The Perfect IT Network?

[HelloWill]

We are an innovation company and we pride ourselves with disrupting industries and forward thinking. We need help simplifying our network and making it easy. In our mind, our network infrastructure should be like oxygen: you need it to live but you don't have to think about it. Our vision is to have everything so simplified and centrally managed that we literally wouldn't need IT staff full-time. SSO, simplified backups and storage, the works. Easy, simple, centralized. I want to throw out the status quo of existing networks and build the perfect Oxygen infrastructure. Let's consider our network an open canvas where money is no object, what is the way that everything simply works? How can we set it up so we don't have to constantly worry about it? What does an ideal network look like? Where is the IT industry going and how do we create the future?

Network Map: http://imgur.com/egGZHZd

 

[USAFRet]

Our vision is to have everything so simplified and centrally managed that we literally wouldn't need IT staff full-time.

That exists only in the mind of a CEO.
If he has a good IT staff, he will never see 'the network', hence the thought process of not needing an IT guy/staff. But when things go wrong, and they will, it is the job of the IT guy to head it off and keep things running.
Backups, automatic failover to a hot spare, configuring user roles/rights.....and a thousand other things.

But things will go wrong.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Before I even start looking at this, please don't use 'Project Oxygen'.

 

[USAFRet]

How can we set it up so we don't have to constantly worry about it?

You do that by handing that worry off to the guy whose job it is to worry about it.

Similarly, you (the creative staff?) don't worry about the tax load, because you handed that headache off to the accountant.
Or you don't worry about building office chairs and desks, because you bought them from the guy or company that does that.
Or you don't worry about the building heat, because that is what you pay the building manager to do.

If this 'innovation company' is more than 3 people, you probably need some IT guy.

 

[Pinhedd]

We are an innovation company and we pride ourselves with disrupting industries and forward thinking. We need help simplifying our network and making it easy. In our mind, our network infrastructure should be like oxygen: you need it to live but you don't have to think about it. Our vision is to have everything so simplified and centrally managed that we literally wouldn't need IT staff full-time. SSO, simplified backups and storage, the works. Easy, simple, centralized. I want to throw out the status quo of existing networks and build the perfect Oxygen infrastructure. Let's consider our network an open canvas where money is no object, what is the way that everything simply works? How can we set it up so we don't have to constantly worry about it? What does an ideal network look like? Where is the IT industry going and how do we create the future?

Network Map: http://imgur.com/egGZHZd

What you describe can't be done.

Every C level exec with a double digit IQ views the IT department as unproductive because it doesn't contribute to their bottom line. This is a classic mistake and has led to the downfall of more than one medium sized business. The IT department exists for a reason, to handle the aspects of infrastructure that can't be automated.

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

Is this a sales pitch?

There's no such thing as one-size-fits-all in corporate IT. The requirements of the business need to work in harmony with IT, and the requirements will vary from business to business and even department to department. All that needs to be managed by someone.

A good IT team will keep everything ticking over without anyone noticing a problem, even if the team is tearing their hair out. I'm a Network Administrator and I can tell you that only a fool would undervalue IT, the underpinning of just about every business in the world.