|  | 7.1 | The Administrative Side of Network Management
| 7.1.3 | Costs of a network
Network administration encompasses many responsibilities, including cost analysis. This means determining not only the cost of network design and implementation, but also the cost of maintaining, upgrading, and monitoring the network. Determining the cost of network installation is not a particularly difficult task for most network administrators. Equipment lists and costs may be readily established; labor costs can be calculated using fixed rates. Unfortunately, the cost of building the network is just the beginning. Here are some of the other cost factors that must be considered: Network growth over time; technical and user training; repairs; and software deployment. These costs are much more difficult to project than the cost of building the network. The network administrator must be able to look at historical and company growth trends to project the cost of growth in the network. A manager must look at new software and hardware to determine if the company will need to implement them and when, as well as staff training needs to support these new technologies. The cost of redundant equipment for mission critical operations should also be added to the cost of maintaining the network. Think of running an Internet based business that uses a single router to connect to the Internet. If that router fails, your company is out of business until that router is replaced which could cost the company thousands of dollars in lost sales. A wise network administrator might keep a spare router on the premises to minimize the time his company is offline.
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