A growing community centre in West Yorkshire approached Unified IT to resolve persistent network reliability issues and support an upcoming building expansion. After more than 25 years of gradual development, their IT infrastructure had become fragmented, inconsistent, and increasingly unstable.

Unified IT delivered a structured network redesign and infrastructure upgrade that significantly improved performance, eliminated recurring faults, and established a scalable foundation for future growth.

The organisation faced several interconnected issues that had developed over time.

The existing server room housed a full-size rack that was largely redundant. Most legacy servers had already been decommissioned, leaving only a single active server in operation.

As part of the centre’s expansion plans, the room was required for a different function. The oversized rack needed to be removed and replaced with a more space-efficient solution.

Over the past 25 years, the building had been extended multiple times. With each expansion:

• New cabling was installed

• Additional small racks were added in different areas

• Extra switches were uplinked back to the main rack

This resulted in a patchwork network with no unified design, limited visibility, and inconsistent standards across the site.

The centre regularly experienced:

• Wired network dropouts

• Unstable Wi-Fi coverage

• Random device disconnections

• Ongoing user frustration

Consumer-grade equipment, including devices from Netgear and TP-Link, was deployed across the site.

The firewall, a Smoothwall appliance, frequently blocked legitimate services and created operational disruption that was difficult to diagnose.

The impact was significant. Members of the senior leadership team had begun working from home rather than from the office due to persistent instability.

Unified IT delivered a structured, enterprise-grade network redesign built around reliability, performance, and scalability.

• Removal of the large legacy rack

• Installation of a compact wall-mounted rack

• Standardisation of switching across the building

This simplified the physical environment and created a clean, manageable foundation.

The new solution was built around a unified platform from Ubiquiti:

• Site-wide UniFi switching

• A UniFi Dream Machine Pro (UDM Pro) firewall

• New UniFi 7 wireless access points

• Continued use of suitable existing UniFi access points, with upgrade recommendations aligned to future funding phases

This established a centrally managed network with full visibility and consistent performance standards.

During implementation, significant cabling deficiencies were identified, including:

• Poor-quality terminations

• Custom-made patch leads failing testing

• Inconsistent module standards

Unified IT carried out:

• Comprehensive cable testing

• Re-termination of multiple network modules

• Replacement of non-standard patch leads

Addressing these underlying physical issues proved critical in eliminating the root causes of historical dropouts.

The project was carefully planned and delivered over a three-week period.

This structured approach ensured a smooth transition with no significant service interruption.

The improvement was immediate.

When asked whether the network had remained stable and whether any Wi-Fi issues had been reported following completion, the client’s response was:

“Overall perfect.”

• No reported disconnections

• Stable wired and wireless connectivity

• Centralised network visibility via the UniFi Controller

• Significantly improved user experience

• Senior staff confidently working from the office again

• Improved reliability across daily operations

• Reduced IT-related frustration for management and users

• Infrastructure fully prepared for building expansion

• Enterprise-grade firewall and security performance

• Centrally managed, cloud-based network platform

• Future-ready Wi-Fi infrastructure

• Clean, simplified rack environment

• Scalable foundation to support continued growth

The network is no longer a daily frustration. It is now a dependable asset supporting growth and operational confidence.

Unified IT specialises in transforming fragmented, unreliable IT environments into stable, future-ready infrastructure.
Through structured planning and enterprise-grade deployment, legacy complexity was replaced with clarity, performance, and scalability.
The result is technology that supports growth — not daily disruption.