The company this paper focuses on is called John Doe Inc. It is a small-sized business specializing in providing Internet services. The company mainly operates in the home market (the USA). The company can be characterized as a wireless Internet service provider (WISP) which means that it offers its subscribers to connect them to a server at the relevant access points. The connection is performed with the help of any wireless connection (ex. Wi-Fi). The major value that the company provides to its customers is the opportunity to access the Internet from anywhere within the coverage zone. The key disadvantage, as opposed to traditional Internet providers, is the lower speed of downloads. The company has a small-sized network with about one hundred end devices.
The company targets American customers interested in high-speed Internet at available cost. The clientele is mainly composed of private users, however, John Doe also works to promote its service among corporations and small businesses. The company has developed a compact secure business networking which allows to store, update, and analyze customer data through databases. Customer databases can be accessed through different devices including computers and mobile devices.
John Doe Inc. is a small-sized company with its workforce reaching no more than 200 employees. The company has a small corporate office so that fifty people work in an in-office format. All the other employees work remotely. John Doe’ network uses VPNs which allow mobile employees and other remote workers to work in a convenient form (from home, on the road, etc.). All the employees have a full access to the corporate data (ex. data network, customer database, etc.). While this operating format entails numerous advantages for John Doe’s employee, it likewise places significant challenges in terms of data security. As such, employees often access corporate data with unprotected software which causes occasional data leaks and system failures.
The design of the network is largely affected the operations that the company needs to be performed. As such, it is continually adjusted to the new needs and emerging challenges. Several examples can be described to illustrate the way network design is affected by business operations and operational activities. Thus, for example, the company has recently decided to extend its cooperative activity and to strengthen its collaboration with the existing partners. The inclusion of new actors in the network requires raising its resilience significantly. In other words, any business operations leading to the company’s growth are naturally associated with the need for extra protection and optimization of the network design.
The second operational activity is the provision of SLAs. SLAs is a contradictive issue for, on the one hand, the company is tempted to promise 100% uptime in the relevant market in order to acquire an absolute competitive advantage. On the other hand, however, this option is unrealistic so that customers are essentially disappointed in the long run. In this view, the most attainable result that the network should potentially target is 99% of the time the figure which looks both realistic and competitive.
The third operational activity that affects network design is outsourcing. As well as other Internet providers the company looks for alternatives to cut operational cost which is why more thought is being given the outsourcing of both networks and services operations. The company outsources some of its field services activities and there is a strong chance that it will adopt a similar approach to its network operations. The key trigger underpinning this trend is the prospects for reducing operating expenses. Needless to explain, the main domain of activities which are currently outsourced is network security and security audit.
Analyzing the company’s network design, it is necessary to point out some advantages that characterize this design as good and reliable. On the whole, I shall admit that I generally agree with the design’s structure despite some minor flaws it might contain. First and foremost, as well as any good design, John Doe’s network design adheres to reliable design principles. As such, it has a hierarchical structure which allows for not only consistent information hiding but for its hiding as well. The latter option seems to be particularly important taking into account the growing need for security enhancement. Information hiding is ensured through the use of basic network protocols which allow performing data encapsulation. As a result, the operations performed at lower layers remain invisible to the upper layers.
This means that any changes that occur there do not affect the operation of applications and other important activities at upper layers (Anderson, Burgess, & Couch, 2001). Speaking about the recommendations I could give in relation to the network design’s improvement, it is the available bandwidth, I would probably recommend considering. In other words, it seems to ensure that there is no discrepancy between available bandwidth at different operation layers. The hierarchical model that the company uses should not be regarded as a tool for physical separation; instead, it shall be viewed as the major guarantee of high network’s functionality (Bergstra & Burgess, 2011). Finally, I would also recommend paying due consideration to application and protocol traffics. As such, t flow of data applications allows profiling communication between clients and server within the network which is essential for allocating resources to the end users. In the meantime, it might be useful to consider reducing the number of stations with the help of a particular server.
