Research Areas
First area of research would entail the scale of the network; in this case it would be important to know the size of each team. This is necessary in influencing the planning, both in regards to budgeting as well as setting up the network architecture. Secondly as for security, it would be necessary to determine what levels of security are expected to safeguard the interest of the company from attacks. It is also important to ascertain what threats they are vulnerable to.
Research in network administration is also important in establishing the how and who will manage the network. This research would seek to find out what network maintenance procedures would be carried out as well as if it would be undertaken by a network specialist within the organization or if it would be outsourced.
General problem that Denver Goods might face
The key problem that Denver Goods might face in terms of establishing a computer network would be cyber-attacks. As such they have to include sufficient means to secure their network infrastructure from external attacks such as malwares and unauthorized intrusions. These threats are always eminent in most organizations.
Possible Questions
The following questions are essential in determining the network requirements:
What threats do they face?
This will aid in assessing what security measures needs to be undertaken in the network design.
What will be the roles of the users?
This question will seek to address how access will be managed as well as how privileges will be defined.
How much funding is allocated for the network?
What are the future plans of the organization?
This question is posed to address the scalability of the network design. This would influence the design choice as a network will either be design for the long term or facilitate future expansion.
Security concerns
The Denver network poses a security challenge as to who will be responsible for overlooking and managing the network security; this is a concern especially due to the fact that Denver does not have a department dedicated to the information technology management.
Traffic behavior
The importance of exploring network traffic behavior is important in determining what network services and infrastructure will be needed. For instance if the traffic is high or expected to increase in the near future, it might be necessary to consider broadband connection as well as deploy high bandwidth routers and network cards. If the traffic behavior is not explored, chances are that the planning would entail the installation of redundant network infrastructure or in the case where it is underestimated, chances are, the infrastructure would be incompetence.
Selecting the network component
Considering the two departments set up by Denver it would be probably expected that there would be a separate network in each department. That implies the need for a switch at each department to interconnect the clients. These switches can then be cross linked in a partial mesh topology by use of a redundant switch.
A router that doubles up as an access point can be placed at the center of the two departmental networks to facilitate connection to the internet. As for the redundant switch, it will provide a failsafe mechanism that will protect the network from interruptions in the case of network failure this can be used to strengthen the network.
As for security I would recommend the use of a centralized server that will act as the epicenter of the two networks. Through this server user access controls can be set as well as provide for a centralized monitoring location.
Questions on design
The following are part of the questions that might be asked in regard to the network design?
How secure should the network be?
Should each department manage its network separately?
What is expected of the network in terms of delivery?
Organizational unit
The advantage for this is that accountability as well as security is enhanced by organizing users into units according to their roles in the network.
CDW. (2010). Next-Generation Networks. CDW LLC and TechTarget Custom media.
Chris Brenton, C. H. (2002). Mastering Network Security (1st ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Roberta Bragg, M. R.-O. (2004). Network security: the complete reference. Osborne: McGraw-Hill.
