Probably the most critical decision you will make for your Internet/Intranet system is how to design its network structure. Many companies overlook contingencies during a site's growth at its planning stages and are unprepared when their site receives a wave of hits in a single hour or over a prolonged period of time. Such sites can overload and bring down a server in a matter of minutes. Sometimes a site requires only a RAM upgrade, but if the supplier does not have it in stock, this can mean disaster.

A well planned strategy and structure should foresee and avoid such crises.

Arden is experienced at planning for such eventualities. We will help you create a long-term plan for the network that charts future fluctuations and targets growth issues before they happen. Factors we will look at include:

• ISP Selection -Arden will help you to choose an ISP with a solid track record, staying power and the performance you require.
• Internet Bandwidth Requirements - If you're considering hosting your servers locally, then size, timing, and equipment are important factors to look at when assessing your needs.
• Server Hosting - Often the deployment of servers on an ISP backbone will dramatically increase your performance (see Server Distribution).
• Virtual Servers - By distributing virtual servers throughout the Internet, sites can often not only increase their performance, but can guarantee themselves additional back-up redundancy and lower overall  costs.