Company Network Requirement - Case Study Example

Fiction corporation Lecturer: Table of Contents Table of Contents Executive summary 2 Fiction company networkrequirement 3 Scope of the network 3 Design requirements 5 Current state of the network 7 Logical design 8 Physical design 8 Network design testing 9 Implementation schedule 10 References 12 Executive summary Fiction Corporation is a large company retail corporation, which implies that the company requires a unique network system, one that will easily synchronize with its specific operations. The process of designing a network system begins with the specific consideration of the use for which the network is designed. A retail outlet such as the Fiction Corporation requires a highly versatile network system, which is simple enough for the comprehension of all its over ten thousand employees all of whom have different levels of education yet complicated and secure enough to uphold the integrity of the information it shares. Developing such a network therefore requires specific understanding of the different aspects of the network key among which is the speed of data communication. As it is, the company already has data center which implies that already the company has a provisional network system. The new system, which is to relocate the old center to new location, therefore needs to consider the specification of the previous network and use the five hundred thousand dollar investment to develop a new, state of the art data center, and an efficient network system. Furthermore, the relocation will include the transfer of all the data in the old data center to the new facility. The stage of data transfer presents a number of security challenges all of which the new system must address effectively in order to safeguard the satisfaction of the contractor. In brief, the new network attaches more importance in the security of the network, the retail Corporation demands a secure database, one that protects the integrity of the data both at the database and while streaming over the network, the design must therefore include effective security consideration (Paul, 2004). The design also requires developing a simple user interface to ease the operation of the system within the numerous employees of the facility. Besides the security and the simple user interface, the network requires high speed of data transfer. Speed is of an integral part of the network especially in such a large company. The chain store has five hundred retail branches all of which should have an efficient connection to facilitate high quality data communication. Fiction company network requirement Fiction Corporation requires a network system design using the state of the art technology. The network should improve the company’s operation . The project is necessitated by the fact that the chain store is transferring the data center to a new location. Additionally, the relocation implies that the company has grown and therefore requires a bigger information management system to handle the increasing flow of information. The design of the new system therefore must withstand the growth and the evident increase in information at the facility. From the above facts, the main goal of this project therefore is to design an information system, which provides a seamless transfer from the old headquarters to the new premises. The design for the new system must therefore have specific features that reflect the growth of the company by ensuring safety and the integrity of the information and permit faster exchange of data by different work stations. The two precise requirements of the network design compels the use of numerous network security mechanism and the purchase of new and improved equipment such as computers and routers. To facilitate tis, the contracting firm allocates five hundred thousand dollars a sufficient amount to complete the task and safeguard the specific features of interest to the client. Scope of the network Fiction Corporation has ten thousand employees and five hundred chain stores. This is the rough overview of the project scope. The network design must include these pertinent issues which imply that the system will have to handle a lot of information and be accessed by many employees. In doing these, the design seeks to address the speed of the network and the user interface while at the same time maximizing on security features to prevent any security lapses that may arise during the use. The many employees have different academic level and varying understandings of information system yet they all have to use the network effectively without compromising the quality of the information they handle. To address diversity in the many users of the network, the design will have a simply layout and an even simpler user interface. The numerous work stations in the data center will have a direct connection with a central database. Such a database safeguards the integrity of the data stored in it since should a mechanical complication arise, the problem ends with the work station and therefore does not interfere with the operations of both the database and other workstations within the network. This makes repair and reinstallation of work stations easier and less inconveniencing unlike with a decentralized database. Furthermore, such a database will have fewer wire connections because all the cables will have a direct link with the database thereby using the numerous routers merely to speed the flow of data and to access the virtual database developed by the cloud computing technology. The contractor allocates the project five hundred thousand dollars, the amount of the investment in the project further defines its scope. The design will therefore include the purchase of new facilities such as computers, external hard drives, routers and the local area network cables used to link the computers to the database. Additionally, the design includes some of the facilities shared by all the workstations, such facilities include faxes and printers among many other integrals information management tools. Design