Kudler Fine Foods Essay

INDP, Part 1

Steven A. McNolty

NTC/362

April 27, 2015

Latrea Shine

INDP, Part 1

Kudler Fine Foods at this point in time has a T3 line that connects all three stores. “A T3 line is an Internet connection providing high speed T3 bandwidth of 45Mps delivered over fiber optic or coax cables” ( IT Quotes, 2014, para. 1). This existing line can carry voice, email, file sharing, web hosting, data backup, video, or VPN access (IT Quotes, 2014). Although a WAN can be set up on a T3 line it is expensive so a study of how much traffic between stores is actually used and a less expensive system may be a better solution, but depending on the needs of Kudler Fine Foods and their plans on expansion the T3 line may be the solution as it is an equivalent of 28 T1 lines or 672 plain old telephone lines (Sherman, 2006). Whether or not the amount of connection that can be made through the T3 line and the expectations of future use will determine whether or not to keep the existing connections to other stores.

As for the networks throughout each individual store they all use a 100 Base T Ethernet system. Often referred to as fast Ethernet it is still slower than what is available today. This system should be upgraded to Gigabit Ethernet. Gigabit Ethernet will give speeds over the system of up to 1000Mbps. This is ten times faster than the existing system and will bring the Kudler Fine Foods system up to the latest standards of network speed. “Gigabit Ethernet is backwards compatible so that it will support all current applications” (MyComputerAid.com, 2007, para. 2). Although there may need to be changes in equipment as far as a NIC is concerned, the current applications being used by Kudler Fine Foods will work with the new speeds.

Overall most of the new equipment such as the main severs can be placed in the La Jolla facility as it is the home office. With the use of VPNs and dedicated lines (if management feels the expense is worth it) the other two stores will be able to access the needed information over the Internet and thereby reducing the need for redundancy of information. It may be noted that backups should be made and kept at the other two stores in case of a problem at the main store. This will allow the system to be brought back to the current state without the loss of data.