Designing A Secure And Scalable Network For AusEd

Understanding Network Infrastructure Needs

Discuss about the Small Enterprise Design Profile Reference Guide.

In many ways it is the mandate to understand the It infrastructure that need to be used when we are designing the network set up of a given organisation. The knowledge behind working with the networking devices is based on the following concepts. We must understand what we want to achieve and much more the criteria that need to be applied. An organisation is mandated to know the person in charge of the analysis of what they are expecting at the end of development of the proposed network design. AusEd is in need of a network setup that is secure in terms accessing it and sharing and transferring of resources. AusEd have more than 2000 hosts and the failure of the existing network has led to them asking for a new network that will be able to cater for all the hosts without complains and breakdowns (Adato, 2015). As the IT manager one must know the number of hosts that are available and that need to be connected to the proposed system. When we identify the number of the workstations to be set and the number of people who need to be served by the proposed network then we will be able to determine the type of equipment’s.

 The other major consideration to be put across will be the budget that AusEd organisation is willing to setup for the said proposed plan of upgrading its network.  We need to understand that for any network design to be set and become successful then we must be able to know what we need to consider in terms of the issues. Some of these considerations are such as the security, how flexible and the scalability of the system in case we intend to add other devices in the future. There are so many security features and devices such as the use of the firewalls and the virtual private networks.

AusEd already have a network system that is in existence. AusEd is in need of making the network in its environment very good and appropriate in terms of serving its needs. The main concept that need to be understood here is that there is need to maintain the already existing accounting system which is running with the exclusive MYOB software’s. The other area is improving the customer relationship with an intention of using the Sugar CRM software and the Microsoft Exchange Server which is used when we want to send and receive emails. The project will a diagram in explaining all the steps followed. The main concept to be understood in this case study is to give a clear and detailed analysis on the design of the network.  AusEd exceeds over 2000 hosts from all the departments that is from the marketing, sales, course delivery divisions, admin and others as they will need an evaluation that is detailed in locating and selecting the appropriate models that is to be used in the design of the proposed networking system. The Devices that will communicate over the internet and on the network of AusEd are such as the scanners, printers, photocopiers, personal computers and laptops.

Considerations for Secure and Scalable Network Design

Wide area network in this concept is a big concept and the network design that will be used in this context, this is because AusEd have other branches which will need to communicate with the other headquarter. In the logical diagram we will have. Lastly since the institution is a student premise we will need a WI-FI signal that will allow student to access the network in any place as far as one is near the proximity within the school premises. The logical design diagram is composed of some of the servers, personal computers, security devices such as the firewall and the VPNs among others.

There are plans that need to be achieved by AusEd within a given time and both of them will entirely depend on the network accessibility. The two plans are the strategic plan and technology plan respectively.

In the strategic plan the IT manager is needed to put in a strategy plan that aims diversifying the sources of funds and also to minimize all core non-activities costs. Immediately we implement the strategic plan we will be able to have a clear idea of what we expect to implement in the future. Technology plan is the other plan where AusEd needs to create a Moodle where the student will need connect to the personal computers even when they are offline but they are connected to the network. Also AusEd may be planning to develop an add-on Moodle which acts like a project where we will have student to take exams on the school desktops.The main objective of this project is understanding the network future scalability that will help in accommodating additional devices in future (Coleman, 2012).

When it comes to understanding the scope of such project it is always  very hard, however the moment we perform a feasibility study and understand the needs of AusEd  then we will be able to give a good analysis of what we are needed.  There is need of a network that will be easy to We need a network that will be easy to manage from the initial stage to the implementations stage taking care of all the considerations. Some of this considerations are such as the scalability, flexibility, management and the network security. If the above four considerations are taken care of when planning and implementing then AusEd will have a smooth and well organized network for the next 100 years even with the rapid technology growth.

Devices Required for the Network

For a project to be said to be successful then there are some things that will need to be assumed where we will have to achieve the objective of the stated proposal. The following are some of the assumptions that will need considered.

1. We assume that the management will comply with the needs and all the requirements as described by the IT manager.
2. The logical diagram will be used in giving detailed information about the system. The diagram is small but will give the details of what to expect.
3. The other assumptions is that AusEd will have to manage buying all the required devices for networking without putting some constraints.
4. The cost of the networking devices is just an estimate of the required analysis in terms of budget plan for the given AusEd network design and Implementation
5. Lastly we will use the Hierarchical design model which has the three layers namely the core, access and the distribution layers respectively which are arranged in a hierarchical order depending on the function of each and every layer.

