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Hiring a Freelance Network Architect

Why and when to hire a freelance Network architect

A network architect is a core member of the architecture and digital transformation team, involved in helping deliver excellent network solutions to customers. Responsible for design, deploy, maintenance and optimisation of network infrastructure including performance monitoring and network security.

Expert ability in translating business requirements into complex technical solutions spanning engineering, design, integration, commoditization, infrastructure consolidation and network transition.

The network architect specializes in technical analysis, consultation on planning, designing, implementation and delivering network solutions and services around Data Center technologies.

Act as network domain specialist defining technical solutions, estimate costs and transition efforts in addition to producing network designs based on business needs expressed by clients, in collaboration with service providers.

Demand for connecting fixed and mobile devices to networks is getting bigger, more complex and projected to exponentially grow with IoT. Next-generation network models and designs need to be ubiquitous, scalable, secure and easy to support.

Find and hire the best and most qualified network architect freelancers through Outvise paying only for the time/project you need them.

Certified Network architects in the Network

case study
Unified orchestration solution to support network virtualization and cloud technologies.

Challenge, Context, Problems to be solved

  • A leading Telecom operator was in the midst of a large scale project to create a single unified orchestration solution to support their network virtualization and cloud technologies.
  • The project aimed to deliver the benefits of automation, digitization and simplification in the mobile core and the B2B domains.
  • By implementing Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), it will enable them to offer on-demand, cloud-based network services to enterprises, thereby achieving those objectives.

Mission, tools and methodology

The operator's sales process for enterprise services was highly manual, with OSS, BSS and the network remaining separate islands in the business. This impedes agility, slows innovation and drives operational costs higher than necessary.

The operator's focus for business services up to this point had been the sale of traditional connectivity products to large enterprises, such as VPNs over IP-MPLS and bandwidth-on-demand. But to successfully extend their business offerings to mid-sized enterprises, SMBs and even SOHOs, they understood they would need to cut both time to market and the high cost of service innovation.

This would require automating existing lengthy manual processes for introducing connectivity and mobile core applications. An additional objective was to create new revenue streams and increase customer stickiness. To achieve this, I worked to introduce virtualized and cloud-based offerings, including network-as-a-service like software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), virtualized CPE (vCPE), security and other value-added services (VAS).

This operator was using Huawei for EPC and IMS in the mobile core as well as for all core VNFs and hardware for NFV infrastructure. An NFV solution that orchestrates the mobile core, including vEPC, vIMS and hardware, to automate operations as well as to ensure full integration for assurance systems was designed.

In addition, technical expertise and project management for integration of all the different components required for the successful implementation of the project were provided.

Achieved results

The NFV solution driven by the NFV orchestration platform also supported the operator’s plans to introduce network as a service (NaaS) to offer on-demand, cloud-based network services for business customers from an array of network software providers. In return, customers benefited from self-service portal and digital marketplace with integrated management, ordering and end-to-end orchestration.

Must have Network Architect Skills

  • Data Network Designs (LAN, WAN, SAN, Wireless, Data Centre, SDN, NFV).
  • Network Services such as load balancing, firewalls, WAN optimisation and SD-WAN tie-in.
  • Network Application Performance Monitoring (NAPM) toolsets for proactive monitoring and alerting.
  • Knowledge of the OSI model and the main network protocols and services: TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, SDN, BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, RIP1&2, VLAN, VTP, Trunking, Port-Channeling, Spanning tree, FabricPath etc.
  • Thorough knowledge of the management and support of routers, switches, load balancer to and next-generation firewalls (Cisco, Checkpoint, Palo Alto, etc.).
  • Technical Analysis.
  • Requirement Analysis.

Responsibilities of a Network Architect

  • Maintaining and managing all network related problems to ensure smooth operation of networked infrastructure.
  • Developing and maintaining complex network design for hosted and delivery platform services.
  • Act as an expert on Network Architecture service improvement, integration and optimisation (analysing weaknesses and providing system improvement recommendations).
  • Technical lead in network solution including providing design input, collaborating with business owners, analysts and customer services on projects.
  • Evaluate new technological developments and evolving business requirements.
  • Provides high-level specialised technical support and consultation to business and IT Management.
  • Responsible for vendor relationship management, negotiations, tracking, troubleshooting and reporting of all network technology related contract commitments.

Network Specialist challenges include adjusting network designs and support strategies to tackle:

  • Poor Network Performance issues
  • Security
  • Configuration Management
  • Costs
  • Growth and Scalability
  • Vendor Lock-in