What are the questions that you will ask your client before starting a network design?

What the purpose of the network you need, Expected number of users and the budget of the project

Actually, the following points have to be clear before putting any Network design:

- How many users will be existing in this network?

- How many server will be existing in this network?

- What about the required ways of communication (like UC) through this network?

- What are the services that will be running through this network?

- Will there be any published services through this network?

- Do all users need to access internet according to business need?

There are a  number of questions that should be addressed during the discovery phase. An open dialogue is always the best approach, you want to encourage the customer to talk, be relaxed and open with information that will aid you during your discovery.

Some example questions maybe;

1 -.What are  your reasons for exploring new network providers? Are there any challenges within your current network you wish to address? For example resiliency, bandwidth, latency.

2 - Where are your business applications placed e.g. data centre, onsite?

3 - What remote business applications do you use across your network?

4 - Do you have any current cloud based requirements, or is this something you are looking to move too/explore as part of the new network design? E.g., Azure, AWS.

5 - Can you please tell me about your current office foot print?

6 - Do you have an understanding of site criticality for these locations. For example what is the impact to the business in the event that this site went down?

7 - What is your expected future growth over the next5 years?

8 - Internet requirements?

9 - Security etc.

First I want to see or obtain the current topology. ( if they are a current business, if not disregard)

I want to know what they want to achieve and what is the workplace data flow going to be like - will it be wifi mainly - going BYOD ? will they use or plan to use CLOUD services/products. do they want a hybrid cloud or no cloud ( will this change ?) - get this clarified and clear.

Do they have any current hardware, and can they be upgraded or can they manage what we want to achieve.

Next we want to see if they have thought forward, where do they see the business in5 years ( or less) will we cater for growth  or future requirements or business model change.

Once we know all that I would ask then to consider the new design and ensure they understand the fundamentals of that is being recommended.

I then want to clarify budget and if we can also make cost saving in the design by merging ro changing what we have designed to better meet the customers end result and reduce the capital cost - or leverage it. 

my main question will be  what's his preference about final format style . And technical details of the online destination.

First, need to check clients requirements like, how many users, devices, bandwidth needed and their budget 

Whats the size of the area to be networked e.g office 

How many users are there

First  of all you need to know customer requirement, like how many of nodes he want what kind of network he wants floor network, complete building network, multiple building network, ETC. Then you may get a idea what you are going to give him.