Enterprise Networking
 

Just curious if anyone can recommend any books on managing enterprise networks. High level of course, something like the idiot's guide to Networking in the Enterporise. It is something that is about to be placed on my boss's plate, and he knows nothing about networks at all. So I figure I will at very least be responsible for managing the networking staff, and to do that I'd kind of at least like to understand what they are doing from a high level.

I know the roles of the various hardware components(routers and such), but have little direct experience configuring them or achitecting a network. We're talking about a twenty or so servers on a network that services four distinct locations around the country. Right now most of the communication between sites is handled over the internet via VPN. The current configuration has been cobbled together by a Network Administrator who has complicated the process to the point that no one else can actually work on the Network.

If you visit Cisco's website, they have a lot of good, getting up to speed type information on networks in general, not just their stuff. You might want to look at what they have as recommended reading for their CCDA (Cisco Certified Design Associate) certification. This is a good, entry level kind of cert on how networks work, and how to think logically on how to assemble one.

This should help:

Cool Cartman, Thanks for the tips. After the initial surprise that there was about to be a coup to take over the Network Admin's responsibilities I took a few deep breaths, and visited a few sites including Amazon and Cisco. I also realized that the most expedient course of action might be to actually bring in a certified Cisco Engineer, and have them evaluate what we have.