sysop@hub:~/tools/small-office-blueprint$
small-office-blueprint
You are setting up an office, or you inherited one and wonder what is missing. Tell the page how many people work there and how. It draws the network, sizes the list of things to buy and gives you the checklist that decides whether the result is solid. Everything stays in your browser, and the link in the address bar keeps your answers and ticks.
the office
the network
One firewall, one layer of switches, and a zone for each kind of device. The firewall sits between the zones: what is not allowed there does not pass.
Turn these zones into an address plan
what to buy, and how big
| What | Size | Why this, why this size |
|---|
Sizes are rules of thumb for an ordinary office: mail, documents, video calls, a line-of-business application. Design studios, laboratories and anything with large files or machines need their own numbers. There are no prices and no brands here on purpose: both change faster than the principles.
done when all of this is true
in which order
- Accounts and multi-factor sign-in first. It costs the least and stops the most common break-in.
- Backup second, including the copy outside the office. Everything after this can go wrong without ending the company.
- Then the network: firewall, zones, Wi-Fi. Guest Wi-Fi separated is the quick win.
- Then the devices: encryption, updates, no local admin rights, central management.
- Write it down as you go. Documentation written afterwards does not get written.
A blueprint, not a design for your building. Laws and contracts may add requirements, for example on data protection, retention and who may see what. For a company with more than one site, or more than about a hundred people, the same ideas hold and the sizing does not. Related: IP plan builder, backup planner, RAID calculator, first 30 days as the new admin, the 20 helpdesk tickets, a snapshot is not a backup.