Discussion
Cookie Co. is one of the most recognized chain stores of cookies that have their businesses all over the country. They are spreading and flourishing their businesses through out the country. However, they are experiencing a major frustration for slowing down of data network connectivity (Bocker 2012). Apart from this problem, they are also suffering from unreliable and distorted voice calls. These are mainly due to issues in the network. This is a challenge for both the employees and their customers.
The following report outlines about the up gradation in the infrastructure of network for Cookie Co. The IT infrastructure they have now is not at all feasible for accepting the modifications and changes. Moreover, these changes made to the existing infrastructure would be extremely costlier and Cookie Co. does not have the budget. This report focuses on the detailed recommendations of network infrastructure. The report also covers the proposed four types of services of network. The several data processing facilities are also mentioned in this particular report.
- Network Convergence and Unified Communications: Cookie Co. provisions the service of their communication in the company by simply utilizing one single network. The integration of several telecommunications, data communication and various services for broadcasting is the main task of network convergence. Moreover, it also integrates Internet (Rizzo and Lettieri 2012). Convergence allows this particular organization in successfully carrying out their businesses. Moreover, convergence also enables for the interaction with the society.
The head office will support the major requirements of network of the particular company. Six-2U storage rack will be contained in the main server. The main server will be in return contained in the head office (Bocker 2012). This particular act will be promoting successful operations in their company. The main switch and the server, both of them have a direct connectivity between each other. This direct connectivity will be acting as a bridge between the various devices and components of network. The main feature of the switch is that it would be having 1X24 connections. Any one port of this particular switch will be passing through the firewall and will be connecting to the router for any type of Internet access. The second port of the switch will be utilized for all types of wireless connectivity (Rizzo and Lettieri 2012). Adherence to IEEE 802.11n is mandatory for this second port. The third port will be connecting to the Local Area Network of the office.
- LAN Type and Cabling Plan: The best recommendation for the case study of Cookie Co. is the Ethernet cable. The Ethernet cable is same as the cables of telephone. However, this particular Ethernet cable has a lot more number of wires than telephone cables. The main advantage of Ethernet cable is that it helps in the connection of the various devices within a local area network (Stephens et al. 2012). The Ethernet cables effectively and simply connects the several routers, switches, systems and computers. Accessing an Ethernet port is done by the presence of an Ethernet card in the motherboard. This Ethernet port is present in the computer system. The major functions of Ethernet cables are to provide good performance, the improvement in the performance and the perfect and successful security alongside all types of interference of electricity. These types of cables will be helpful for Cookie Co. and are absolutely resistant from the cracks. Moreover, this will even simply the transfer of files and thus the applications that are critical can be accessed easily (Rizzo and Lettieri 2012). The Ethernet cables will also improvise the overall productivity of the branch offices as well as also the head office. Several applications can run simultaneously by the help of Gigabit Ethernet cables. The company will be in huge profit if they will opt for Ethernet cables.
- WAN Connection: Wide Area Network or WAN is the network connectivity over a larger area. The geographical area is larger in respect to Local Area Network or Metropolitan Area Network. There are several types of wide area network like cable modem, DSL, Frame relay, SONET, leased line, ATM, ISDN and many more. Cookie Co. will be getting the benefit of wide area network if they will set WAN in the branch offices and head office (Miller 2012). The main advantages of WAN include centralization of information technology infrastructure, boosting of privacy, increment in bandwidth, and eradication of the requirement of ISDN and cost effective.
- Transmission Media: Transmission media is the method or way for allowing any type of data transmission without the help of any physical means for defining the path. There are various types of transmission media like coaxial cables, phone lines, optical fibers and twisted pair cables. The best recommendation of transmission media for Cookie Co. is the optical fibers (Barnoski 2012). Optical fiber is the most flexible fiber that helps the light signals to be sent with almost zero effort. This type of fiber has a glass core. The main advantages of optical fiber include sending light signals, less complexity, cost effective and are immune to electromagnetic interference. These advantages would be extremely beneficial for Cookie Co.
- DNS and IP Management: Several tools for managing the network can be utilized for Domain Name System and the management of IP address. The tools for management of address will be managing the Domain Name System, MAC address and IP address (Kuhlenkamp, Klems and Röss 2014). The best tool for monitoring the network is OpUtils. This is an extremely effective and efficient tool for managing any type of Domain Name system and management of IP address.
Cookie Co. can deploy four types of networked services like Voice over Internet Protocol, Intranet, Extranet and Email network services. The first option is the Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP and various links that are wireless for the connection of the business to the respective telecommunication networks. VoIP will be allowing the particular business for better performance and minimum consumption of power (Sinnreich and Johnston 2012). Moreover, another purpose of implementing Voice over Internet Protocol is to deliver the voice communications and several multimedia sessions over the Internet Protocol. The popular example of this is the Internet. The main advantage of this Voice over Internet Protocol is to enable the branch offices and the head office for communicating in an extremely cost effective and simple way. This advantage will be responsible for improving the overall productivity and the business operations of the organization. Moreover, Voice over Internet Protocol will be providing scalability and flexibility, which will be responsible for the integration of branch offices and head office. The other advantage that Cookie Co. would be getting from VoIP is the exchange of the files and documents in a video conference in an effective manner. This will increase the operational efficiency of their business (Jelassi et al. 2012). The main problem that Cookie Co. is facing the distorted voice quality, this will be eradicated with the help of Voice over Internet Protocol.
Network Infrastructure
The other three options that Cookie Co. can deploy are the network services of Intranet, Email and Extranet. Intranet will be enabling the staffs of that business for accessing a particular network, which is private to the organization (Rekhter et al. 2016). The improvement of the internal communication is done by Intranet. This will lead to the betterment of productivity of the business. Moreover, the customer service will be improved. The private network will be extended by the Extranet. The customer loyalty will also be improved by Extranet. The third option is the Email services. Deploying this particular service will be another biggest benefit to Cookie Co. This service will improve the official communication. This will save time and is also cost effective in nature (Fariborzi and Zahedifard 2012). Moreover, email services do not incur any complexities and can be utilized with lower speed of Internet.
Cookie Co. will be having various facilities of data processing. There are two types of data processing facilities. They include Data Storage solution and Data processing model. The description is as follows:
- Data Storage: The most reliable and feasible solution for the storage of data or information is the cloud. Cloud is the best technology for transferring and storing any type of data. The management of data becomes extremely simple due to cloud and can be stored without any type of complexities (Jadeja and Modi 2012). Moreover, cloud will allow to share the resources in Internet. Distributed database is another major storage of data. This will also be helpful for Cookie Co. The overall integration and synchronization of data is the main advantage of distributed database. The third option is the SAN or Storage area network, which is also helpful for storing data.
- Data Processing: The best recommended model for Cookie Co. for data processing is the Peer to Peer or P2P model (Neill and Richard 2012). The main advantage of peer to peer model is its simplicity. It does not incur any type of complexities. Moreover, it does not need any kind of peer to peer network for utilizing the server computer.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, Cookie Co. is suffering from several problems in their current information technology infrastructure. They have decided to adopt a brand new infrastructure instead of making changes to the old infrastructure. The new network infrastructure has network convergence and unified communications. The second type discussed is the LAN types and the proper cabling plan for the head office and branches. The third type is the WAN connection and the transmission media and connecting devices. Moreover, the proper approach for DNS and IP address management is also provided in the report. The four distinct types of networked services are also provided for deploying in Cookie Co. The two data processing facilities are also mentioned in this particular report.
References
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