Case Study: DMS Associates
DMS Associates is a consulting firm located in Eastern City. Fifty people work in its home office in two buildings in a business complex. An additional 25 employee鈥檚 work from remote locations. DMS Associates is adding another 25 employees by opening a third location, Building C, elsewhere in Eastern City. Building C was purchased with its existing technology infrastructure intact.
DMS Associates has asked you to evaluate and analyze the company's existing technology infrastructure and security for its network as reported below and to recommend a best practices approach to integrating the data communication, computer networks, and telephone systems of the three locations with a focus on security that is seamless. The goal is to create a company-wide technology infrastructure which supports seemingly seamless connectivity and data flow.
Building A
Staff:
25 employees. The IT operation is housed here.
Networking:
Three departmental LANs: Business and Finance Office, Staff Consultants, and Administration.
These LANs all run Windows 2000 Advanced Server. 25 Remote workers have dial-in access to the network through a modem pool.
E-mail service runs on an Microsoft Exchange Server using Outlook as the client software.
Phone Service:
The local and long distance phone service from Local Telephone Company through a leased PBX. Phone services include Voice Mail, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding.
Internet Access and Usage:
All offices in Building A have Internet Access through the network via a T-1 line to the company's ISP, Sharethenet.com.
Software Applications:
All employees are provided with Microsoft Office Professional suite of applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access.
The Company's financial systems run on Great Plains Accounting Software. Great Plains is used for personnel information, payroll, inventory, accounts payable, accounts receivable, quarterly and annual reports, and tax documentation.
Building B
Staff:
25 employees; 20 are staff consultants, the other five include a branch manager, receptionist, custodians, and an IT support person.
Networking:
The network consists of a single LAN running under Windows 2000 Server.
E-mail Service is via a POP3 client through Internet to Building A's Exchange e-mail server.
Phone Service:
The local and long distance phone service from Local Telephone Company through a leased PBX. Phone services include Voice Mail, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding. This service is not connected directly to the Building A system.
Internet Access and Usage:
All offices in Building B share Internet Access through the network via the company's ISP, Sharethenet.com.
Software Applications:
All employees are provided with Microsoft Office Professional suite of applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access.
This location is unable to access the Great Plains financial software directly, and uses FTP to upload data weekly from an Access database.
Building C
Building C is located in a different section of Eastern City.
Staff:
Twenty-five people will work in this building. It is anticipated that staff composition will be the same as in Building B: 20 staff consultants, a branch manager, receptionist, custodians, and an IT support person.
Networking:
Two independent local area networks exist.
Novel NetWare was used as the network operating system.
Phone Service:
The previous company had local phone service is provided by Local Phone Company, and long distance phone service are provided by a Sprint reseller.
Internet Access and Usage:
The previous company had 5 have dial-up Internet access accounts for company business use through AOL.
Software Applications:
Existing computers are provided with Microsoft Office Professional suite of applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access.
The previous company used Excel for accounting purposes, and Access for Inventory, Job tracking, customer records, etc. Payroll services were subcontracted to ADP. Weekly batch uploads of employee data from Excel were made to ADP.
In Your Paper:
In your Final Project Paper use the information presented below to develop and describe a data communications and computer networking plan to meet these criteria:
1. The three local area networks in building A are to be interconnected.
2. The networks in buildings A & B, which are close together, are to be interconnected.
3. The new building, building C, is to be inter-networked with the other locations using its existing technology infrastructure wherever possible, though some changes may be made if absolutely required for smooth integration.
4. Employees in all locations are to have access to the Internet through dedicated T-1 lines to a single ISP.
5. Telephone service for the three buildings is to function as a single system so that any phone in any building may reach any other phone using only the extension.
6. All employees are to have voice mail.
7. All employees are to have e-mail through the exchange server in building A including the remote workers.
8. In writing your paper describe the choices you would make in terms of the type of network, the connecting medium, the data communication model being followed.
9. Explain why your choices reflect today's best practices in data and voice communication. Be specific in your reasons, including the characteristics of each choice and explaining why they are appropriate for each task.
10. Diagram the data flow for each task using the drawing tools in Microsoft Word. Thats great, but in no way am I prepared to answer that question in any detail on this page! Send me a mail detailing exactly what you need or want to know and i'll be happy to provide some assistance! No, you. I currently control 213 computers - all networked with voice/telephone/data transmissions/sate lite links. Am centered in one small room with only 2 PCs to control / monitor and troubleshoot the 213 computers that are currently running effectively. The 213 PCs are in 2 different cities.... 1 city with 113 PCs while the other has 100 PCs all in different rooms. I can see every activity taking place in each PC. The BEST way to explain basic network establishment for your situation requires a network map sketching whose tools are not available in this domain. I can be able to use my tools to draw your situation with basic explanations but I do not know how you would want to receive it. My basic explanations shall not be substitutes of poor understandings of electronics mathematics/calculations and Network theories. |
