Network Support & Consultancy for UK Businesses

SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) uses software to intelligently manage and route traffic across multiple WAN connections — broadband, 4G LTE, 5G, MPLS, or a combination. Rather than committing all traffic to a single link, SD-WAN continuously monitors the quality of each available connection and routes each application's traffic over the most suitable path in real time. Latency-sensitive applications like Microsoft Teams are automatically prioritised over the highest-quality link; bulk data transfers use whichever link has spare capacity.

Most businesses with two or more sites benefit significantly from SD-WAN. It delivers the reliability and performance guarantees previously associated only with expensive MPLS circuits, but over cost-effective broadband connections — typically reducing WAN connectivity costs by 40–70%. If your organisation relies on cloud applications, runs voice or video conferencing, or has experienced WAN connectivity problems, SD-WAN is worth a serious evaluation. We explore this in depth in our SD-WAN vs MPLS guide.

Vertex9 monitors your network infrastructure around the clock using three complementary monitoring techniques. SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) polling collects performance metrics from every network device every few minutes — CPU and memory utilisation, interface error rates, optical power levels, and hardware sensor readings. NetFlow traffic analysis provides visibility into what traffic is flowing across your network, enabling identification of unexpected bandwidth consumers, unusual traffic patterns that may indicate a security incident, and application performance issues. ICMP reachability checks continuously verify that every network device and monitored IP address is responding, detecting outages within seconds of occurrence.

When any monitored metric breaches a configured threshold or a device becomes unreachable, automated alerts are escalated to our on-call network engineers immediately — at any hour, including weekends and bank holidays. Incidents are categorised by severity, with P1 incidents (complete site outage or critical system failure) responded to within 15 minutes. Monthly network health reports cover uptime metrics, incident summaries, and traffic utilisation trends.

Yes. Vertex9 regularly assumes management of existing network infrastructure, regardless of the vendor, platform, or current state of documentation. The process begins with a network audit in which our engineers review your current topology, device inventory, configurations, and monitoring posture. This typically takes one to two weeks and results in a network health report identifying any configuration issues, security concerns, firmware vulnerabilities, or architectural weaknesses, along with a prioritised remediation plan.

Once the audit is complete and the remediation backlog is agreed with you, your network transitions into our standard managed network service — providing 24/7 monitoring, configuration backup and version control, change management, firmware lifecycle management, and proactive maintenance. The process is designed to be non-disruptive; we begin monitoring and documenting your existing infrastructure while it continues to operate normally, making changes only within agreed maintenance windows.

A High-Level Design (HLD) is the strategic architecture document for a network. It defines the overall topology, technology platform choices and their justifications, the connectivity model between sites and the internet, the redundancy and resilience approach, and the security zoning model — all at a level of detail sufficient for senior stakeholders and technical architects to review and approve without requiring expertise in the specific configuration of individual devices. The HLD is the blueprint that answers the question: "What are we building and why?"

A Low-Level Design (LLD) is the detailed implementation document derived from the HLD. It contains every technical parameter required to build the network as designed — interface configurations, IP addressing schemes and subnet allocations, VLAN numbering and assignments, routing protocol configurations, spanning tree settings, firewall zone definitions and base policy rules, and management system settings. The LLD answers the question: "Exactly how are we building it?" Both documents are required for enterprise network deployments, and both are produced by Vertex9 as standard deliverables for all network design engagements. They are invaluable for future reference when onboarding new engineers, carrying out changes, or troubleshooting complex issues.

Yes. Vertex9 provides a range of VPN solutions for remote and hybrid workers, selected based on the security requirements, scale, and user experience priorities of each organisation. For organisations that need straightforward remote access to internal resources, SSL VPN provides a client-based encrypted tunnel that can be established from any location and device. For higher-security environments, we combine SSL VPN with certificate-based authentication and device compliance checking to ensure only managed, compliant devices can connect.

For organisations with more demanding security requirements, we deploy SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) and ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) solutions using Fortinet's platform. ZTNA replaces traditional VPN with an identity and device posture-aware access model — users and devices are continuously verified before and during access to specific applications, and access is granted only to what each user needs rather than to the entire network. This approach significantly reduces the lateral movement risk that broad VPN access creates. We can also implement IPsec site-to-site VPN to connect office locations, cloud environments, and data centres over encrypted tunnels.

A typical network refresh — covering site survey, HLD and LLD design, hardware procurement, pre-staging, deployment, and post-installation testing — takes between 4 and 8 weeks for a standard single-site or small multi-site environment. Larger or more complex environments may take longer, particularly where multiple sites need to be sequenced or where dependencies on other IT projects create scheduling constraints.

Hardware lead times can also affect the overall timeline. Many enterprise-grade networking devices have lead times of four to eight weeks from order to delivery. Vertex9 monitors vendor lead times and advises on this during the planning phase so there are no surprises. For urgent requirements where existing equipment has failed or is critically unsupported, we maintain relationships with distributors that can supply replacement equipment rapidly, and can deploy temporary solutions whilst permanent equipment is procured. All deployment work is carried out during agreed maintenance windows to minimise disruption to your business.