Remote SupportManaged networks for
Australian businesses that need them to actually work.
Real Bytes runs a dedicated network engineering practice for Australian SMB and mid-market businesses. We design, deploy, and operate business networks on Cisco Meraki, Cisco driver, Ubiquiti UniFi, and HPE Aruba. Cisco-accredited at the SMB and mid-market level, and explicit about which platform is the right fit for the client in front of us.
What it looks like in practice: documented design, direct vendor procurement, staged off-site configuration, runbook-led cutovers, and a multi-year operating relationship rather than a single project. Coverage across Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.
The network practice, not the managed IT overview.
Helpdesk, identity, endpoints, Microsoft 365, backup, cybersecurity, vCIO. The general landing page for businesses looking at a managed IT relationship across the whole stack.
The dedicated network engineering practice. Cisco-accredited design, multi-vendor deployment (Meraki, driver, UniFi, Aruba), and lifecycle operations for businesses where the network specifically needs to be done right.
A network practice, not a marketing badge.
Plenty of providers list networking on their service page. Far fewer can show accredited engineering, documented design, and a real lifecycle practice behind it. This is what Managed Networks is built around.
- A network practice, not a network reseller
- Managed Networks is a dedicated discipline inside Real Bytes. Engineers who design, configure, and operate business networks every day, not generalists who occasionally touch a switch. The work product is documented design, predictable cutovers, and a network that behaves the same way in year three as it does on day one.
- Cisco-accredited at the SMB and mid-market level
- Real Bytes Pty Ltd is recognised as a Cisco SMB and Mid-Market Business Practice partner across Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. The accreditation is awarded against current Cisco design standards for businesses in the 5 to 500 staff range and reassessed on each renewal cycle.
- Multi-vendor by design, not by accident
- We deploy Cisco Meraki, Cisco driver, Ubiquiti UniFi, and HPE Aruba. The platform choice is made against the client's operating model, regulatory posture, and refresh budget, then committed to design documentation so the decision survives staff turnover on either side.
- Built for a five-year operating horizon
- Networks are designed and procured to operate predictably across a multi-year refresh cycle. Licence renewals, end-of-support announcements, and configuration drift are tracked from year one, not surfaced as a surprise at the renewal conversation.
The network work this practice actually covers.
Managed Networks engagements fall into a defined band of work. Below is the shape of the projects that fall under it, written practically rather than as a product list.
Office and site network refreshes
End-of-life switching and wireless replaced with current-generation Cisco, Meraki, UniFi, or Aruba hardware. Designed against documented business requirements rather than a like-for-like swap of whatever was there.
Multi-site connectivity and SD-WAN
Branch offices, retail sites, schools, and operational technology environments connected back to head office or cloud, with policy and security applied centrally. Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, driver SD-WAN, or vendor-appropriate alternatives depending on site count and routing complexity.
Business-grade wireless and guest access
Access points configured with role-based SSIDs, captive portals where required, and centralised visibility. Same operational standard across Meraki MR, UniFi U6/U7, and Aruba CX wireless. Designed for the density and behaviour the site actually sees.
Network edge security and segmentation
Firewalls and edge devices deployed with content filtering, intrusion prevention, VPN, and VLAN segmentation. Integrated with the rest of the client's identity, endpoint, and managed services stack rather than configured in isolation.
Voice, unified communications, and meeting rooms
Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams Phone, and meeting room hardware aligned to how the business actually uses voice and video. Network QoS configured to match, not left at defaults that fall over under load.
Lifecycle, licensing, and renewal management
Hardware end-of-support, software entitlements, and licence renewal tracked across the whole network estate. Renewals planned 12 months out so there are no surprise expiries and no surprise capital requests.
Cisco, UniFi, or Aruba. Decided against the client, not the engineer.
Managed Networks is multi-vendor by design. We are accredited on four platforms because no single one is the right answer for every business in our portfolio. Most partners default to whichever stack their engineers know best. We pick against the client's operating model, regulatory position, refresh budget, and the realistic state of their internal IT, then commit to that decision in the design documentation so it survives staff turnover on either side.
Cisco Meraki
Cloud-managed, dashboard-led, licence-funded- Where it fits
- Multi-site SMBs and mid-market businesses without an internal network engineer. Clients who value visibility and a single operating model across switching, wireless, security, and SD-WAN.
- Why we choose it
- The dashboard is the operating model. Configuration is centralised, the client can have read access if they want it, and the same admin workflow covers the whole stack. Lower steady-state operational overhead, which is usually what the client is actually paying us for.
- What to watch for
- Licence-funded. Hardware without a current Meraki licence is a brick. Renewal tracking has to be built into the managed service or you find the gap at the worst possible moment.
Cisco driver
On-premises, IOS-XE, full feature surface- Where it fits
- Clients with regulatory constraints, complex routing, or existing internal network engineering capability. Education, healthcare, manufacturing sites where the cloud dashboard model is the wrong fit.
- Why we choose it
- Lower per-port licence cost over a five-year horizon. Full IOS-XE routing, QoS, and segmentation depth. Local control without a cloud dependency, which matters in some regulated environments and in remote sites with unreliable upstream.
- What to watch for
- Higher operational overhead. Needs an engineer comfortable on the CLI, change management for configuration drift, and a documentation discipline that does not live only in someone's head.
Ubiquiti UniFi
Licence-free, on-premises controller or UniFi cloud- Where it fits
- Cost-sensitive SMBs, professional services firms, retail, and hospitality. Sites where the client wants enterprise-grade hardware without a per-device subscription, and the network complexity sits within UniFi's design envelope.
- Why we choose it
- No recurring per-device licence. Strong wireless and switching at a hardware price point that lets clients refresh more frequently. UniFi Identity, Talk, and Protect bring identity, voice, and CCTV into the same controller for the kind of SMB stack that previously needed three vendors.