	DEVICE NAME	FUNCTIONS OF THE DEVICE
1.	Routers	A router is a device that is used for connecting the other resources with the internet via the local area network. It is used for communicating on the both sides and that is Internet Service Providers and the Client himself
2.	Cables	These are networking devices which are used for connecting the devices over and across the network. Cables comes in different varieties depending on the function they are intended to achieve. Some of the cable that will be used are such as the fiber cable, Ethernet Cat5e,6e and the others like the RJ45 connectors for connecting the system directly to the network.
3.	Switch	A system that is used to enhance flexibility and scalability of the entire network by configuring the networking devices such that they will have to access the network through the switch which directly communicates with the router which communicates directly with the internet Service Providers.
4.	Transceiver	This are devices that are used to provide a broadcasting that will be used to give WI-FI signals to people within the given proximity in all areas. This has heightened and increased use of smartphones and laptops as they are portable and can be accessed anywhere.
5	Servers	Servers are used for maintaining the storage and transfer of resources from the devices in a specific Local area network. Servers comes in many varieties but it all depends on the function of each server application. Some of the widely and needed servers in the network implementation of AusEd are as follows. –          Mail server which is an application server that is used for managing the transfer of emails across the network. Where the server ensures that all the sent and received emails are stored effectively and that they users have no problem in retrieving their chats and records. –          The other application in the server is the Dynamic Host Configuration protocol Server (DCHCP) which is used to assign the internet protocol addresses to all the workstations and networking devices working over the network. The DHCP is set in a manner that when a workstation is added in the system or in the network then it is mandated ton configure the IP address of the stated workstation automatically. –          File server is another server used for managing all the transfers of all the resources across the network AusEd, –          DNS server is type of a server which is very major in that it is used when we are matching the domain names with their associated IP address a within the network. –          There are other minor servers that are used in networking such as the proxy server and many others,
6	workstations	These are the devices that are used for communicating across the network. These devices include things like printers, scanners and personal computers.
7	Devices for security	In this case we will major our explanation on the two devices and that is the firewall which is used for filtering data traffic before the leave or enter the specified local area network and the Virtual Private Network which is used for creation of local area network that is very safe and much more it has features that offers encryption of information for all the travelling packets in the public internet.
8	There are some other devices that are used to support the entire network of AusEd in general ans some of them are as follows,RJ 45 connectors and points, scanners for scanning documents and images, printers for printings the softcopy to hardcopy documents, hubs for sharing to more devices acting as small routers, modem to be used in case the ISP is not available, Network Interface Cards (NIC), –

Figure 1 Logical diagram of the network design

As seen in the diagram there are personal computers, IP-phones, Servers, scanners, data center which are distributed across all the branches of AusEd where they are integrated to work as a team. The work of the DHCP is to assign the internet protocol addresses to all the workstations and networking devices working over the network. The DHCP is set in a manner that when a workstation is added in the system or in the network then it is mandated ton configure the IP address of the stated workstation automatically. When we are having problem we can be able to detect the source of the problem that will help us tackle the problem as with the DHCP server will be able to know the IP address of the stated machine and hence becoming easy to troubleshoot the problems associated. (Macken, 2016).

DNS server in AusEd is matching all the web files of all the resources hosted in the server where while the webserver is used to host the website of AusEd helping the distant learning students to be able to access data and information on their browsers in cases when they login to the school website portal  (Meena, 2017).

Figure 3 packet tracer using logical diagram

Device Name	Manufacturer	Quantity	TOTAL Cost ($)
Laptop	HP	100	100,000
Personal Computers	Dell	2000	2500000
Servers Webserver DHCP server Proxy Server File Server DNS server	Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco Cisco	5 2 1 2 1	5000 2000 1000 2000 2000
IP-Iphones	cisco	90	18000
Switches	Cisco	24	28000
Routers	Cisco	1	3500
Cables		2500 feet	125000
Firewall device	Cisco	4	6000
Virtual Private Networks	Cisco	4	6500
Transceiver	Cisco	35	22000
Other Costs			70000
TOTAL	2,916,000

Using the above manufacturers of such devices was because of the feature of compatibility and interoperability. The devices will communicate very well with each other as integration is very easily. Devices selection when designing a network will need to be done in a very special way where we have to consider the best devices that in case of an upgrade then they will be no problem as they will accommodate such very well without problems. Justifications is on the basis of the security and that’s why we have the Virtual Private Networks and the Firewalls which are installed together with the router. The other idea is the scalability and flexibility.

There are goals that are set by an organization especially when they want to establish themselves to the local economy making it to be viable in the economy in an environment that is sound and socially responsible. In determining the needs of AusEd then we can be able to identify all the requirements which help in identification and implementation of the design where we will be able to give appropriate solutions. If the technological advances are put in to application the environment around may it be the business, health and the education will help in providing new opportunities for the people globally. The information available will have many implications about the current guiding the economy accordingly.

In this scenario and case study of AusEd we have applied the technique of E-Waste where we are needed to apply the electronic waste (the devices that were considered to be obsolete after the analysis of the existing equipment’s where we have dismantled the already network design in place and breaking it down in to pieces. In the case of AusEd it was the use of the three layer Hierarchical network design where have clearly explained the three layer namely the access, distribution and the core layer.  

Conclusion

The research of the case study is meant to give the structure of the entire network that need to be implemented. We have discussed all the areas from the project description explaining all the way to the list of equipment’s used and the detailed explanation of the logical diagram. The budget of the expected expenditure is analysed as shown above. The choosing of the above hierarchical network design model is because of giving a room for additional devices where we need the network design to be scalable and flexible unlike in the Flat network design model.

References

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