requirements Business goals Fiction Corporation is a retail chain store; it is a big business with its five hundred outlets spreading all over the region. The firm therefore requires a comprehensive information center, one that will handle all its unique operations by providing relevant information to whoever needs it despite their location in any of the five hundred branches. Due to the nature of the market, the company requires a secure and highly confidential network, which permit high speed data flow yet at the same time warding off unwarranted access of its databases. Technical goals The nature of the business makes the design a lot more complex. The five hundred stores have different geographical locations a fact that necessitates the development of a wireless wide area network. The problem with such networks is their weak signal strengths, which may at times result in communication lapses with the central database or become susceptible for unwarranted access by hackers. The design will therefore include the creation of smaller local area networks in the different stores spread all over the region and link these networks to the regional grid wirelessly through the use of routers. To achieve high speed data transfer, the design includes the use of new computers with higher processor speeds most preferably the new core i5 processor central processing units. The speed of the central database depends on the speed of the accessing computer. This therefore validates the need for a high speed processor. The design further advises a number of security mechanisms, which include the use of a number of firewalls. These prevent any streaming of the data either into or out of the network. An effective firewall system keeps the database free from unwarranted access thus outside interference. Additionally, the use of passwords hinders the navigation through the database thereby ensuring that only unauthorized personnel access specific information within the database. Passwords improve accountability since every work station has a unique password known only to the station operator; it thus becomes easier to investigate security breaches in the network. User communities and data stores The structure of the company provides for a number of user communities to the network. The facilities have ten thousand employees among which are administrators, cashiers and technicians among many others. However, these three categories form the most frequent users of the network. Administrators have universal access to every part of the database, they monitor the movement of information in and out of the facility and they therefore need unregulated access of the database. Cashiers and marketers on the other hand are like the foot soldiers. They have specific instructions and therefore need a restricted access of the database and have a preprogrammed use of the network. The different users of the network necessitate the need for different data stores within the network. The work stations have their own internal mechanism of storing data and this forms the primary data store in which an operator keeps rudimentary or provisional data, which they still need to ascertain before sending into the central database. These may be personal data thus of no relevance in the database. The database has data partitions commonly referred to as folders. Each folder contains specific type of data and is therefore of relevance to specific category of the network users. Passwords restrict the access thereby ensuring authorized access only. Network applications Being a general use network, the system should have specific application that are of relevance for administration among other essential aspects of operating a chain store. One such application is the video call, the network will have a high bandwidth data transfer coupled with higher speed computer processors which makes it possible for the facility to install high quality vide call applications to ease the administration process. Through video calls, the management saves time in supervising labor and while conducting board meeting thereby making the management more cost effective. The network will have additional applications to facilitate the operations of the facility including telephone services and secure line chat services to facilitate high level of consultations between the employees and the management thereby limiting the occurrence of errors. Besides the network applications, the smaller local area networks installed in the respective chain stores will have centrally placed facilities such as printers and faxes to enable easy production of physical evidence while encouraging sharing thereby making the operation more cost effective. Current state of the network The relocation is prompted by the current state of the network. It is evident that the corporation has outgrown the existing network. Just like the new facility, it is centrally placed and works on a secured wide area network to link the different outlets thereby facilitating communication and sharing of information between the different outlets. However, the management attests to the slow speed of data transfer and the highly susceptible security system. While the network employs an extensive firewall mechanism, the developing technologies make it easier to hack slower networks such as the one employed by the corporation. The network experiences failures and malfunctions arising from virus attack some of which result in total loss of data a feature that implies that the network had no effective antivirus. Additionally, the facility does not have an effective mechanism of reviewing their passwords thereby making them more susceptible for hackers. Logical design The new improved system design includes the use of state of the art computers with improved processor speeds. The network includes a highly efficient ISDN backup mechanism, which safeguards the longevity of the database even after viral attacks. To sustain the integrity of the data, the system includes an efficiently functioning and constantly updated antivirus to eliminate viruses. To keep the