What steps would you take to scale a network to accommodate an organization's evolving needs?
As a senior network engineer, you are expected to have extensive knowledge about a network's limitations and the techniques to expand it. The interviewer will ask you this question to confirm this and to learn about how you go about scaling networks. They want to ensure that you are prepared to do this and that your techniques are efficient and economical. Senior network engineers are expected to be able to manage the organization's budget as well as its technology.
"I always anticipate that networks I manage will eventually grow and scale as the organization expands. One of the strategies I employ to accommodate this is planning for it and building additional capacity when installing a network. I'm careful to ensure that the additional capacity needed to scale has a minimal cost impact. Techniques I use include buying switching equipment with additional ports, running dark fiber which can be activated later with minimal disruption, and keeping some rack space empty and ready to accept additional networking hardware."
