Consulting
Architecture & Design
High-level and detailed designs for campus, wireless, data center, WAN and SASE, and cloud connectivity, with every trade-off documented and every decision explained.
Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute scoping call.
When a design engagement helps
- You are refreshing a campus or data center network and want the design to outlast the hardware.
- A new site, facility, or data center needs a network designed before construction decisions lock it in.
- A segmentation, SASE, or SD-WAN initiative needs a design the whole organization can implement consistently.
- Your team knows what it wants to build and wants a senior architect to pressure-test and document it.
What we design
Designs are built from proven patterns and adapted to your requirements, your sites, and the way your team operates.
Campus networks
Core, distribution, and access design, and 802.1X network access control for offices and facilities.
Wireless
Predictive design, onsite validation surveys, and Wi-Fi 6E and 7 planning for the density and devices you actually have.
Data center networks
Spine-leaf fabrics, virtualization and storage connectivity, and interconnect between sites.
WAN, SD-WAN & SASE
Site connectivity, transport selection, path control, where a SASE or SSE platform fits, and resilience that does not depend on a single carrier.
Cloud connectivity
Private connectivity, transit architectures, and consistent policy across cloud platforms.
Segmentation & security
Zones, policy models, firewall placement, OT boundaries, and the enforcement points that make them real.
What you receive
Documentation that an implementation team can build from, whether that team is Metis, your own engineers, or a partner.
- High-level designThe options considered, the recommended architecture, and the trade-offs behind it.
- Detailed designTopology, addressing, routing, policy, naming, and configuration standards ready for implementation.
- Bill of materialsHardware, licensing, and circuit requirements, kept vendor-neutral until a selection is made. Metis sells none of it.
- Design reviewStructured sessions with your engineers, security team, and vendors to validate the design.
- Implementation handoverThe artifacts an implementation team needs to deliver the design as intended.
How the engagement runs
The same four-phase discipline as every Metis engagement. Design is the architecture phase; implementation is a separate engagement, by us or by whoever you choose.
How we workUnderstand
Design engagements begin by confirming requirements: the applications and users the network must serve, the constraints of the sites and budgets involved, and the standards already in place.
Architect
The high-level design comes first, with options and their trade-offs, so the important decisions are made deliberately and early. Only then do we develop the detailed design, working closely with your engineers so the result reflects how your team operates.
Enable
Every design is reviewed with the people who will run it before it is finalized, and the implementation handover gives whoever builds it, your team, a partner, or Metis, everything they need.
Questions we are asked
The questions that come up on most scoping calls for design work.
Can our own team, or another firm, implement the design?
Yes. Every design is written to be built by whoever you choose: your engineers, a partner, or Metis. The implementation handover contains the artifacts an implementation team needs, and we are available to review their work.
Do you design for specific vendors?
Designs stay vendor-neutral until a platform is chosen, then become specific to it. We work daily with the platforms shown on the home page and hold no partner status with any of them. Metis does not sell or resell hardware, software, or circuits, and takes no referral fees or commissions from anyone who does. A bill of materials from us is a recommendation, and you buy from whoever you choose.
Do you do wireless surveys?
Yes. Predictive design for new or changed spaces, onsite validation surveys after installation, and Wi-Fi 6E and 7 planning for the client devices you actually have.
We have an MSP. How does design work with them?
The MSP keeps operating the network. We produce the design, review it with them, and, if you want continuity, hold the design standards through a retainer so changes are checked against the architecture.
How is design work priced?
As a fixed fee against an agreed scope. The high-level design and the detailed design can be scoped as one engagement or two, so the big decisions are settled before the detailed work is paid for.
Related services
Start with a 30-minute scoping call.
Tell us where you’re headed and what’s in the way. A senior engineer will call to understand your situation, not to pitch.
- We read your message and reply to arrange the call at a time that suits you.
- A senior engineer joins the call to understand your environment and what you are trying to achieve.
- If there is a fit, you receive a written proposal with scope, deliverables, and price. If there is not, we say so and point you in a better direction.