IT Network Audits: Mastering Local Network Designs

IT infrastructure isn’t meant to limp along. It’s intended to power your business full throttle, delivering streamlined, secure, and reliable connectivity without compromise. Yet, far too often, organisations accept flaky wifi, patchy coverage, and sluggish speeds like they’re part of the deal. They’re not. And while integrating top-rated tech can provide a firm helping hand, it’s not enough to perfect your network foundation alone either.

That’s where a detailed network infrastructure assessment comes in. Focused on the access layer – the wired and wireless backbone that keeps different users and devices connected – this process digs deep to uncover where the biggest bottlenecks lie, so you can make informed decisions to level up your IT environment. Here, we dig deeper into these ground-level audits – what they are, why they matter, and how they pave the way for bespoke, high-performance network design.

You can’t build without a blueprint

Imagine you’re building a house. You wouldn’t go straight into constructing the walls without a solid foundation in place. Otherwise, anything you build on top won’t stand strong for long. You’d carefully inspect the land, understand the soil, survey the structure, and unearth any hidden issues that could cause problems later. And the fine-tooth combing wouldn’t end there. You’d carry the same rigour throughout the internal work too, meticulously mapping where electrical wiring, plumbing pipework, and ventilation systems should lie to keep everything running efficiently, safely, and exactly as intended.

Your IT environment is no different. Only once you know exactly what you’re working with can you create a design that’s built for the long haul. Most businesses skip this vital step, especially when it comes to local area network (LAN) and wireless local area network (WLAN) infrastructure. Instead, they bolt on fixes, layer over problems, and hope for the best, until eventually everything grinds to a halt. And we all know how catastrophic that can be.

What is a network assessment?

A network assessment, or IT network audit, is a granular dive into your local IT infrastructure. 

Exploring how everything connects, communicates, and performs at present, this methodical review strips away any assumptions and reveals the true shape of your current setup – everything from wireless coverage and access point placements to switch configurations and routing protocols. This way, decisions about upgrades or redesigns are not made blindly, but based on evidence.

Unlike a network vulnerability assessment, which focuses on identifying security risks and exposure points, this ultimate goal is to understand your local infrastructure’s health, capacity, and design, and ensure the foundation is strong, scalable, and ready for what’s next.

Prioritising local networks

By starting with a detailed LAN and WLAN assessment, we focus first on the local network – the environment users interact with every day. This includes the access layer, where devices connect, performance issues begin, and complexity tends to creep in unnoticed, with bolt-on fixes, legacy kit, and undocumented changes becoming hallmarks of growth. If your local network isn’t up to standard, it doesn’t matter how good your firewall or wide area network (WAN) is – the rest of your IT infrastructure doesn’t stand a chance. The challenge is already embedded inside the perimeter, and unless it’s uncovered early, it quietly undermines everything built on top of it.

To put this into perspective, think of your network infrastructure like a car park enterprise (stay with us here). Your LAN and WLAN are the internal spaces – normal and electrical, respectively – where people post up, connect, and interact. The barriers on the way in are your firewalls. This is where security checks happen, determining who gets let in and who stays out. And the approach leading into the site? That’s your WAN, which provides connectivity between your local network and the external world, including the internet or other office locations.

While everything comes together as a cohesive whole, each area plays a vastly different role. So, each needs to be assessed in its own unique way. You wouldn't audit the entry roads and assume the parking bays are lined and levelled, the lighting works, and the charging points are fully functional. The same goes for your network. And as the foundation of experience – the place where people want to park up, plug in, and get on with their day stress free – it makes sense to review your parking bays first.

How to review IT infrastructure on a local level

Understanding network architecture and how internal and external factors impact your IT environment is key to undertaking a thorough WLAN and LAN assessment. Using this insight, businesses can uncover not just what’s working and what isn’t, but why performance is suffering, laying the groundwork for targeted upgrades that make a measurable difference.

While every network infrastructure assessment is tailored to suit the needs of each company, a typical audit might look like this:

1. Gather visibility and access

Building a clear picture is a critical starting point. This means collecting any available documentation or network diagrams the organisation already has – even if they’re out of date. These help to understand the intended setup and can highlight early mismatches between theory and reality, such as undocumented changes, legacy hardware still in use, or inconsistencies in how the network is actually operating day-to-day.

At this stage, gaining access to the network infrastructure is also essential, allowing engineers to log into switches, controllers, and other core devices to begin the technical deep dive.

2. Map and analyse core infrastructure

This step involves mapping out the existing topology, particularly from the access layer’s perspective. Our engineers determine whether the design is Layer 2 or Layer 3, identify where wireless LAN controllers (WLCs) are positioned, and examine how other critical devices – including firewalls and load balancers – are connected into the core. If a local data centre is present, we’ll also review its relationship with the core to assess traffic flow, dependency paths, and how well the network is segmented.

Armed with this insight, we can develop an updated network diagram that accurately captures routing protocols, IP addressing schemes, multicast behaviour, and other architectural choices that may be impacting performance or scalability.

3. Assess the wireless landscape

With the WLCs identified, we’ll then dig deep into their models and configurations. Our engineers review how the wireless environment is managed, which access point model is is deployed across the estate, and whether the current setup matches user demands.

Often, we’ll also recommend a wireless site survey to augment this, assessing things like signal coverage, channel overlap, and interference risks. This way, we can build a high-performance network – designed for either voice and data or location tracking – that doesn’t just meet theoretical requirements, but works seamlessly in real-world conditions too.

4. Review the access layer

Next, we look at the access layer itself, identifying which switch models are in use and how they’re configured, including whether they operate as Layer 2 or Layer 3 devices. Using automation tools designed by our team, we’ll then detect unused ports and assess port density across the estate, so we can rationalise switches and remove unnecessary hardware accordingly.

In environments that have grown organically, this is often where hidden inefficiencies surface, making it a critical opportunity to streamline infrastructure, improve performance, and reduce ongoing operational overheads.

5. Deliver the network refresh roadmap

Finally, once the audit is complete, we’ll produce a detailed network assessment report that outlines our findings and recommendations. This report typically includes a refreshed bill of materials (BOM), indicating which core, access, and wireless components are needed to build a truly futureproof solution that scales alongside your business. Alongside the BOM, we create a tailored design and implementation plan that turns audit findings into clear, actionable steps, guiding the upgrade or refresh project with confidence. More than an IT network audit checklist, this strategic blueprint aligns your technology roadmap with your business goals, ensuring every investment drives genuine value – from improved performance and increased coverage to security enhancements and cost efficiencies.

But we don’t just hand you the plan and walk away. If you want a seasoned partner who really gets it, we’re ready to roll up our sleeves and make it happen. Our technically exceptional, detail-obsessed engineers manage the whole process, so you can focus on the day job without the stress of implementation. We can even deploy new systems in parallel to your current setup to keep things running smoothly throughout – because we know minimal downtime is a must, especially for our clients in high-stakes sectors such as healthcare and finance.

Diagnose before you design and deploy

Before you can improve your network, you need to understand it. That means benchmarking what’s there today – the performance, the layout, the weak spots – so you can make changes that actually make a difference. A detailed LAN and WLAN assessment gives you that baseline. It’s how you measure what’s working, what’s holding you back, and what needs to change to unlock better user experiences, simpler management, and a platform that scales with ambition.