SQL 2016 AlwaysON Availability Groups - Network configuration

Hello there

I'm in the process of upgrading my client's 2008 DB mirroring environment to SQL 2016. I've got an enterprise license and would like to set up AlwaysON availability for DR. I just want the basic AlwaysON configuration, not full database failover clustering.

So based on my research I need to set up Windows Failover Clustering on the Windows 2012 servers.

All I want is a similar set up for the mirroring architecture:
1 PROD server with 5 live databases
1 DR server with mirrors of the 5 live databases
Asynchronous with manual failover.

The problem we are having is in setting up the actual failover cluster. The IP address that is needed. We have big questions about this and how it needs to be set up.

The problem is that the PROD and DR servers are on completely different networks. So this common IP address, where does that get created, and does it need to be able to connect to both of the other servers (PROD and DR) seamlessly?

Here is what my network admin has said about the issue:

"One of the issues flagged out was the fact that we do need to have a common IP address for the cluster object and based on my readings, this IP needs to be one that can float to both servers and this would be the one that would be used by the applications that connect to these servers.
Due to our current setup, this is not possible and we would need to add a new VLAN to our networking environment, connect this VLAN to all our uplinks and to the enclosure uplinks, add it to the VM infrastructure and ensure we can connect to this VLAN from the rest of our VLANS."

I was told by a colleague who impletemented this same technology at his organisation that it isn't that complex and the DR (or secondary) could be on a completely different network (even a DMZ) and the failover clustering would work.

Any guidlines or insight into this situation would be most appreciated. We are stuck!

Many thanks in advance for your help
Maria
@SQLDBA_girl