site walk, port trace and wireless coverage check, then a drawing
- Topology drawing
- Reissued on every change
- Monitoring
- Availability and link quality, with alerts to a named person
- Where
- On site across Saudi Arabia, monitoring run remotely
Most site networks work and nobody can prove how. We survey what is actually connected, draw it, and keep that drawing a controlled document a change cannot bypass. Monitoring then tells you a link is degrading before a shift finds out it is down.
- 01 Enquiry
- 02 Systems audit
- 03 Specification
- 04 Build
- 05 Pilot
- 06 Deploy
- 07 Handover
- 08 Support
Site networks, documented and watched sits at step 8 of the build cycle. You receive a support agreement and a change log.
Nobody has the current network drawing
Ask any operating site for its network diagram. You will be handed one from the year it was commissioned.
Since then a camera system went in on its own switch, somebody added an access point in the warehouse, a contractor patched a machine straight into the office segment because it was the port that was free, and the person who knew all of this has left. The network still works, which is exactly the problem: nothing forces the drawing to be updated until something breaks at the worst moment.
The value in this service is unglamorous. Walk the site, find what is actually connected, draw it, then make the drawing a controlled document that a change cannot bypass. After that, monitoring tells you about degradation instead of you finding out from a production line.
We will also tell you when the answer is not us. A single-office site with a good internet provider and twelve devices does not need a managed network, and we will say so.
The service, area by area
| Area | What we do | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Survey and drawing | Physical walk, port-by-port trace, wireless coverage check, and a topology drawing that matches what is there. | At start, then on change |
| Segmentation | Separating operational traffic, office traffic, cameras and guest access so one does not degrade another. | Designed once, reviewed yearly |
| Wireless coverage | Access point placement measured against where work actually happens, including the cold store and the yard. | On survey, and after layout changes |
| Monitoring | Availability, link quality and device reachability, with alerting to a named person and a threshold you agree. | Continuous |
| Change control | Every change approved by your named owner before it is made, recorded with what, who and when, and the drawing reissued. A change without a record is the defect. | Every change |
| Support | A named owner and a response window, with escalation to your provider handled by us rather than by you. | Per agreement |
The pack you hold afterwards
The topology drawing
Current, versioned and readable by somebody who did not build it. Reissued whenever the network changes.
The device register
Every switch, access point, router and appliance with its model, location, firmware and support status.
The addressing and segment plan
Which segment carries what, and why. The document that stops the next contractor patching a machine into the office network.
The change log
What changed, who approved it and when. Short entries, kept religiously, worth more than any of the other documents.
A monthly availability summary
Uptime, incidents, and anything trending in the wrong direction before it becomes an outage.
Scanners that drop in the far aisles
A warehouse with a light assembly line in Dammam 2nd Industrial City loses handheld scanner connections in the far aisles and the cold store, and nobody can say why.
The survey walks the building, traces every port and measures wireless coverage in the aisles rather than at the office desk. It finds the camera system sharing the operational segment, an access point mounted behind racking, and two unmanaged switches added by a contractor.
The segment plan separates cameras and guest traffic from scanners. Access points are repositioned from the coverage plan. Monitoring is set with thresholds agreed with the warehouse manager, and the first month is spent tuning them so an alert means something.
The site holds a topology drawing that matches the building, a device register, the segment plan and a change log.
Sites we take on
Where the network is part of the process
Scanners, scales, printers, cameras and control systems all sitting on infrastructure that was sized for an office. The failure mode is not an outage, it is intermittent slowness nobody can attribute.
- Operational traffic separated from office and guest traffic
- Wireless measured in the aisles, the dock and the cold store rather than at the desk
- Monitoring that catches a failing link before a shift does
Twenty sites, one standard, no drawings
Each site was built by whoever was available. The value of standardising is that a fault at site fourteen can be diagnosed by somebody who has never been there.
- One design standard applied across sites, with the deviations documented
- A single device register covering every location
- Remote diagnosis before anybody is dispatched
Getting it right before the walls close
The cheapest time to fix a network is before the ceiling goes in. We work with the fit-out contractor on containment, ports and access point positions, then commission and document it.
- Port count and positions checked against the actual desk plan
- Access point positions set from a coverage plan, not from symmetry
- Commissioned with the drawing and register handed over at practical completion
Network questions, answered plainly
Where does security work sit?
With ITF Cyber, which handles security readiness and advisory. This service is the network itself: connectivity, segmentation, availability monitoring, documentation and change control. Segmentation is designed for traffic and reliability here, and it improves your security posture as a side effect of good design.
Do we have to buy equipment from you?
No. We will specify what the site needs and you can buy it wherever you like, including through your existing supplier. Where you already have serviceable equipment we will work with it and tell you honestly which pieces are near the end of support.
What does monitoring actually alert on?
Device reachability, link quality, and thresholds you set, such as a circuit whose error rate is climbing. Alerts go to a named person with a defined response window. We would rather send one alert that matters than ten that get muted, so tuning the thresholds is part of the first month.
Can you work with our internet provider?
Yes, and handling that relationship is usually half the value. When a circuit degrades, the useful work is evidence: the monitoring data that proves the fault is on their side, submitted with the ticket. Without it you spend a week being asked to reboot the router.
What drives the cost?
The number of sites, the number of managed devices, whether wireless coverage needs design work or only verification, and the response window you need. A single documented office is small. Five industrial sites with no current drawings starts with survey work, and the survey is worth buying on its own.
Sits beside
ITF Cyber
Security readiness and advisory, for the policies and controls that sit on top of the network.
Read moreDigitalSystems integration
Connecting the systems that ride on the network once it is reliable.
Read moreDigitalDocument control systems
Keeping the topology drawing under actual revision control rather than in a folder.
Read morePart of one system
Every division keeps records to the same standard, so the second one you need works the way the first one did.
Start with the survey
The survey produces a current topology drawing and a device register. Those are useful documents to own regardless of who ends up managing the network.