Case Study 6
DuBois Forest ProductsAtlanta-based DuBois Forest Products sells lumber and wood cabinetry across the United States. DuBois consists of four divisions: Timber and Mills, Lumber, Finished Products, and Woodworking Tools. Each division operates independently of the other, but the DuBois headquarters exercises strong central control of the administrative, Human Resources, and Information Technology areas. Two of the divisions, Finished Products and Woodworking Tools, are located in the headquarters complex. Timber and Mills and Lumber are located in the facility in Portland, Oregon. Current LAN/Network StructureDuBois runs a fairly homogeneous Windows NT 4.0 Server environment ”except for two applications in the Timber and Mills division, which run on a Unix server, and DNS (which is also Unix based), running BIND version 4.9.7. DuBois uses a single-master domain model, with resource domains for each of the divisions. Workstations are a mix of Windows 95, 98, and a few Windows NT 4.0 Workstation computers. Proposed LAN/Network StructureDuBois wants to upgrade to Windows 2000 throughout the organization. However, it cannot migrate the Unix applications and does not want to upgrade DNS at this time. Current WAN ConnectivityThe Portland and Atlanta offices connect via a VPN connection over 384Kbps SDSL. Rarely does utilization exceed 50% on this circuit. Proposed WAN ConnectivityNo changes are anticipated. Directory Design CommentaryDirector, Lumber Division : We need to be able to share information between divisions better. Gaining access to the information we need is sometimes difficult if it comes from a different division. This causes problems, especially for the Lumber Division, because we use the products from one division and send much of what we make to another division. Director, Woodworking Tools : We operate independently of the other divisions. Unlike the other DuBois divisions, we do not receive our marching orders from the corporate office, and we have a great deal of leeway in making management decisions. For example, we will be setting up our own Web site shortly. Manager, Administration : It is too hard to deal with the network. My staff in Portland can never get anyone to help them after lunch . Often, if a problem comes up when they are printing an important job, they have to let it wait until morning. The people in Atlanta have it better, but they still need to call the Help Desk every time something goes wrong with a print job, and that wastes everyone's time. Current Internet PositioningDuBois uses email and has a Web site for the Woodworking Tools division. DuBois's registered Internet domain name is duboiswood.com , and it has registered an additional name of duboistools.com for the Woodworking Tools division's Web site. The Web servers are located in the Atlanta headquarters. Future Internet PositioningNo changes in Internet strategy are forecasted.
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EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 148