Expert Tools Manufacturers - Assignment Example

The Expert Tools business has expanded a lot in recent years and there had been a long-standing requirement for fast communication facilities from various departments of the company. Marketing staff had to report the deficient tools to the managers in manufacturing and administrative departments for in-time manufacturing and trafficking of the tools and equipment to the concerned sectors in various cities. However, in the absence of networking facilities in the enterprise, these managerial and administrative activities were quite slow and often cause unwanted delays. The late submission of requirements to the manufacturing department ultimately results in late deliveries to the marketing staff and shops across Kingdom.

Requirement Analysis

The networking facilities are now indispensable requirements for the sustained, coordinated, and purposeful business environment in the company. The absence of enterprise-level networking facilities is directly contributing to business losses and they can also cause underutilization of valuable company resources. The establishment of the company-wide network will not only enhance the coordination but will also have a sound impact on the manufacturing and marketing activities in the company, thereby will result in business growth. The in-time deliveries of items in demand will improve the competitiveness of the client and will ensure a better business-oriented response by the company to the market forces.

Network Architecture and Design

A distributed network architecture design is chosen for Expert Tools. The client has business establishments across the Kingdom therefore; a Network Operations Center (NOC) will be established in the company's headquarter in Surrey. This Network Operation Center will act as the hub of company-wide networking facilities. It will maintain a Web Server, responsible to support all incoming users and request from outside the company headquarter. The Network Operations Center will all have a database server; this will act as the central data repository. Other major establishments include a sub-network at a manufacturing factory in Hampshire. This network will provide support to the local users of the networking and will also provide the access to NOC at the company headquarter in Surrey. All updates regarding the manufacturing factory will be sent online through the Hampshire Web Server to the Surrey Web Server and back. However, only authorized users of the system will be allowed to access these networking facilities. Another important network segment of the proposed network design is the establishment of IT Centers in various cities of the Kingdom. These IT Centers will be connected to the headquarters through a VPN connection over leased lines of their respective local telecommunication company. The role of these IT Centers is to provide network and resource access to various sales and services center users and local sales and services centers will be connected to IT Centers through a VPN Connection over the Internet. These users will access the IT Center Web Server through an internet connection provided by a local Internet Services Provider (ISP) and the IT Center Web Server will forward their data, requests, and updates to the Surrey Web Server and back. A network architecture diagram is hereby provided to sketch the company-wide proposed networking facilities;

Network Connection
There are three major sections of the network design for the company; NOC, IT Centers, and the Hampshire Factory. These sections are interconnected through leased lines of their local telecommunication firm. Web Servers on these network segments will communicate through this telecommunication firm and all the data will be transmitted using the same WAN cloud. There are various leased line bandwidths available with telecommunication firms and we have suggested a bandwidth of 10 Mbps. However, the users at each network segment i.e. the NOC, IT Centers and the Hampshire Factory will be locally connected through CAT 6 UTP Cable and Gigabit Network interface cards to their respective switches. These switches will be connected to the local Web server and the local routers using CAT 6 UTP Cable. Only the connection between the router and the firewall will be established using hardcore Fiber Optic cable to ensure speed at the congested network paths and to ensure the topological load balancing. The other major users of the network are the Kingdom-wide sales stores and service centers. The users at these stores and centers will connect to their local IT Centers' Web Server through a VPN connection using a normal internet connection. The IT Center Web Server will then respond to such requests itself or will forward these request to the headquarter through its leased line connection. Read More