network fully functional and to monitor its operation, the new network incorporates the use of SNMP management system, which monitors the flow of data and reports any communication lapses in the network. The new system uses fiber optic cables unlike the old system. This revamps the speed of the data flow within the different local area networks than constitute the wide area network, which connects the five hundred outlets (Cahn, 1998). The additional network applications such as the video call and the telephone lines run concurrently within the data cables thereby using the existing infrastructure to improve the performance of the system. Physical design The network has a highly versatile physical design that fits the structure of any house that the corporation uses as its outlets. The fact that the network relies on the primary local area networks in the five hundred outlets implies that each of the stores will have an area network depending on its size and scale of operations. The new data center has a number of workstations too owing to the different levels of operations required to keep the network operational. However, all the data in the system have a central placement, which makes the data management process easier. Additionally, the operations of the network runs concurrently with backup mechanism, which comes into life, should the central database fail. The system therefore provides a connection between the two databases to allow a concurrent operation. The call center, which as the contractor advises is placed off location, will use similar technology. The different work stations fully fitted with operational telephone line have an in-house high speed local area network connected wirelessly via the routers to the data center. The customer service employees occupying the different work stations in this facility have a limited access to the database thereby ensuring that they have adequate information to keep the clients satisfied. The network regulates access to the different folders within the database with passwords assigned to every employee. Network design testing The test of the new network at the new datacenter showed tremendous improvements of the previous data center. The high quality video and voice calls promise both an effective management of the facility and improved service delivery thus an improved customer satisfaction. Additionally, the high speed of data communication provides a real time access of the database thereby eliminating the time lapse, as was the case with the previous network. The simple interface is easier to use and the use of the visual aids makes navigation through the database easier even to novice users. Despite this, the use of the passwords effectively regulates access to the folders constituting the data stores within the database. The use of antivirus on every computer within the system and the effective viral protection of the firewall prevent unwarranted access. This prevents the entry of any unwarranted files most of which are malicious and might contain viruses. The new network therefore promises greater longevity and integrity of the database. Implementation schedule The new network and the new data centers replace the old system a fact, which therefore requires an effective timing of every event to eliminate any time, constrains within the implementation process. The first most important activity in the entire project is the development and the furnishing of the data center. This lasts two weeks including all the purchases and the relevant connections (Serpanos & Wolf, 2011). After furnishing the new data center, the next stage is transfer of data from the old data center after which the improvement of the local area networks within the different retail outlets commences. This is also simpler as the entire networks within the shops require replacements. The employees will therefore use the old networks while the new networks. However, every completely replaced outlet begins to use the new facility owing to the availability of the data in the new database. Operational schedule Activity Duration Furnishing the new data center Two weeks Data transfer from the old center Two days Experiment and observation Three days Replacement of the LAN in the outlets Six weeks Project budget Firstly, the Wide IP accepts the tender only after ascertain that the amount in the tender is adequate to pay labor and to purchase all the equipment it intends to use in the project. The corporation planned to use five hundred thousand dollars on the entire project. The corporation has hired the building, which is to house the new data center. The amount therefore is entirely used in designing and developing the network. This includes the purchase of all the equipment used in developing the network and the labor charges. The amount is sufficient and conveniently purchases the new computers and the additional infrastructure, which make up the network the rest of the network system. The corporation will make money through the resale of its previous network, the system made use of the older generation computers most of which still exhibited the Pentium technology. From the resale of these computers and other facilities of relevance such as the routers and the cables, the corporation is likely to make a significant amount of money of undetermined value though. Additionally, the improved system promises cost effective operation and management of the facility, which therefore results in improved profitability of the corporation. The use of the numerous security features ensures that the data stays integral indefinitely and the new facilities included in the system safeguards their workability thereby cushioning the company from incurring repair costs, as was the case previously. References Cahn, R. S. (1998). Wide area network design: Concepts and tools for optimization. San Francisco, Calif: Kaufmann. Paul, B. (2004). Database Systems. Houndmills, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. Serpanos, D., & Wolf, T. (2011). Architecture of Network Systems. Burlington: Elsevier Science. Read More