Network Infrastructure

Information Communication Technology (ICT) is a revolutionary measure for the commercial market and hence is vastly adopted by the organisations. The report has offered an insight into various factors that are important to install the network infrastructure in the organisation ‘Curtain Co.’. The devised report has put forth particular attention to the keep it to understandable for the people with a business background. The discussion above shows the benefits that ICT can bring in an organisation form the networking services that simplify the communication between the stakeholders to storage for safekeeping of the data. The report has also made recommendations for the most suitable of each type of discussed factors in the report in accordance with the organisation.

Network infrastructure is the system consisting of hardware and software components to enable network connectivity, operations, management and communication of an organisational network. The benefits of equipping the same are that the system offers high security which in return offers increased efficiency and hence long-term saving for the firm (Ramachandran et al. 2012). The services associated with the deemed system have been  discussed as follows.

Kinne (2013) states network convergence is the module that enables efficient coexistence of multiple communications mode (data, telephone and video) as part of a single network. It allows the organisation to save space while maintaining mobility of the equipment. The system is also cost-efficient and demands less maintenance as instead of multiple options as only one system is equipped.

Unified communication abbreviated as UC serves as a framework that integrates multiple asynchronous and real-time communication to enhance organisational collaboration, communication and productivity. Equipping the same will enable the organisation to save long-distance and intra-office communicational cost while boosting the productivity by offering applications that enables billing and call accounting, unified messaging, e-conferencing and others. A recent survey reports that the system helped the organisational employee’s collaboration and productivity increased by almost 50% (Silic, Back and Sammer 2017).

LAN or Local Area Network is the process of interconnecting multiple systems in geographically close locations (building or campus) using cables as the communication channel (Mahalingam et al. 2014). The communication channel type can vary depending upon the need of the users. Most common cables are:

1. UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair)
2. STP (Shielded Twisted Pair)

• MMF (Multi-Mode Fibre)

1. SMF (Single Mode Fibre)

Curtain Co. is an organisation whose services is spread throughout the country, and hence LAN would limit their services. Accordingly, it is required for them to equip Wide Area Network (WAN). The organisation should opt for IP VPN (Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network) because of its flexibility that will help the organisation to change if it plans to expand its services further (Bitar, gringeri and Xia 2013). The deemed WAN connection is also cost-effective and offers a reliable speed while providing interaction options for the employees within premises and other units of the organisation.

Networking Services

Internet Protocol (IP) and Domain Name System (DNS) are the methods of identifying the systems. DNS assists in the allocation of IP address to the systems (Sparks, Roach and Campen 2014). The deemed systems should be automated to manage them effortlessly and effectively. Automation will assist in fast and simplified troubleshooting while eliminating configuration errors along with enhancing security and compliance. All this benefit offered by the automation will enable the organisation in saving organisational resources (capital and human effort mostly) which they can use for enhancing their productivity.

The application that runs over network above or on application layer to assist in data storing, manipulation, communication, presentation or other which are implemented using P2P (Peer-to-Peer) or client-server architecture that are dependent over application layer of the network protocol (Sun et al. 2015). The deemed system assists the organisation in making its operations hassle-free and more efficient. E-mail, VoIP, Extranet, SNMP and others are types of network services.

Email: Electronic mail or email is the process that enables the exchange of information through electronic devices. Adopting the deemed network service will offer the organisation with lots of benefits and opportunity that have been mentioned as follows:

• First and foremost, to its advantage is that it provides communicative ease to the users and can also be used for collaborative communication as it enables sharing of information to multiple users (Mark, Voila and Cardello 2012).
• The considered service saves the expenditure on the stationary items and on posting the mails consisting of essential documents and others while offering sustainable physical security.
• The service can also assist the organisation in marketing as email marketing is one of the most popular marketing methods in existence.

VoIP: Voice over IP enables the user to make calls by use of broadband internet instead of analog or conventional phone systems. The system achieves the deemed purpose by converting sound waves to digital codes and then transferring it through the broadband channel. VoIP offers several benefits to an organisation that are listed below.

• The system is cheaper than the conventional mode, which includes the long-distance calls accordingly (Carter 2012).
• Portability is another advantage offered by the system as it can be logged in by any device with just a broadband connection and login credentials.
• It also offers ease of use because of its flexibility, along with multi-functionality (voice calls, video calls and others).

Extranet: Extranet is a private and restricted communication network that can be accessed by the customers if authorised by the organisation. Following benefits are offered by the deemed system to the organisation (Hale 2012).

• It increases the productivity of the firm by safekeeping the information and monitoring the business operations.
• The system reduces the margin of errors.
• Flexibility is offered by the system as the customers can self-serve themselves.
• Modification of the information with accuracy and instantly.
• It has a positive impact on supply-chain management as it enables the organisation to connect with the supplier directly.
• The system builds strong customer loyalty by offering updated and accurate information to the customers.

SNMP: SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is a network management protocol that collects information from different networking devices such as routers, servers, printers, switches, hubs and others (Hale 2012). The deemed network service can help in getting a trace of the unauthorised person who attempted at trespassing the organisation’s network. If appropriate version of SNMP is chosen, it can offer a secure path for connection with network devices. SNMP also monitors the consumables of certain device like ink, paper and toner for the printer and sends out a notification when in need.

Data Centre: Data centre can be the solution to network outages for the deemed organisation as the former offers redundant backup for the network access, climate control and electricity (Chang and Wills 2016). The considered solution also offers colocation model where the organisation can establish their hardware at the shared facility. However, the high cost associated with the deemed solution should be considered before equipping it.

