Connect. Secure. Manage.
Cisco Internet Edge Design
Design Cisco internet-facing routing and security boundaries, including management protection, public services and the treatment of upstream failures.
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.
Cisco internet edge design sets the routes and rules between your business and outside networks. We define what you advertise, what traffic may pass and how service will recover after a fault. The design follows real app and address needs. Important dependencies are recorded before the build, with a clear role for each device and provider.
The whole path
Understand how sites, providers, cloud networks and security controls fit together.
Resilience that can be tested
Separate a second circuit from genuine end-to-end service resilience.
Provider coordination
Keep addressing, routing and escalation ownership clear across organisations.
Define the edge's responsibilities
We check which services use the edge: ordinary outbound access, published apps, remote access, cloud connections and private counterparties where applicable. Those services can require different routing and security treatment. The architecture states which functions belong on the edge and which remain with downstream firewalls, app gateways or other platforms.
The business need also covers availability and operating responsibility. A small office and a multi-provider financial-services setup need different designs, even when both use Cisco equipment. We establish the failures that must be tolerated and the evidence the customer needs to accept the solution.
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
Select hardware and software for the real workload
Platform choice considers interface types, routing scale, encryption, inspection and the traffic mix expected in service. A headline throughput figure does not prove performance with every proposed feature enabled. We check the supported capabilities and capacity of the actual hardware, software and licence combination.
Lifecycle and support are included in the decision. The customer needs a practical upgrade and replacement path, not merely equipment that meets today's port count. We also identify support needs such as local console access, monitoring integration and spare arrangements where these affect recovery.
A useful starting point
Not sure where to start?
Bring the requirement. We will help you define the engineering work.
Design addressing and route policy
The architecture specifies public address ownership, provider handoffs, internal reachability and the routing method appropriate to the need. Static routing may be sufficient for some edges; other setups need BGP and clear import and export policy. The design should justify the choice rather than use a complex protocol as a badge of sophistication.
Where BGP is chosen, we define authorised advertisements, expected received routes and the safeguards available on the platform. Route-origin information, prefix filtering and provider coordination are considered where relevant. Our BGP routing services provide the detailed rollout and operational scope around those boundaries.
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 ↗Coordinate forwarding with security inspection
Routing, NAT and firewall placement must describe one coherent traffic path. We examine both directions of important connections and the effects of redundant routes. A stateful security device may require traffic symmetry or a supported high-availability arrangement, so routing resilience cannot be designed independently of inspection.
Management and control-plane traffic receive separate treatment. We identify approved admin sources, routing peers and monitoring systems, limiting exposure according to the device's role. Recovery access is retained through a controlled method rather than left broadly reachable as an undocumented operational convenience.
Examine shared failure points
Multiple devices and circuits can still depend on one switch, rack power feed, provider handoff or physical route. We assess those dependencies and distinguish confirmed diversity from assumptions. The architecture should state which failures leave a usable service and which require a wider site or provider recovery process.
The surviving path must have sufficient capacity for the agreed reduced-service aim. We identify traffic priorities and any app restrictions during failover. A resilient diagram is not enough if the backup path becomes unusable under the load transferred to it.
Prepare a controlled implementation and test plan
The high-level design is translated into a reviewable setup and change sequence. We identify dependencies on carrier setup, DNS, external allowlists and app teams. Management access and rollback are planned before production routing or security policy is altered.
Acceptance tests include expected advertisements, translations, permitted services and representative denied paths. Agreed device or circuit failures are exercised safely, with app recovery observed rather than inferred from interface status. The record names what was shown and what remains an untested assumption.
Physical rollout details are retained alongside the logical design. Interface capacity, optics, cable routes and rack access can determine whether a replacement or circuit change can be completed safely. We check those details before a maintenance window rather than assuming a compatible routing setup guarantees that the new handoff can be connected.
Make the edge supportable after deployment
The final records connect diagrams, addressing, policy, provider contacts and working procedures. Monitoring should report lost redundancy and total failure, with enough context to distinguish a carrier problem from a local change to the settings. Periodic review keeps the architecture aligned with new public services and changing app needs.
MCI can design a new Cisco edge or assess an inherited setup before expansion or migration. Our UK-wide service scope is agreed around the actual sites and maintenance needs. Provide the current topology and business needs so we can develop a supported edge with clear limits, rather than promising that a product choice alone guarantees availability or security.
Technical references
- Cisco IOS XE software hardening guide — Cisco / Cisco Meraki
- Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN design guide — Cisco / Cisco Meraki
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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