MAT Network Development

[ToweringTechy]

My trust and setup is very similar to localzuk's but we do have a MPLS and have our servers hosted where our MPLS terminates in a data center. No servers at any sites at all. We currently have 2 primarys one junior and two high schools. We're also moving to remote session servers at the moment once i get the RDSH build finished.

[mavhc]

When I looked at p2p vs internet access the difference didn't seem worth the added risk of multiple sites not having internet access.

 

Although the main cost was the filtering system, no one seemed to offer a subscription to a filter list for >1 site at once, or the ability to have a single place to configure multiple devices.

[localzuk]

When I looked at p2p vs internet access the difference didn't seem worth the added risk of multiple sites not having internet access.

Although the main cost was the filtering system, no one seemed to offer a subscription to a filter list for >1 site at once, or the ability to have a single place to configure multiple devices.

The difference for us is huge.

 

1Gbit internet leased line, £14.5k

1Gbit PTP link, less than £3k

 

Pricing for filtering is about half too - we run 2 Sophos XG boxes instead of the prior boxes on every site. Worked out half the price.

[dcwhitworth]

We're working towards this. Linking sites via their existing broadband links at the moment. We have a secondary and six primaries, secondary runs HyperV cluster with domain services, only got one primary integrated so far but they have a single server running a RO DC, file and print services and SCCM DP. Works very nicely over a sub 100Mb link.

[Norphy]

Academies that are close together form a cluster with local support, independents and academies out on their own have their own local support. Local support looks after each school network as if it wasn't part of a MAT, central team look after the core WAN and central services such as Azure hosted MIS, finance etc and look after the MAT offices.

 

The network used to be MPLS from each site back to a data centre where it broke out to the Internet, now each school has its own connection and we just link together via Fortigate boxes VPN into Azure.

 

This is pretty much how we work as well, with the single forest and domain per cluster. However, we have P2P links between all of our sites and two of our larger academies have internet connections which we balance our schools across. We can route everyone out over one internet connection should one of them go pear shaped.

[mavhc]

The difference for us is huge.

 

1Gbit internet leased line, £14.5k

1Gbit PTP link, less than £3k

 

Pricing for filtering is about half too - we run 2 Sophos XG boxes instead of the prior boxes on every site. Worked out half the price.

 

Interesting, wonder why.

 

I had £4000-5000 for 100/100 internet, and about 80% of that for p2p.

 

1000/1000 was about £8000

 

These were schools in the suburbs

[localzuk]

Interesting, wonder why.

I had £4000-5000 for 100/100 internet, and about 80% of that for p2p.

1000/1000 was about £8000

These were schools in the suburbs

Dunno, but the OpenReach PTP leased line "Ethernet extension" stuff, you basically only pay the distance between your site and its nearest exchange. Our schools are all really close to exchanges.

[mavhc]

Dunno, but the OpenReach PTP leased line "Ethernet extension" stuff, you basically only pay the distance between your site and its nearest exchange. Our schools are all really close to exchanges.

 

Now that's forward planning. Looks like our 2 locations are 1.1 and 0.7 miles from the same exchange

 

https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/pricing/loadProductPriceDetails.do?data=0d0zetWgShsjqKWjcN2Y5WJA8BGGqsBLxL7IgSM4fRpZ6rNZujnCs99NbIKJZPD9hXYmiijxH6wr%0ACQm97GZMyQ%3D%3D

 

says 18p/metre/year, so £180/km plus all the other costs

[localzuk]

Now that's forward planning. Looks like our 2 locations are 1.1 and 0.7 miles from the same exchange

https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/pricing/loadProductPriceDetails.do?data=0d0zetWgShsjqKWjcN2Y5WJA8BGGqsBLxL7IgSM4fRpZ6rNZujnCs99NbIKJZPD9hXYmiijxH6wr%0ACQm97GZMyQ%3D%3D

says 18p/metre/year, so £180/km plus all the other costs

Yeah, it isn't a huge amount. So, realistically, you should be paying about the same as we do for them at those distances. Sounds remarkably like the company you got a price from wasn't quoting for the same product - maybe they were quoting for a PTP via their own network? So, MPLS or similar but not telling you that?

[Bob_the_Goon]

Hi @localzuk. When you say that you host all the servers centrally, are these in a data centre, Azure or are they in the Trust central office building? Perhaps a mixture of the three?

 

 

We have a single domain, with central servers (no servers on any school sites).

 

We do not use MLPS - it is an unnecessary technology really. We went with point to point leased lines. We found them cheaper. Basically, each school has a leased line that goes to the exchange and the exchanges link to each other. We pay less than £3k for 1Gbit from site to site for most of our schools.

 

We then have a leased line breaking out to the internet at our central site.

[localzuk]

Hi @localzuk. When you say that you host all the servers centrally, are these in a data centre, Azure or are they in the Trust central office building? Perhaps a mixture of the three?

Currently all in one of our schools (we don't have a central office building, Trust staff are spread across the schools).

 

We are moving to a cloudy future though, so the number of servers we're running is reducing all the time.

[ToweringTechy]

Interesting, wonder why.

 

I had £4000-5000 for 100/100 internet, and about 80% of that for p2p.

 

1000/1000 was about £8000

 

These were schools in the suburbs

 

The main reason is the ISP's dont have to worry about delegating bandwidth to your company/school. As its at the local exchange you are only going through that exhange and not being routed over an ISP's network across the country.

[Wave9_Lee]

My twopenneth as a WAN/Internet Provider -

 

If the sites are close, then a P2P can be slightly more cost effective than Internet links for each site, but you do have a slightly higher risk of multiple site failure. This is a similar situation with MPLS. The price difference between 1Gbps internet link, 1Gbps P2P link and 1Gbps MPLS link aren't miles apart these days (especially in urban environments). We are seeing a move to more independent connectivity and the use of VPNs because of the 'site survivability' this gives as well as flexibility, both in terms of management of slight differences between sites, and also resilience options. You can still manage centrally with the right solution.

 

As with all these things, it sort of depends on your location and your strategic direction. You should look at all your comms options before deciding whether one of your sites is going to be a 'data-centre' or you'll host in Azure or 3rd party DC.