Storage Solutions

SAN: SAN or storage area network is an exclusive, secure high-speed network that offers storage with access to the block-level network (Decusatis, Carranza and DeCusatis 2012). The deemed system offers multiple benefits when adopted by an organisation, the most common being efficiency, high speed, dynamic failover protection. The thought storage solution also provides centralised backup, storage virtualisation while increasing its effectiveness and utilisation. The benefits mentioned above improve the overall productivity of the organisation by simplifying the storage issues.

Cloud: Cloud storage is a revolutionary solution for data storage which large scale industries, as well as small and medium industries, are adopting. The decision of the industries is earning validity from the benefits offered by the deemed storage solution. Cloud offers cost saving in implementation and maintenance as well. It also saves physical space and demands little employee attention while providing mobility (Chang and Wills 2016). The cloud service provides physical security at the highest level and also is immune to cyber attacks to an extent as the data is stored on multiple servers and in layers. With so much to offer, the deemed solution is probably most suited for any organisation to maintain their sustainability.

Distributed Database: Curtain Co has their services spread throughout the country, and thus the deemed model is suitable for them. The reason for stating the same is that the units of the organisations can access the local data at their bases while the headquater can access it through the centralised database (Decusatis, Carranza and DeCusatis 2012). The storage solution also offers improved performance, reliability and availability which will be beneficial for the organisation. The cost of the deemed solution is also moderate and hence affordable by the organisation.

Client server (C/S) model: C/S model defines the model where the client interacts with the server to attain the desired result. The client requests the server to which the server responds accordingly (Oluwatosin 2014). The deemed model offers multiple business advantages that include centralised control over the operations, proper and oriented management. Additionally, the model offers backing up of information and recovery for the same. The deemed model also offers robust security for the information while playing different roles in accordance to the client.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P): The most advantageous benefit offered by the P2P model is the ability to minimise the bandwidth bills. The system will also let the organisation in saving the installation cost for the same. The most prior advantage it offers over C/S model is that the latter’s network gets affected if the server goes down while the former can withstand the situation even if one of its peers is down (Can and Bhargava 2013).

Processing Models

The discussion above can be concluded to make recommendations for the organisation to equip P2P processing model. The reason for stating the same is the fact that the units of the organisation are spread throughout a large geographical domain, and the considered model is cheap and will also be operation if one of the peers is down unlike C/S model.  

Conclusion:

The discussed report can be concluded to summarise that ICT can simplify the operations of an organisation while enhancing its security and that too at a considerable cost. The report has offered an insight into the factors involved in the network infrastructure and has accordingly made recommendations on the most suitable type for the Curtain co. In the following section, the report has discussed the networking services and the benefits they will offer to the organisation. An insight into the storage solution and processing model has been provided in the final section of the report. Hence, from the devised report it can be stated that Curtain co can develop a reliable ICT solution if the organisation chooses its networking services appropriately. 

References 

Bitar, N., Gringeri, S. and Xia, T.J., 2013. Technologies and protocols for data center and cloud networking. IEEE Communications Magazine, 51(9), pp.24-31.

Can, A.B. and Bhargava, B., 2013. Sort: A self-organizing trust model for peer-to-peer systems. IEEE transactions on dependable and secure computing, 10(1), pp.14-27.

Carter, S., 2012. E911 VoIP Essentials for Enterprise Depoloyments. XO Communications, LLC.

Chang, V. and Wills, G., 2016. A model to compare cloud and non-cloud storage of Big Data. Future Generation Computer Systems, 57, pp.56-76.

Decusatis, C.J.S., Carranza, A. and DeCusatis, C.M., 2012. Communication within clouds: open standards and proprietary protocols for data center networking. IEEE Communications Magazine, 50(9).

Hale, B., 2012. Network Management–Back to the Basics. Solarwinds Whitepaper, 16.

Kinne, B.J., 2013. IGO membership, network convergence, and credible signaling in militarized disputes. Journal of Peace Research, 50(6), pp.659-676.

Mahalingam, M., Dutt, D., Duda, K., Agarwal, P., Kreeger, L., Sridhar, T., Bursell, M. and Wright, C., 2014. Virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN): A framework for overlaying virtualized layer 2 networks over layer 3 networks (No. RFC 7348).

Mark, G., Voida, S. and Cardello, A., 2012, May. A pace not dictated by electrons: an empirical study of work without email. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 555-564). ACM.

Oluwatosin, H.S., 2014. Client-server model. IOSRJ Comput. Eng, 16(1), pp.2278-8727.

Ramachandran, S., Tyagi, P., Mallesan, S., Kulshreshtha, G., Shetty, S., Raman, R. and Bhatia, M., Genband Us Llc, 2012. Voice over IP (VoIP) network infrastructure components and method. U.S. Patent 8,194,640.

Silic, M., Back, A. and Sammer, T., 2017. Employee acceptance and use of unified communications and collaboration in a cross-cultural environment. In Remote Work and Collaboration: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice(pp. 1-22). IGI Global.

Sparks, R.J., Roach, A.B. and Campen, B., Tekelec, 2014. Methods, systems, and computer readable media for throttling traffic to an internet protocol (IP) network server using alias hostname identifiers assigned to the IP network server with a domain name system (DNS). U.S. Patent 8,645,565.

Sun, Y., Wang, N., Shen, X.L. and Zhang, J.X., 2015. Location information disclosure in location-based social network services: Privacy calculus, benefit structure, and gender differences. Computers in Human Behavior, 52, pp.278-292.