Sky-R Group - Corporate Network Infrastructure

About the Project

Sky-R Group is a corporate client for whom we designed and built a complete network infrastructure from scratch. The project includes structured cabling with approximately 100 network cables, installation of a MikroTik RB5009 router, configuration of 5 VLANs for departmental segmentation, and migration from the old network with zero downtime. This is one of our flagship network projects, demonstrating an enterprise-grade approach for a mid-sized company.

Technologies

• MikroTik RB5009UPr+S+IN router (RouterOS)
• Managed Layer 2/3 switches with VLAN support
• Cat6 structured cabling (~100 cables)
• MikroTik WinBox / CLI for configuration
• Network monitoring tools

Architecture

• 5 VLANs for segmentation by department and function (management, accounting, operations, guests, servers)
• Inter-VLAN routing with firewall rules for controlled access between segments
• Firewall rules for inbound/outbound traffic and inter-VLAN security
• QoS configuration for prioritizing critical business traffic
• DHCP server per VLAN with reserved addresses for critical devices
• DNS caching for faster resolution

Results

• Zero downtime during migration from the old network - planned and executed outside business hours
• Complete traffic segmentation - each department in its own VLAN
• Centralized management via MikroTik RouterOS
• Documented network topology with IP plan and VLAN mapping
• Scalable architecture for future expansion

Why MikroTik and not a Cisco stack

For a company of this size the honest comparison is not "which brand is better" but "what does each euro of the network budget buy". An RB5009 with RouterOS covers inter-VLAN routing, firewalling, QoS, DHCP and VPN termination in one device, with no per-feature licence and no annual subscription to keep the firewall rules working. The savings went into the part that actually ages badly - the cabling.

The trade-off is real and worth stating: RouterOS rewards an engineer who knows it and punishes one who does not. That is a support model the client accepted knowingly, with documentation and a configuration export as part of the handover.

The zero-downtime migration

"Zero downtime" is a planning result, not a feature of the equipment. What made it work:

1. Full survey first. Every live device, every static IP, every printer and payment terminal with a hardcoded address was inventoried before anything was touched. Hardcoded addresses in accounting software are the classic thing that breaks a network cutover.
2. The new network was built alongside the old one. New cabling, new switches and the RB5009 were installed and configured in parallel, on separate uplinks, and validated before a single user was moved.
3. Cutover outside business hours, department by department, with the old path still available.
4. A rollback measured in seconds at every step - if a VLAN misbehaved, that department went back on the old uplink immediately.

The VLAN design

Segmentation was drawn along blast radius, not along the org chart. Accounting sits alone because a compromise there is a financial event. Guest traffic is routed straight out with no path into any internal segment. The server VLAN accepts connections only on the ports the business actually uses, and management is reachable only from a defined admin range - not from the general office network.

Inter-VLAN rules are written as an explicit allow-list. Anything not named is denied, which means adding a service is a deliberate act rather than something that quietly works because the network was flat.

Operational result

A year on, the network is still running the topology as documented. The IP plan and VLAN map were handed over as written artefacts, so a future engineer - ours or the client's - can read the design instead of reverse-engineering it from a live router.

What Makes It Special

The project showcases an enterprise-grade network solution delivered with cost-effective MikroTik equipment. The 5 VLANs provide security and performance on par with Cisco or HP solutions, but at a significantly lower cost. The zero-downtime migration demonstrates careful planning and execution.