RemotePractice 03: Infrastructure modernisation
When the environment no longer fits the business, rebuild it properly.
Networks bolted together over years, servers past support, identity split across systems. Modernisation isn't a forklift upgrade. It's a documented environment that fits how you work today, and how you'll work in three years.
Designed, documented and handed over.
- Design first
- Runbook cutovers
- You own the documents
Reviewed by Blake Bath, General Manager, on 31 October 2026.
What we modernise
Six disciplines, one documentation standard.
Every project ends with the same documents, and you keep them.
Network design and rebuild
Cisco, UniFi or Aruba, matched to how the sites actually work.
- Design
- Build
- Handover
Cloud moves
File shares and apps moved in a planned order, not a big bang.
- Runbooks
- Staged
- Tested
Identity consolidation
Active Directory to Entra ID, tenants tidied up.
- Entra ID
- MFA
- Baseline
Server retirement
Old servers decommissioned with data handled properly.
- Data
- Archive
- Empty rack
OT integration
Plant, cameras and building systems on a separated network.
- Segmented
- Controlled
- Logged
Wi-Fi and cabling
Survey-led, with PoE and growth planned in.
- Survey
- PoE
- Headroom
Is it time to modernise?
Eight signs your infrastructure still fits.
Tick what's true today. Three or more gaps usually means it's time to plan a rebuild.
Tick what's true for your business today. If you're not sure, leave it unticked.
Where you stand
0of 8 signs in place
8 gaps to close.
- Nothing important is out of vendor supportUnsupported gear stops getting security fixes.
- There's a current network designYou can't change what nobody can describe.
- One identity for everyoneMost modernisation fails at identity.
- No server is a single point of failureOld servers fail at the worst time.
- Wi-Fi covers the whole siteDead spots cost time every day.
- Cameras, doors and plant are separatedFlat networks let problems spread.
- The design has room to growOtherwise every change is a rebuild.
- You'd get documentation at handoverSo any provider can pick it up.
Why it matters
An environment nobody can describe is one nobody really owns.
Many businesses have spent a decade paying for small fixes on an architecture that was never updated as they grew. Each year looks reasonable. Five years together don't.
The value of modernisation is in what comes after: a documented environment another provider could run tomorrow, that supports an insurance renewal, an audit or a sale without weeks of preparation.
In the field
An independent secondary school in regional Queensland, 480 students across two campuses.
An environment built up over twelve years: three generations of switching, two wireless platforms, a domain controller on hardware out of vendor support, and a backup target on a SAN nobody had touched in four years.
A six-month programme. New Cisco Meraki MX, MS and MR across both campuses. Identity moved from on-premises Active Directory to Entra ID, with hybrid join during the transition. File services moved to SharePoint and OneDrive against a documented retention model. The old domain controller was retired, and the second campus's server room became a network closet.
Project documentation went to the school's IT coordinator at close. Quarterly reviews now run against the design, not against incidents, and three years on the environment still matches the documentation.
Outcome: annual run cost down 22% on the old environment, with better wireless coverage and a defensible position for the school's annual external audit. Client anonymised.
The detail
The service pages under this practice.
- Infrastructure design
No single point of failure.
Read more - New office setup
Moves, fit-outs and cabling.
Read more - Managed networks
Meraki, Catalyst, UniFi and Aruba.
Read more - Cloud services
Servers and cloud.
Read more - Zero trust
Identity-first access.
Read more - Cameras and OT
Protect cameras and plant networks.
Read more
How a project runs
Design, build, hand over.
- Step 1Review
What's there and what it does.
- Step 2Design
High and low level, priced.
- Step 3Build
Staged, runbook-led cutovers.
- Step 4Hand over
Documents you own.
Other practices
Modernisation is one of three. The other two.
Same team.
Get help your way
Six ways to reach us. Pick whichever suits you.
Helpdesk hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm AEST. On Advantage and above, emergencies get a response within 1 hour and outages within 2, with 24/7 best-effort escalation.
- Call 07 3114 2808
An engineer answers Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm AEST. After hours, weekends and public holidays, Chip, our AI agent, answers on the same number or on 07 3180 0965, logs it and escalates urgent incidents to the on-call engineer.
Call now - Email the helpdesk
Send it to helpdesk@realbytes.com.au and a ticket is logged straight away, with a reference number you can quote.
Email us - Client portal
Log and follow your tickets, see what we are working on and who has it.
Open the portal - Remote support
When an engineer asks to see your screen, start a secure session here. You start it, so nobody sees your screen until you do.
Start a session - Chat in Microsoft Teams
Clients can message Chip, our AI assistant, in Teams to log a request without leaving their desk.
How clients reach us - Service status
Check whether Microsoft 365 or another cloud service is down before you lose an hour troubleshooting.
See live status
Questions
What people ask about modernisation.
What does infrastructure modernisation cover?
Network design and rebuilds, moves to the cloud, consolidating identity into Entra ID, retiring old servers, Wi-Fi from a site survey, and bringing cameras, doors and plant onto a properly separated network.
Which network brands do you use?
Cisco Meraki and Catalyst (we're a Cisco SMB and Mid-Market partner), UniFi (we're a UniFi Enterprise Partner), and HPE Aruba where it's already in place. The brand is picked to fit the business.
What do we get at the end?
A high-level and low-level design, the configuration baseline, a runbook and a handover document. You own all of it.
How is it priced?
Against a documented scope with a fixed change process, so there are no surprise change orders at the end.
Next step
Outgrown your setup?
Talk to us before you buy anything. We'll start with what you have.
Keep reading
Reviewed by Blake Bath, General Manager, on 31 October 2026. Real Bytes' own service, checked 31 October 2026.