Case Study 2
Madeleine ConfectionersMadeleine Confectioners is a small, closely held bakery supply company based in Jacksonville, Florida, with facilities in the southeastern United States. Until recently a very small company, Madeleine has suddenly experienced rapid growth. It just acquired Lone Star Sugars, a sugar refiner based in Houston, Texas. Current LAN/Network StructureMadeleine Confectioners is currently running a Novell 3.12 network using 10Mbps Ethernet coaxial cabling in its main office in Jacksonville. Most of the client computers at Madeleine are running Windows 95. The sales offices, in six major cities in the Southeast , typically have just one or two computers that use dial-up connections to access local ISPs. Data sharing is done through email and file attachments. Because of the rapid growth of the company, these arrangements have become totally inadequate. Lone Star Sugars uses a Windows NT 4.0 Server-based network in its Houston office. 10BASE-T Ethernet cabling connects the Windows 98 and 95 work stations to the two servers. These two servers act as PDC and BDC and host Exchange email and a SQL Server 6.5 database server as well. Proposed LAN/Network StructureMadeleine management recognizes that its current LAN is seriously outdated and has committed the necessary budget to upgrade all its computers and its network infrastructure. With the Lone Star Sugars merger now complete, management also wants to link the Jacksonville and Houston offices. Madeleine plans to move the combined companies to Windows 2000 Server as quickly as possible and upgrade client computers to Windows 2000 Professional over a two-year time schedule. Current WAN ConnectivityCurrently, there is little connectivity between sales offices, outside of dial-up connections, and none between the Madeleine and Lone Star offices. Proposed WAN ConnectivityThe Jacksonville and Houston offices will be connected by T1, using half the bandwidth for data and the other half for voice connections. The sales offices require a more robust connection, especially in light of the need to dramatically expand the computing power available at each location. An SDSL solution, using VPN connections to the Jacksonville office, will be implemented prior to the Windows 2000 rollout. Directory Design CommentaryOwner : We used to be a small company, but we have grown so much in the past year that it's difficult to keep up with the changes. Our network is completely outdated. I want every employee in every office to have access to all important company data. IS Manager : With the new company we just bought, we now have to connect two very different operations together. Administration is a headache , and we do not have the staff to keep up with the changes. We need help with user account administration. Sales Manager : Our sales force is trying to get its work done, but it is getting nearly impossible to work with the sales office computers. We can't get fast updates to any of our product sheets, and we can't communicate orders to the home office easily. Current Internet PositioningMadeleine has no Internet presence at this time. Lone Star Sugars has a registered domain name of lonestarsugar.com but uses it only for email at this time. Future Internet PositioningMadeleine has just registered the domain name madeleine.com and is planning to install an email server and establish a Web presence in the next 12 months. For now, Lone Star will maintain its email address, and there is a possibility of a Web site as well.
|
EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 148