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Network Architecture Review
Get a second opinion on a Cisco or Meraki network design, including resilience, traffic paths, security boundaries and operational complexity.
Devices supported
across the UK
Client locations
supported
Traffic handled
at peak time
Average
response time
Average response is not a resolution time or a contractual guarantee. Support scope and response commitments are agreed for each engagement.
A network architecture review gives you a second opinion on how a network is put together. MCI examines an existing or proposed Cisco and Meraki architecture against the requirements it is supposed to meet. The result is an explanation of where the design is sound, where it depends on assumptions and which issues deserve attention before implementation or further investment.
This is not a device-by-device configuration audit. The emphasis is on the relationships between components: traffic paths, security boundaries, failure domains, management dependencies and the way the network supports the business. A design can use individually suitable products and still have weaknesses in how they fit together.
A clear requirement
Turn the business need into a practical network scope with visible dependencies.
A controlled delivery
Plan implementation, testing and rollback before production changes begin.
A supportable result
Leave useful records, ownership and escalation routes behind.
Review the architecture against a real brief
We begin by establishing the intended outcome. The design for a single office differs from a distributed estate, and a financial-services environment may have particular dependencies on external providers. A review needs those requirements before it can meaningfully assess whether an architecture is appropriate.
Existing diagrams, application information and design decisions are useful evidence. Where they are incomplete, we identify what is known and what remains uncertain. The absence of documentation should not be quietly converted into an assumption that the network behaves as the diagram suggests.
The review can take place before a procurement decision, before a major change or after an estate has expanded beyond its original design. The question is not whether the network looks modern. It is whether its structure remains suitable for the work it must support.
Standards & partnerships
Confidence in the team behind your network.
Cisco Partner
Cisco Meraki
Cyber Essentials
Cyber Essentials PlusMCI Network Services is operated by Proxar Ltd. Certifications apply to the certified legal entity and the scope of its certificates. View accreditation information
Trace important services through the design
We follow representative application paths from users or connected systems to their destinations. This brings routing decisions, firewall boundaries, shared services and third-party connections into the same discussion.
A route drawn as a single line may rely on several devices, a provider service and a shared authentication system. Understanding those dependencies helps reveal whether the architecture has a meaningful alternative path or simply two connections that depend on the same underlying component.
For Cisco and Meraki networks, we also examine management placement. A management platform should have a considered relationship with the network it controls. The review asks how engineers reach the environment during a fault, how administrative access is protected and what happens when a management dependency is unavailable.
A useful starting point
Not sure where to start?
Bring the requirement. We will help you define the engineering work.
Challenge the failure and maintenance assumptions
Resilience is about the service that remains available, not just the presence of duplicate hardware. We examine the failure scenarios the design is intended to tolerate and whether the surviving path has sufficient capacity and suitable security controls.
Maintenance deserves its own attention. A network may recover from an unplanned device failure yet still be awkward to upgrade safely. The architecture should make it possible to isolate work, check the result and restore the previous state where required.
If the review identifies uncertainty about actual behaviour, a resilience assessment or focused testing can gather evidence. An architecture review can identify the question; it should not claim a failure test has passed when no test has been performed.
Different environments. The same care.
Built around the work
your network supports.
Finance, banking and the wider private sector. We start with the systems and people that depend on your connections.
Finance & banking
Market-data paths, routing and provider coordination on clients’ behalf.
Financial-market services ↗Offices & multi-site teams
Reliable access between people, workplaces and business applications.
Office network design ↗Data centres & cloud
Network boundaries, workload connections and operational ownership.
Data centre networks ↗Look for unnecessary complexity as well as missing controls
More components do not necessarily produce a better network. Multiple routing boundaries, overlapping management tools or inconsistent site patterns can make diagnosis and change harder than they need to be. We examine whether that complexity serves a requirement or reflects successive projects that were never reconciled.
The review also considers whether security boundaries are understandable. A design should make it clear which systems can communicate, where policy is enforced and who owns exceptions. We do not equate a diagram containing firewalls with proof that the intended isolation exists.
Where a simpler approach appears possible, the recommendation explains the consequences of adopting it. Simplification may itself require migration work, and that effort belongs in the comparison rather than being hidden behind an attractive target diagram.
Receive findings you can act on
The report distinguishes critical design issues, worthwhile improvements and observations that need more evidence. Each material finding is linked to a requirement or operating concern, with a suggested next step and an explanation of the likely consequence of doing nothing.
An accepted architecture can remain unchanged. A review is valuable when it confirms a sound decision as well as when it identifies a weakness. Where revisions are required, high-level design work can develop the chosen direction without reopening every aspect of the project.
MCI can conduct the review alongside your own engineers or the team that prepared the original design. Clear discussion of assumptions is usually more productive than treating the engagement as a contest between suppliers.
Architecture review questions
Do you need access to live equipment?
Not always. A proposed design can be reviewed from documents and workshops. For an existing estate, authorised access or verified configuration evidence may be needed to establish whether the live network matches the architecture being assessed.
Will the review include penetration testing?
No, unless a separate authorised testing scope is agreed. Architecture review examines design and control placement. It does not substitute for vulnerability assessment, penetration testing or a formal compliance assessment of the whole organisation.
Can the review be limited to one important dependency?
Yes. A particular WAN connection, management path or data-centre interconnect may justify a focused review. The boundary must be clear enough to consider the upstream and downstream dependencies that could affect the conclusion.
What is the next step?
Arrange a network architecture review and describe the design decision or concern. A high-level account is sufficient for the initial discussion; detailed diagrams and configuration evidence should use the secure exchange route established for the engagement.
Talk to a specialist
What does your network need next?
Tell us what you are planning, changing or trying to improve. We will help define a practical next step and the engineering scope.
+44 203 196 6566Choose option 1
sales@proxar.co.ukUK-wide service.
Most of our engineers are based in Kent, with a focus on London, Sussex, Essex and Berkshire.
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