- What to watch for
- Smaller feature surface than driver on advanced routing and segmentation. Controller and firmware management has to be disciplined. Best fit when the design genuinely matches UniFi's strengths, not as a Meraki substitute on price alone.
HPE Aruba
Aruba CX switching and Aruba Central wireless- Where it fits
- Mid-market and enterprise-adjacent clients with mature network requirements. Sites with ClearPass policy enforcement, AOS-CX automation, or existing HPE estate where extending the Aruba stack is the natural fit.
- Why we choose it
- Aruba CX is one of the strongest modern campus switching platforms. AOS-CX brings programmability and built-in network analytics that driver matches but UniFi does not attempt. Aruba Central provides cloud management where the client wants it without locking out CLI control.
- What to watch for
- Aruba Instant On is a different product line targeted at small business and is not interchangeable with Aruba CX. We use CX and Central for managed deployments. Instant On is a fit for very small sites only and we are explicit about that distinction in the design.
We also deploy and support hybrid environments where the design genuinely benefits from it, for example Aruba CX at the core with UniFi at the access layer, or driver routing with Meraki SD-WAN at the branch. Hybrid is considered on engineering merit, not because the engineer prefers one dashboard over another.
Procurement, design, deployment, operations. Owned end to end.
Accreditation is one input. Everything else is operational discipline. The same Brisbane team that designed your network is the team that procures the hardware, runs the cutover, and answers the phone in year three. Network work is not handed off to a different team or a different provider.
"Accreditation is a baseline. The reason a network actually runs well is documentation, lifecycle tracking, and the same engineer being on the account in year three."
- Procurement
- Hardware quoted through authorised distribution channels for each vendor we deploy. Real pricing, current stock, and accurate lead times on the quote, not placeholder figures revised after the order lands.
- Design
- Every engagement produces high-level and low-level network design documentation against the client's actual requirements. Diagrams, VLAN plans, IP schemas, and configuration intent handed over at project close. The client owns the documentation, not us.
- Deployment
- Configuration staged and tested off-site where possible. Cutovers run from documented runbooks with rollback positions defined before the change window opens. The team on-site is the team that designed the change, not a third-party installer.
- Operations
- Once in production, the network is run by the same Brisbane operations team that handles the rest of the client's managed services. Dashboard health, configuration drift, and licence position reviewed continuously, not at quarterly check-ins.
A network environment is a five-year operating relationship.
Managed Networks is structured as a multi-year operating relationship, not a project that finishes at cutover. The accredited partner is the easy part. The harder part is what happens between the install and the refresh. Most clients we take over from a previous provider arrive with surprise licence expiries, undocumented configuration drift, and a refresh discussion that arrived as a surprise capital request.
The phases below describe what running the relationship properly looks like across a five-year horizon. It is not a marketing framework. It is how the practice operates.
- Stage 01Year 1
Design, deployment, and documentation
Network designed against documented business requirements, hardware procured under accredited partner pricing, deployment staged off-site, cutover run from a documented runbook. High-level and low-level design artefacts handed over at project close. The client owns the documentation, not us.
- Stage 02Year 2
Steady-state operations and visibility
Configuration baseline locked in source-of-truth documentation. Change control on any modification, no matter how small. Meraki dashboard or driver Center monitored continuously, with anomalies routed to the Brisbane operations team. Monthly reporting to the client on health, capacity, and posture.
- Stage 03Year 3
Licence renewal and lifecycle planning
Cisco and Meraki licences are on staggered terms. Renewals tracked in the PSA twelve months out so the client has line of sight on the commercial position well before the renewal lands. End-of-sale and end-of-support announcements flagged at vendor publication, not at end of life.
- Stage 04Year 4 to 5
Refresh planning against business reality
Hardware refresh planned against business growth and headroom, not against the calendar. If the network is doing its job, replacement is staged across budget cycles rather than landed as a single capital event. If the business has changed, the replacement design starts from the current requirements, not a like-for-like swap.
Australia, PNG, and the Solomon Islands.
Managed Networks coverage. The accreditation is issued for three countries. Day-to-day operations run from Brisbane. Regional and offshore work delivered against the same engineering standards.
Day-to-day operations run from Brisbane. Engineers travel to regional and metro sites across the country for installs, cutovers, and site audits. Steady-state support delivered remotely from Australian engineers, not offshored.
Project delivery into PNG sites where the client has operations or partners on the ground. Network design and configuration work staged from Australia, with travel as the project requires. Coverage included on the certificate, not a stretched claim.
Same delivery pattern as PNG. Remote and regional sites supported through documented operational models that account for connectivity reality, not metro assumptions about always-on bandwidth.
Managed networks are now an Essential Eight requirement
The Verizon 2026 DBIR shows edge-device exploitation has become the leading initial access vector for Australian SMBs. Managed firewalls, switches and Wi-Fi with documented patching, configuration discipline and monitoring move that risk from likely to controlled.
Read the Verizon 2026 DBIR29%
29% of SMB breaches started with an unpatched edge device
Firewall, VPN and NAS patching needs an SLA, not a calendar reminder.
0 days
0 days median time from edge-device CVE disclosure to mass exploitation
Firewalls, VPN gateways and remote-access appliances are now hit at internet speed.
Top vector
Vulnerability exploitation now the leading initial access vector for breaches
Overtook stolen credentials in 2026. The patch backlog has become the front door.
Source: Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report. Dataset window Oct 2024 to Nov 2025. 31,000+ incidents and 22,000+ confirmed breaches across 145 countries.
Managed Networks, plainly explained.
Planning a network project, or rethinking the one you have?
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