There Are Many Considerations

Integrative Network Design Project, Part 3

There are many considerations that have to be looked at in order to create a new network for Kudler Fine Foods that will allow the company to perform well in the current market, be able to expand and grow, and connect all locations together as well as keep each facility running at optimal conditions. In order for the new network to be successful consideration have to be taken in the use of LANs and WANs in the network, other wireless technologies used in the company, various other parts included in today’s data communication networks, and in the types of security used in all of these items. All of these items are important in building a network that will operate for the company in the manner that is required, help improve communication within the different stores of the company as well as the entire company, and allow for future network growth within the company.

Kudler Fine Foods will require the use of Local Area Networks (LANs) in each of its facilities, Wide Area Networks (WANs) to tie each of the facilities together and to the rest of the world, and the use of other wireless technologies in order to be successful in the business world today. Each facility will use a LAN to tie all of its computers and systems together. The facilities will then be linked to each other and to other companies, such as vendors and general information like the internet, through a WAN. The entire company will also be using certain wireless technologies within the facilities to enhance work performance and overall productivity. All three of these areas are important for the new network to succeed and improve the current systems Kudler Fine Foods is using.

The plan for each facility is to have all of the systems connected through a localized network. All of the computers and POS terminals will be able to share information and be visible to employees with the correct level of access. The LAN will be built using Ethernet cabling to connect all of the systems together and should be a server based LAN as opposed to a peer to peer based LAN (Goleniewski, L., & Jarret, K. W. 2007). The company has chosen to use Microsoft Windows as the OS for its interface systems because of its ease of use and technical support. These LANs will then go through routers in each facility to reach the internet, tie in to all other information from the company, and form the WAN backbone of the company.

There are two main functions of the WAN plans for the Kudler Fine Foods project. The first is the actual WAN itself that connects all of the locations to each other and the companies that they do business with. The second is the creation and use of a company intranet in order to make sure that access is limited to company approved sites and usages. The company WAN will be formed from all the separate facilities connected together and the main servers for this network will be housed in