With the rising technological advancement and the need for efficiency in operation for any company, there is always a need for the development of a solution to meet these needs. In the case of Catacombs Inc., there are various technological solutions that will need to be implemented to make it competitive, deliver great customer satisfaction and increase its efficiency. This study is going to discuss the requirement, solution and the cost-benefit analysis of the proposed solution.
Requirements Analysis
The requirements for the company to implement an efficient solution are discussed as below:
There is the robustness requirement in the system. This will need an efficient payment, invoicing and transaction between the customers and the company.
The second one is the increase of reliability of the system. There is the need for an increased storage capacity. The need for reliability of the data center will increase the efficiency in the delivery to the customer.
The third requirement will be the delivery of a high Quality of Service and efficiency. There should be an increased bandwidth in the system for efficient communication between locations.
The fourth requirement is the need efficient management and analysis of costs over return on the infrastructures. The monitoring of the data and voice of the company will assist in this resolution. This will require an efficient mechanism for the establishment of the utilization of the company resources like the voice, data and even mail system to ensure that the company reduces its cost.
The fifth need is the need for network security to the company as this will reduce the losses the company can undergo in terms of hacking and other unplanned events. The company due to the rising communication system will need to have security issues on the customer’s side solved to increase the trust the customer will have on it.
Technology Solution
The technology solution to address the cost of the system is the deployment of IP video conferencing that will reduce movement between locations. To reduce the cost of data, voice and video, the technology involved will be a central control system that will monitor the usage of the resources. The central monitoring system will also be used in the monitoring of the system performances and the various infrastructures thus will reduce the cost of IT operation. The cost can also be reduced through virtualization technology where routers and the switches will be configured for access to a common network. They will maintain a separate address space and separation of users. This will lead to a reduction in the cost of purchase of new equipment.
For an increased QoS of the network, the communication system will have VoIP phones like Avaya, to be used with the Ethernet and IP network of the company. To address the need for a larger bandwidth, an optical fiber network should be implemented in the company headquarters. This will be in terms of the having a huge server blade chassis with various interconnect switches thus several ports. The expansion of the bandwidth will only require the purchase of a card port expander which will add the ports to the switches . This will assist in the future upgrade without necessarily adding the cost.
The technology for reliability is the redundant data centers in the company. These redundant data center will ensure uptime of the data center in case of any uncontrollable event. The two redundant data centers should also have several communication systems and backups in their power backups to ensure uptime. The capacity of the data centers should be increased to ensure all the employees and customers are accommodated and this also for future expansion
There will be also a web-based application interface developed for the customers for ordering and tracking of the products. The product movements in the supply chain will also be monitored by the PDAs deployed at various locations and will communicate in real time to the headquarters on the position of the product. This will be very robust and efficient for the customers.
For security and better user experience, firewalls deployment in the data centers. There will also be authentication of users before access to the company resources. The deployment of user Network Profile will make it easy for movement of devices around without the need for reconfiguration. It will also improve application performance delivery to user mobility and will increase the security in the network .
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Converged Solution
The converged solution will ensure efficient tuning and control of the network performance in the system. The converged solution will have a simplified network, enable network virtualization that will reduce equipment numbers and also will streamline the operation. The solution will also ensure resilience in the network and will not have any impact on real-time performance and will have security embedded in the system for protecting the users and securing any devices that will be added to the network. The network solution will use standard equipment for interoperability and future expansion on the network .
There will also be convergence in the LAN and the telephony system in the company that will ensure that all the traffics in the system coexist. This traffics are the voice, data and video solution integration .
Cost-Benefit Analysis
The increase of the data center capacity will ensure flexibility in the future expansion. The redundant data centers will be beneficial in the ensuring that the system will be uptime in case the headquarters is hit by uncontrollable disasters like earthquakes. The increase in the capacity and the bandwidth of the system might be expensive but will assist in the expansion and addition of any devices in future.
The deployment of converged network solutions like the convergence of LAN and telephony will reduce the cost of resources. The deployment of VoIP applications will reduce overhead in the system since efficient communication is a great factor in the company. The replacements of other equipment with standard equipment assist in future scalability. The introduction of this new communication environment will be beneficial to the customer since they will have a better Quality of Service, cost savings since they will do everything at their homes, reduces upgrade costs, increases security and will be very robust for the customers .
The investment on the security of the company’s network will guarantee safety on the customer delivery and increase the company’s trust by the customers.
The use of IP communication and the deployment of the high capacity device will increase the efficiency of the system. The bandwidth will be increased and real-time communication will be easy in the system thus will further improve on customer satisfaction of the company.
The investment on the converged network solution will also give capabilities of extension into a private cloud for the company. This will ensure better security and services like mail and messaging can be cheaply provided from here
References
Alcatel-Lucent. (2011). Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Converged Network Solution: Deliver a quality user experience, streamline operations and reduce costs. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. Retrieved June 23, 2016, from www.alcatel-lucent.com/enterprise.
hp . (2003, January). convergence: preparing the enterprise network. Retrieved June 23, 2016, from www.hp.com: www.hp.com/rnd/pdfs/convergence_white_paper.pdf
Principled Technologies. (n.d.). Network Scaling Cost Analysis: CISCO UCS and IBM Flex System. Retrieved June 24, 2016, from principledtechnologies.com: principledtechnologies.com/Cisco/UCS_Flex_comparison_0613.pdf ·
Sequoia. (2013). A Practical Guide to Converged Infrastructure Solutions. California.: Sequoia Worldwide LLC.
